Low Fat Pasta: Why and How to Make it.

Making your own pasta is not difficult. It's actually very easy to cook.

But you may wonder why would you make your own pasta, when you can buy it pre-packed, and ready to cook?

Well, one reason is that by making your own, you eat fresh pasta. There is a difference of taste and texture between fresh pasta and pre-packed pasta.

But there is another reason: if you make your own pasta, you may want to use nutritius ingredients, ensuring that your pasta not only tastes good, but it is also low in fat, and generally good for you.

For instance, you may want to make your own low fat pasta with unrefined flour, ensuring that your pasta is rich in fibre and B complex Vitamins.

Finally, learning to make your own basic pasta dough is the first skill towards preparing other (more advanced?) types of pasta dishes like lasagna, raviolli, tortellini, and that type of thing.

It's not such a difficult thing to do, and it can be a fun process.

You see, normally you make pasta with refined wheat flour, eggs and salt.

But if you want low fat pasta, you need to use water instead of eggs, and you have to give salt a miss.

This recipe makes about 750 g of low fat pasta (about 1.5 pounds), and it takes about 50 minutes to make.

To make your own low fat basic pasta you need:

* 500 g (1 pound) of strong wholemeal flour

* 275 ml (a bit over a cup) of water.

This is what you do:

First, put the flour in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle (like a volcano, sort of thing).

Then, pour in the water, and mix with a knife till the dough binds.

After that, you start mixing with your hands and knead it till all the flour is evenly incorporated into the dough.

Move the dough to a kitchen bench, and knead it for about 10 minutes, till it becomes smooth and elastic.

Next, put the dough into a plastic (zip lock) bag and leave it there for about 30 minutes.

Then, take a quarter of the dough and roll it out by hand on a slightly floured surface. Roll it very thin. Leave it to rest and dry before using it.

Freeze whatever you don't use. It will remain good for up to 3 months.

You will be able to use this basic low fat pasta to make many of my delicious recipes.

Fitness & Health Tip - Can You Make a Healthy Pasta Dish?

Me being Italian, pasta was part of my growing up, and to this day it's still my favorite food, without question!

BUT, most people don't think of pasta as being healthy. Matter of fact, most people don't think of pasta having any other sauce than the traditional red or some sort of cream sauce.

I've eaten past with dozens of different concoctions as the primary sauce, and most of them didn't have any red or cream sauce with them.

The "non-pasta" people are now scratching their head. No worries, I'll get into a bit more details coming up.

First of all, YES, I know that whole wheat pasta is better for you. BUT, I don't like the gritty taste is has. To me, the whole wheat pasta feels like there is sand in it and just doesn't do it for me. So, THAT part of my meal may not be the healthiest, ok?

OK, try this recipe out for size......

In some sort of skillet, put a little bit of olive oil. Add some salt, pepper, garlic (hey, I'm Italian, what can I say) and maybe some onions, but that's up to you. Let that brown for a bit then add some FRESHLY WASHED spinach to the mix. Spinach you ask? Yup, that's right. As the spinach cooks, it will reduce down to a more manageable size within the pan. There may also be some water still on the spinach so you want to cook as much of that off as possible.

Cook your pasta in another pan, of course. Strain the pasta (when it's cooked), put it in a pasta bowl then pour the spinach sauce over it. You may have to play around with the portions of olive oil, garlic and spinach, depending on the amount of past you cook, but you'll be amazed as to how this tastes.

Find out more tips for your Fitness and Health by checking out here at My Nonna .

Pasta With Fresh Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

• 12 ounces linguine

• 1 1/2 pounds beefsteak tomatoes, quartered

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 clove garlic, chopped kosher salt and black pepper

• 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan (1 ounce)

Directions

•  Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot.

• Meanwhile, in a food processor, puree the tomatoes, oil, garlic, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

•  Toss the pasta with the tomato sauce and half the basil. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and the remaining basil just before serving.