Homemade corn pasta

[coo1guy]

I have a Philips HR2355 pasta maker, which works wonders with wheat flour.

 

I tried to use it with corn flour, which hardly worked: either not enough water gave dry/crumbly pasta, or too much water and some kind of mashed potatoes sprouted out of the outlets.

 

I'd like to make corn pasta such as the Italian brand Le Asolane which cost 4x more than even high quality durum pasta. 

 

The list of ingredients on the pack only mentions corn flour, so I'm wondering how they make it hold together and if it's doable at home with such a device.

 

Anyone with experience with that?

 

Thanks!

[Smithy]

I have no experience with that, but I wonder whether corn starch would help it to hold together.

[Shel_B]

Everything I've read (not very much) about this subject suggests that an emulsifier is used to hold things together.

 

From one source:

 

I am not sure this is indeed the complete list of ingredients, especially because there is nothing inside to bind the pasta and prevent it from falling apart. Is it possible that Italian law allows producers to leave out ingredients if used in very small amounts? Many binders are added in sub-percent ratios. Besides, it doesn't say what was done to the corn. It could be in the form of modified starch, and you can never know what exactly they did to the starch to get it to glue together.

 

 

 

Edited December 5 by Shel_B (log)

[jedovaty]

I've made non-wheat pastas with my older philips pasta maker.  It is challenging but doable.  There are facebook groups dedicated to home pasta making and those folks might be able to help?  I don't have facebook, I'm not sure why the groups are more popular than forums which are so much easier but anway... I have been able to gleen some info from them browsing.  One in particular is pastafanataholics, which is a collab between the italian company Pastidea and some home cooks:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/767285674024266/

There are also german and french groups dedicated to it.

Pastidea is an italian company and I'm sure they might have insight how to create corn-only noodles, you can even reach out to them directly, in my experience they have always been helpful but there is a little language barrier.

 

The ingredients suggest it is simply ground corn, and as suggested above it's possible there are trace other ingredients.  However, I think their success is likely to do with different methods of processing which would allow it to correctly bind, perhaps specific pressure, temperature, steam, etc.  If available to you cheap, you might try using masa, since that corn has undergone nimxtamalization (and might make it easier to bind... ?  If you are okay doing so, a little xanthan gum or perhaps something like ground chia/flax might be helpful, too. 

 

I once made noodles from wheat flour and avocado, as an eggless-egg pasta, maybe the avocado could be used with the corn flour, too.  Lots to experiment!

 

If you do learn something, please get back to us here, I'd be very curious to know

Edited December 5 by jedovaty (log)