I am so excited about this meal that I just have to share.
Believe it or not it is a pasta dish. And, yes, the pasta is made from wheat!
Oh, the blasphemy!
But, hold on…read further.
WHY HAVE CARBS BECOME THE NEW “F” WORD?
Carbs have become taboo in most dietary discussions and almost anyone trying to get healthy and lose weight is advised to avoid carbs at all costs. And, if carbs are considered bad then pasta is the devil incarnate. Don’t get me wrong, I agree that our diets today are way too carbohydrate heavy and we really need to focus more on high quality, ethically sourced animal protein and fat. However, any dietary approach that is this dogmatic and orthorexic gives me pause. “Don’t eat carbs” is too simple of an answer to a much more complicated argument. Unfortunately, we modern humans tend to navigate towards easy black-and-white solutions to our dietary dilemmas so that we don’t have to think about what we eat. A clearly defined set of rules seems to suit us well in our busy lives. However, this approach gives others way too much control over our dietary choices and can get us consumers in as much trouble as the food pyramid did.
The ability to think, truly think about our food is a gift and a responsibility, not a burden. When we blindly follow the next trend we repeatedly fall into the same traps over and over and provide opportunities for the modern food industry to fill the niches it creates and make billions of dollars on the backs of our poor health. The modern food industry, FDA and USDA feign empowerment and health for us consumers through marketing campaigns and increased labeling requirements but, in reality shopping for food based on labels that read “low carb” is an ignorant way to go about making dietary decisions. More often than not that “low carb” food is frankenfood loaded with all sorts of fake ingredients and chemicals that require a laboratory to produce. The vast majority of it has no business in our bodies.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PROCESS
The answer to navigating the modern foodscape as a family does not rely on fake ingredient substitutes to trick our brains into making us and our kids “feel” like we are eating our favorite foods all the while filling our bodies with products (and by-products) of the modern food industry. Instead, I believe the answer is to focus on the PROCESSES used to transform the real ingredients (yes, that includes wheat) into the safest and most nourishing forms possible for our bodies. This leads to satisfaction, satiation, true enjoyment of a meal, and connects us with history, tradition, and the world around us in important ways. That is what eating like a human is all about.
After all, we humans eat to meet biological, emotional, and cultural needs
and we must remember satisfying all three is the key to true health.
CAN WE REALLY MAKE PASTA “HEALTHY?”
With all of this in mind I have been working on developing a fresh sourdough pasta recipe that relies on a wild lactic fermentation to make it safe and nourishing while also retaining the delicious flavor and texture that we all love in fresh pasta. The result of this most recent attempt is something I am proud to feed my family. We are working on making the recipe and process available through our upcoming video series and will have the pasta itself available through RISE as soon as possible. In the meantime, I made Pasta Carbonara for the family with it the other night.
BEEN CHASING THAT FLAVOR SINCE ROME 6 YEARS AGO!
Ever since I tasted my first Pasta Carbonara in Rome six years ago I have wanted to make it entirely from scratch in the most nourishing way possible. And, here it is! This simple, delicious and nourishing meal was made of:
- Sourdough pasta
- Guanciale (cured pig cheek “bacon”) from a Where Pigs Fly Farm pig I butchered months ago
- Parmesan cheese I made from Nice Farms Creamery Milk
- Eggs from our friends the Leonard’s
- Salt and Pepper
Real, homemade, fresh ingredients processed properly, so our body can derive optimal nutrition:
I must have done something right! The entire family enjoyed the meal. What’s more, none of us turned into gluttonous carbohydrate monsters nor did we end up in carb commas. We weren’t bloated and we all felt great the next day. We simply enjoyed a delicious, satiating meal made with simple ingredients, prepared at home in the most nourishing way possible.
AND, YES, WE ATE PASTA.
WHEAT PASTA.
WANT THE RECIPE?
Pop your email below and we’ll shoot it off to you!
Narelle
I made your sourdough with oats loaf this week!! So good.
I would love the recipe for the pasta.
Thanks, Narelle
Christina
Fantastic! It’s a favorite in our house. Visit the recipe page and there is a link for the pasta recipe there. Let us know what you think and happy baking!
Colin
I’d like your sourdough pasta recipe please.
Christina
Hey Colin! Click on over to our recipe tab and you’ll find the sourdough pasta recipe there! Send us a picture and let us know how it turns out!