Tao Belly: Gluten Free Pasta

Pasta is a quick and delicious meal option but if you are gluten free then obviously regular wheat pasta is off limits. There are now many different brands of gluten free pasta available and supermarkets usually carry several options. I've found it can be a bit hit or miss with not all of them performing like regular pasta at all.

Gluten free pastas are often made from rice or corn, or a combination of both. I find that the pastas that are only rice and/or corn can be acceptable but generally don't live up to expectations. Orgran pastas are one example of this although their vegetable rice spirals are one of my girls' favourites. The Deli free brand is made in Italy (always a good sign) and is a little better. San Remo have a wide range including spaghetti, fettuccini, penne, lasagne sheets and cannelloni. Their pasta also includes potato starch and soya flour and it holds up fairly well although I don't love the flavour. The lasagne sheets work very well though.

My favourite is the Schar brand, also made in Italy and the only pasta that I feel really performs the way wheat pasta does. It actually swells. Many of the other gluten free pastas don't swell as much and so you need to use more than if you were using wheat pasta. The Schar pasta includes pea protein isolate in the ingredients which makes the end product higher in protein.

Generally it comes down to a bit of trial and error and is really up to personal preference. However, I eat more pasta now than I ever did before I was gluten free and it can definitely be substituted for wheat pasta in recipes without much trouble. The up side of gluten free pasta is that you don't have that heavy, overly full feeling you do when eating a bowl of wheat pasta. The down side....it's usually very expensive!