Gluten Free Dried Pasta

Before being Gluten Free my girls would eat allot of pasta. Mainly because, as a parent, I found it easy to add healthy ingredients into the Bolognaise Sauce that went with it. Also they liked pasta and it was easy to make and serve over two sittings.

When we had to go on a wheat free, Gluten Free, diet dried pasta was one of the first products I had to find to replicate what we had already been eating. I tried several brands and found mostly they were very stodgy or would fall apart whilst being cooked.

This brand is now our favorite. It is called BUONTEMPO, BUON APPETITO, RICE SPIRALS. $3.14 at my local Coles Supermarket for a 500gm bag. It is made in Australia and is 88% Rice and 12% Maize (Corn). This brand also offers Penne but I find that the Penne is too easy to over cook, where it will fall apart and not hold it's shape.

If you are cooking two different pastas for your family you will need to start cooking the regular gluten pasta approximately 4 to 5 minutes before the Gluten Free Dried pasta as the Gluten Free pasta cooks quicker. Also drain the Gluten Free pasta first before adding back to your pot to cook out the moisture and add olive oil. If you drain the regular pasta first you may contaminate the Gluten Free batch next. Unless of course you have two separate strainers or particularly like washing up!

I find this brand and variety so good that you may find, like our house, that eventually you will all just end up eating one type of pasta together. Gluten Free Foods are however more expensive than regular brands even for a cheap product like pasta. So if you are watching the budget or have allot of people to feed just keep them separate.

The Bolognaise sauce of course is the same as it is Gluten Free if made the traditional way. I will blog my version of Bolognaise Sauce another day. Also use caution if you use powdered Parmesan Cheese as some brands have flour (wheat) added to the cheese to stop it clumping together. Traditional Parmesan Cheese, you grate yourself, is Gluten Free.