Gluten-free Pasta Review

Good morning sweetpea's!

The weekend is here and I have been doing so much stuff this week, it's spring and that means getting into dirt and garden fun! I will post on those adventures another day, for now we are talking pasta. 

Store bought, gluten-free pasta throwdown along with the lowdown. I have been eating much less pasta as I seem to be having some serious carb sensitivity of late, but I decided to take one for the team & test these two noodles out. 

I do it all for you-okay, truth is I was also really craving a vegetarian rosé sauce, and figured that my monthly craving should not be ignored. Surprisingly carbs beat out chocolate and I was happy to oblige my tummy and hormones. 

So, I am going to show you some pics of the noodles I purchased, this will clarify the differences and make it easier to comment; before giving my final verdict.

There was Catelli that was a mix of gluten-free grains, it did contain corn which is not great for people like me but I really wanted to test it against the second brand.

As you can see, the Catelli was very yellow. It retailed for $2.99 and the package said it cooked in 7 minutes. 

The claim seemed rather dubious to me, if you have ever cooked gf pasta, you are well aware of the 20+ minutes, takes too long, wasting away as I wait, gonna starve, cooking times. I used to use brown rice pasta from a brand called Tinkyada but veered away from it as I grew to have some difficulty with too much rice. And the extended cook time and goopiness of the end product did not endear me to it either. At the time it was the best on the market, compared to everything else. 

Times have changed, I think? Meh. 

This was the result of the Catelli:

It cooked like regular pasta, no fuss, no muss. I didn't take pictures because it was that uneventful, it really surprised me. Oh, and it did cook really fast. That 7 minutes was not a joke, this brand will easily go to mush and leave the el dente realm; if you are not careful. 

You have been warned!

The consistency was okay, it was a bit odd because it looked like spaghetti but it did not exactly act like regular spaghetti. What do I mean?

Well, the texture was a bit rubbery? 

Yeah, I guess that best describes it. 

It also did not cling to it's spaghetti brother and sister strands, as most pasta will do; and I noticed it when I ate it. That sounds weird I know but it's true! I was eating it and felt the individual strands as I chewed, it was odd. It didn't taste bad, it didn't taste great either. It was better than old brands I have had but lacked oomph in it's la la. 

Kind of flat but I wasn't mad at it.

It felt like a familiar friend you used to know but stopped hanging with for some reason that you couldn't put your finger on; then you ran into them and decided to give them another go and realized, it would do to pass time but you wouldn't miss them when gone. This pasta left me with that feeling. That, it's okay if you're there and it's okay if you're not. I won't look for you but if you show up, I'll entertain you for a bit until something better comes along. 

That paragraph makes me sound like the most shallow excuse for a human being ever but it really does break down how I felt when eating this pasta. As for the friend, well, most of us have been there and if you're the one who is on the receiving end of the flippant response to your existence, I am so sorry. Here's a cute puppy to heal from your tale of woe:

Okay, back to pasta!

Here's the second batch from Go-Go Quinoa:

Please note the 340g Catelli for $2.99 vs the 227g GoGo Quinoa at $4.99-yikes! 

Yeah, as a Chef it really pisses me off to pay this much for a package of pasta that really only gives 1 good sized serving when cooked with probably 1/8th of a cup to spare. I have seen it at more than $5 too & did notice the price hike, with which I was not impressed, from its initial $3.49 last year; but I digress.

It's very white because it is made with quinoa, great news! 

It has no corn, yipeeee! 

Bad news? 

It clumps and clings like a mofo. 

That means you need to use a fork during cooking to seperate pasta logs, see above pic on left. Package says it cooks in 12 minutes, pfthhhh. 

Dude, took almost twenty to get that firm to the bite texture, and it needed a rinse. It gets starchy goops as it cooks but not as bad as other brands. I rinsed it and noticed the pasta was better for it. 

Taste? 

Let me say this, I really do prefer the GoGo Quinoa brand to any other I have tried so far. Their spaghetti noodles are great! They are not perfect, old school, gluten-filled pasta; however, they are the closest yet. I like the taste, it doesn't over power my sauces, is not boring, has a great mouth-feel, holds up well under sauce, is not full of water and goopiness, and twirls great on my fork and spoon!

It also went really well with my last minute, thrown together, vegetarian sauce. Big win!

It is definitely a clear winner, GoGo Quinoa indeed! Mild tasting but perceptibly better than it's counterparts.

Try it, I think you will enjoy it .

I have heard that homemade pasta is the best for gluten-free, and I was recently lent a book with recipes; so I can try my hand at pasta making. It's kind of thrilling as I have not done it since culinary school-I think. Don't quote me on that last one, it's been so long since gluten pasta making has been part of my life that I really cannot properly recall. I will try making some fresh though, as I have a new pasta maker waiting to be used. 

Will let you know how it goes, for now though, leave your comments or questions down below. I love to hear from yah & don't forget to subscribe!

Happy Saturday and Abba bless.