Rice Pasta: Rediscover Pasta!!!

When I was first told that I was celiac my first thought was “Oh no, I can’t eat pasta anymore”.  Pasta for me was this amazing comfort food.  I never ordered it in a restaurant because I could always make a much more delicious sauce with all my favourites in it; everything from Sausage and Pepper Penne to Seafood Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo.   Pasta was not something I ate every week, maybe once a month I would make a yummy savoury dish to indulge in.  But celiacs’ can’t have pasta, right?  Wrong!!!  Rice pasta to the rescue.  There are many different brands of rice pasta on the market.  The two brands I have tried are:  PC Organics Brown Rice Pasta and Pastariso Organic Brown Rice Pasta.  There are other gluten-free pastas on the market with corn or quinoa, but I have only tried the brown rice variety.

Some people argue that brown rice pasta is healthier than the whole wheat variety.  For those non-celiac’s who have the choice I have added the nutritional information of both varieties for you to choose.

Nutritional Facts
PC Organics Brown Rice Pasta	CATELLI Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Pasta
91 gram serving	85 gram serving
Calories                                330	Calories           310
Fat                          2g (saturated 0.4 g/trans fat 0g)	Fat                   1.5g (saturated 0.4 g/trans fat 0g)
Cholesterol         0g	Cholesterol         0g
Sodium                 0g	Sodium            0g
Carbohydrates  70g (fibre 3g/sugar 1g)	Carbohydrates 62g(fibre 8g/sugar 4g)
Protein                                 7g	Protein            12g

Nutritionally both rice pasta and whole wheat pasta are very similar.  If you are not celiac, it will come down to personal choice.

Brown rice pasta is slightly more expensive then whole wheat pasta.  This is due to production and consumption. 

I have served rice pasta to people without letting them know the difference and they were unable to tell the difference (even kids). 

The biggest difference between brown rice pasta and whole wheat pasta is the cooking process.

Here are some tips I have discovered while cooking brown rice pasta:

• You need to use more water then whole wheat pasta.
• It helps to use some oil in the water while cooking
• You must stir brown rice pasta more often while cooking then whole wheat pasta to prevent sticking.
• You must immediately rinse with cold water when done to stop the cooking process.
• Rice pasta should only be used in a salad when eating immediately; it does not keep its consistency very well.  Also, you may need to add more dressing when using in a pasta salad.

I will post some pasta recipes soon :)  Enjoy!!!