I’ve often thought that a great service would be to take somebody new to a gluten free diet (or with a child new to the diet), take them to Whole Foods or a good natural foods store, and go up and down the aisles telling them which of each type of product is the best.  Trial and error is not a lot of fun as there are a lot of lousy gluten free products out there.

When it comes to pasta, I think I’ve tried just about everything out there, and I think I can provide some valuable guidance.   The best I’ve tried, thank you very much, was the fresh homemade pasta I made with my Ronco pasta maker, bought off of a late night infomercial featuring Mr. Ron Popeil, and using gluten free flour, oil, eggs, and water.   But that’s a bit of a production, and usually, like most people, I use store-bought dried pasta.  There are a lot of varieties out there using mostly rice flour, and sometimes corn, quinoa, or other grains.

Tinkyada Pasta

In my opinion, the best rice based pasta is made by Tinkyada.  It sounds Japanese, but its made in Canada, it comes in a lot of different varieties (18 of them including spaghetti, linguine, shells, spirals, lasagna noodles…) and it’s the closest I’ve found to “regular” pasta, so it’s a good substitute in most pasta dishes, especially for kids.  Trader Joes has excellent gluten free pasta and I think, although I’m not certain, that they have Tinkyada make it for them, because it tastes exactly the same.  It claims to be “not mushy” but this is not entirely true – the window between al dente and too mushy is very small with this product — my recommendation is not to trust the cooking directions on the package, use lots of water, stir often, and taste test frequently to make sure it does not get overcooked.

Ancient Harvest Quinoa Pasta

When cooking for adults, I prefer Ancient Harvest quinoa based pasta.  Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is, according to Wikipedia, “a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds.”  All I know is it is supposed to be good for you, tastes a lot like pasta with a little bit of nuttiness, and goes especially well with tomato based sauces.  In some dishes, I prefer it to regular wheat based pasta.