Our favorite Gluten-Free pastas

If you’ve followed me a while, you probably know we are BIG fans of pasta! Both my and my husband’s family are Italian, so we grew up eating an assortment of classic Italian pasta dishes, and over the years we have tried so many new combinations of pasta sauces we’ve lost count. Today, pasta makes a weekly appearance in our house for the obvious reasons… it’s quick, it’s easy, it’s crowd pleasing, the pasta/sauce combinations are endless, and it is just delicious!  So naturally one of the questions I am most often asked is… What is our favorite brand of  gluten-free pasta?

A little background… My youngest son inherited a love for pasta (I don’t really think you can inherit a love for pasta but you know what I mean…) and ever since he was old enough to eat solid food, he’s loved pasta!

And it wasn’t just the pasta (although he has always appreciated different shapes and flavors of pasta)… he loved the sauces.  He has different names for all the sauces — a Nonny sauce, a Grandma sauce, a Mommy sauce and so on.  And now he makes his own, always switching up the flavor.

And, he doesn’t just love it, he has always eaten pasta A LOT  — as in many times a week.  So when he was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2010, I panicked!  How could we keep him from eating something he loved so much?

So as soon as he switched to a gluten-free diet, we started trying EVERY gluten-free pasta brand and shape we could find. And over the years, we continue to try any new gluten-free pasta brand or shape we discover.

Today our pantry has 9 different brands and innumerable different shapes of pasta — all brands we’ve purchased and use regularly.  Here’s a peak inside our pantry and what we love about each of these brands:

TIP: You’ll see lots of amazon affiliate links below because once you find a brand you love, it is often less expensive to purchase it by the case.

Barilla Gluten-Free Pasta (Corn and Rice):  We purchase Barilla by the case from Amazon (affiliate link).  It’s the least expensive of the pasta brands we like and in our opinion, the one that tastes most like “regular gluten pasta”.  It is the one we serve to guests and everyone loves it.  And they’re not just being polite– our extended families have been on this gluten-free journey with us from the beginning and trust me, they’ve tasted the good and the not-so-good, and they are an honest crew!

Le Veneziane Gluten-Free (Corn) Pasta: This too we purchase from Amazon (affiliate link) by the case.  It is from Italy and one of our favorite pastas — it has great flavor, isn’t starchy and importantly, holds its shape well when it cooks. And it was one of the first ones we found which has lots of different shapes– Remember I told you shapes were important to us?  Le Veneziane is one of the few brands we’ve found with small pasta — like ditalini (amazon affiliate link) and annelini (amazon affiliate link) – which we love to use in soups.

Banza Chickpea Pasta: Banza pasta is made from chickpeas and one of the reasons we love it is it’s packed with protein, fiber and iron, making it a nutrient powerhouse among pasta!  And when you eat as much pasta as we do (it is such a quick and easy meal!), it’s nice to have the extra nutrients.  We also love that they come in so many different shapes! Full disclosure, we purchase Banza ourselves all the time but some of the shapes in this photo were gifted from Banza.

Garafolo Gluten-Free (Corn, Rice and Quinoa):  We recently found this pasta at a local Italian deli and fell in love with it! It is also from Italy and it is my son’s current favorite. It has great pasta flavor that complements sauces so well! And again, it’s a great texture and holds together well when cooked.  We can also purchase it on Amazon (Associate program)

Bio Naturae Organic Gluten-Free Pasta (rice, potato and soy): This was one of the first pasta brands we liked and my son ate it all the time for a while. He still likes the spaghetti as it doesn’t fall apart when it cooks.  It is a bit starchier that some of the others so I like to run it under water after it is cooked, but my son disagrees.  When we make mac and cheese, we always use their elbow shaped pasta (Amazon Associates link)

Sam Mills Gluten-Fee Corn Pasta: My mother in law was the first to find this brand. We don’t see it in stores locally near us so we purchase it from Amazon (affiliate link).  We like the flavor, texture and it holds together well when cooked.  We also love the rigatoni shape which is not that common in gluten-free pasta.

DePuma’s Fresh Pasta: Depuma’s pasta is a fresh pasta you purchase frozen and it cooks up in minutes. If you like fresh pasta, this is the one to try! It also happens to be based in Connecticut so we feel connected to it.

Ancient Harvest POW pasta and Super Grain Pasta: The POW pasta is lentil based pasta and I love it for it’s flavor and it’s protein, fiber and iron content.  I do find cooking it to be tricky as it tends to go from undercooked to overcooked quite quickly so I have to really watch it.  And it can be a bit starchy so sometimes, I’ll run cool water over it after it’s strained.  The Super Grain Pasta is quinoa based and it is one of the first pastas we really liked. We ate the Garden Pagodas (Amazon Associate link) all the time and we still enjoy it from time to time.

Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi: There’s been lots of hype about this one and I have to admit, I love it!  It’s not “pasta” per se but my family eats a lot of pasta and sometimes I enjoy a veggie based pasta with the sauce.  My kids aren’t as enamored as I am.  Cooking tip: I don’t follow the package instructions.  Instead, I heat a bit of olive oil in a saute pan and saute it until super crispy on both sides, chewy in the center and it’s so good!

 

Rummo Gluten Free Pastas: Rummo is an Italian brand of dry pasta that we tried for the first time last Spring and my son thinks it’s one of the best! He loves the texture and flavor, and we love the different shapes! These here are a Penne Rigate (Amazon affiliate link) and Mezzi Rigtoni (Amazon affiliate link). Pro tip: this brand seems to take a bit longer than some others to cook sure you allow a good 10-13 minutes.

 

Have you tried these brands? What’s your favorite brand? Are there any brands we need to try?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!