Gluten Free Pasta Comparison

Which gluten free pasta is worth your money?

Hi friends,

Have you ever purchased a new exciting delicious looking box of gluten free pasta, only to head home, boil it up and end up with a pile of mushy pasta peices and broken dreams?

Or perhaps one large lump of pasta pieces stuck together?

Maybe something that just tastes a little….off?

Well I have, and I bet plenty of you have as well.

I decided to do a little taste testing, purchasing 7 gluten free dry pastas and comparing them side by side with my family to find out which pasta is the one to rule them all??

A little aside - I also LOVE fresh pastas and I’m so happy to see more of those on my grocery store shelves these days! We’ve really been enjoying all the varieties from Taste Republic lately!!

Even more fun, my friend and fellow writer

Lolly Martyn

from the fabulous

Weeknight Pasta from Italy

purchased several gluten free pastas from the Eataly in Italy where she lives and compared those as well. So the next time you’re in Italy, the land of gluten free plenty you’ll know what to buy (or you could also do a little mail ordering to get them to your house!!)

Check out Lolly’s AMAZING Italian GF Pasta Taste Test HERE!

https://weeknightpasta.substack.com/p/taste-test-winners-and-losers-italian

For the purposes of this test both Lolly and I rated the pastas on taste, texture, sticktogetherness. I think gluten free cooks you know exactly what I mean by that last one!

All of the pastas on both sides of the Atlantic were tested with

Lolly Martyn

’s Burro y Parmegiana recipe (Butter and Parm) to let the pasta flavor shine through as much as possible.

All of the pastas were cooked one minute less than the range indicated on the box (for example if the box says cook for 6-8 minutes I cooked it for 5). They were boiled in a very large pot of heavily salted boiling water (NO OLIVE OIL) and stirred vigorously at the beginning to reduce sticking while cooking. This is how I would advise you to cook your gluten free pasta.

So… what happened? Let’s find out…

But before that:

Product comparisons like these are meant to help you choose the MOST DELICIOUS gluten free option and save you a buck. They are funded by my wonderful full subscribers. Upgrade to a full membership so you can get all the great gluten free info as these are normally reserved for paid subscribers. Also we can hang out together in the 12 live workshops a year full members receive, in addition to exclusive recipes!

Jovial Cassava Spaghetti $4.49 for 8oz (organic casava flour, water)
Friends, after tasting this one I almost threw it out of the list. It was just SO FAR below the others. I bought this one out of curiosity and well… I’m no longer curious. It just wasn’t for us! The pasta stuck together terribly while it was cooking and even though we undercooked by one minute the texture was very mushy. The flavor was also quite bitter. Overall this one will not be purchased by us again. The rating average was 2.5

Banza Spaghetti $4.49 for 8oz (chickpeas, pea starch, tapioca, xanthan gum)
This chickpea based pasta had quite a lovely flavor, although not quite a classic one. I could see it pairing well with more flavorful sauces like olive based or spicy sauces. The pasta did break very easily once cooked and tended to be a little brittle, it also stuck together a little bit. The average rating was 6.25

Jovial Rice Spaghetti $4.99 for 12oz (organic brown rice flour, water)
This pasta had a good flavor - reminiscent of asian rice noodles (which I suppose makes sense!) The texture was a bit stretchy, as rice tends to be, but I was able to achieve an “al dente” mouthfeel by stopping the cooking one minute before the package advised. These did stick alot when cooking. The average rating was 6

Barilla Spaghetti $2.79 for 12oz (corn flour, rice flour, mono and diglycerides)
This popular supermarket option had a firm golden texture, probably owing to the corn. The flavor was mild, possibly bland and while it was a bit boring it was a solid pick with only a little sticking together while cooking. The average rating was 7.5

Ancient Harvest Linguini $5.49 for 8oz (organic corn flour, organic brown rice flour, organic quinoa flour)
This linguini surprised us with it’s lovely firm texture, without a trace of mushiness. The flavor was grain forward, possibly due to the quinoa flour and we all enjoyed it. The pasta didn’t stick together at all when cooking and held up well to the butter/cheese treatment (don’t we all!) Average rating was 6.5

Rummo Spaghetti $2.50 (on sale from $4.49) for 12 oz (brown rice, yellow corn, white corn, rice, potato starch, mono and diglycerides of vegetable origin)
The was a lovely contender, savory flavor with a firm al dente bite. The sunny color was beautiful with the butter sauce and a real favorite. VERY minimal sticking issues. I’ll have to go stock up before the sale ends!! Average rating: 8.25

Bionaturae Spaghetti $4.99 for 12oz (organic brown rice flour, organic white rice flour, organic yellow lentil flour)
Winner winner pasta dinner! This beautiful pasta had a buttery flavor before we even added the sauce. It didn’t stick when cooking or fall apart at all. The al dente mouthfeel was exactly what we were looking for. This one is worth the bucks! Average rating: 9.5

As for me, I’ll purchase a lot more Bionaturae and Rummo for our frequent GF spaghetti meals!

Some links I’ve shared here may be affiliate links- which means a few cents of things purchased would go to help me cover the cost of these projects. Thanks!