Being part Italian and growing up in New York, pasta has been and likely always will be a staple in my monthly menu. So naturally, the first thing I tried when going gluten free was pasta. As I find new favorite brands or brands worth trying, I’ll come back and update this list.  

Now trust me when I say this, it has been a process. The first year was rough and I thought pasta was in my past because the brands I was trying were not good.

The first pasta I tried was Tinkyada which is a brown rice pasta. Now, it was edible, but not great in my personal opinion. That said, it was the first major brand to have different options in the GF pasta world, so they deserve some credit. If you like having cold pasta, this might be one you’ll enjoy.

One of the brands I tried in the middle was Ancient Harvest which makes a quinoa based pasta. Now I thoroughly enjoy quinoa so I thought I’d be a big fan of it in pasta form. That said, I’ll definitely pass on this in the future. It cooked a lot faster than quinoa, maybe seven minutes or five if you prefer al dente texture.

A relatively new brand I tried, admittedly after months of seeing it online and at the store is Banza which is a chickpea pasta. I was not a big fan the first few times I cooked this one, but after adjusting cook times to accommodate the texture, this is one in the regular rotation and it’s higher in protein so that’s a plus too.

A recent brand I’m adding in is Rummo‘s gluten free pasta, which is a brown rice and corn mix. It also has a thicker bite to it, so their recipe allows for different shapes. I’ve had the fussilli and rigatoni thus far and I would buy both again.

Now for the big kahuna and a that has a permanent spot on my pantry shelf.

Barilla gluten free pasta. The overall texture, cooking time and most importantly, the taste are as good as I remember normal pasta being. As another plus, while it’s still about twice or three-time the price when compared to your standard non-GF pastas, it is still the most affordable.

Now of course, to each their own. If you find a brand you like, share it with me and I’ll give it a try.