July 24, 2025 • 12 mins
Are you tired of gluten-free pasta that turns into mush?
Or worse—sticks together like glue, then falls apart the moment you stir?
Here’s the thing: just because it says “gluten-free” on the box… doesn’t mean it’s good.
In this episode, I’m sharing the pasta brands I actually trust—after years of trial, error, and soggy noodles.
If dinner-time pasta disasters sound all too familiar, keep listening—because even your gluten-eating family won’t know the difference when you grab one of these.
Mentioned Resources
Jovial: https://amzn.to/40wC3Wb*
Barilla: https://amzn.to/46n9zC4*
Ronzoni: https://amzn.to/451hbIc*
Banza: https://amzn.to/44GjjGe*
Annie Chun’s: https://amzn.to/3IWacbP*
*Contains Affiliate Links
Come join us in our free Facebook Community, The Gluten Free Engineer.
It’s a space where you can connect with others living gluten-free, ask questions, swap tips and recipes, and get support from people who truly get it. Whether you’re newly diagnosed or a seasoned gluten-free pro, you’ll feel right at home.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quick reminder before we get started on this episode
this podcast is based on mypersonal experiences and isn't
medical advice.
Are you tired of gluten-freepasta that turns to mush or,
worse, sticks together like glueand then falls apart the moment
you stir?
I know I've ran into both ofthese situations before, and
just because it says gluten-freeon the box doesn't mean it's
(00:22):
good necessarily.
In this episode, I'm sharingthe pasta brands I actually
trust, after years of trial anderror and soggy noodles.
If dinnertime pasta disasterssound all too familiar, keep
listening, because even yourgluten-eating family won't know
the difference when you grab oneof these.
Welcome to the Gluten-FreeEngineer Podcast.
(00:43):
I'm your host, keri Saunders.
In 2011, I was diagnosed withceliac disease, a moment that
changed everything, but I wasdetermined not to let it hold me
back.
With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer
the gluten-free lifestyle,breaking down recipes, safety
tips, travel hacks andeverything in between to rebuild
a life I love.
(01:03):
Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or simply
choose to live gluten-free, thispodcast is for you.
Join me each week as wesimplify the gluten-free
lifestyle, make it fun and provethat you don't have to miss out
on anything.
Welcome back to the show Todaywe're talking all about pasta.
It's a staple, a favorite ofmany Americans and those in
(01:25):
other countries as well, and ifyou've been eating gluten-free
for any length of time, you knowthe struggle is real when it
comes to pasta that tastes good,holds together and makes you
feel like a real comfort foodwin and has the texture that you
want.
So let's dig into what worksand what doesn't, and what
brands I recommend foreverything from spaghetti to
pasta salad to baked items withpasta.
(01:47):
So let's talk first about whypasta is tricky without gluten.
Gluten is what givestraditional pasta its stretch
and its chew, and when it'sremoved, the structure often
collapses, leaving you with acrumbly or gummy noodles.
This is why finding the rightgluten-free pasta isn't just
about ingredients.
It's about texture, cook timeand how it holds up when mixed
(02:11):
into sauces or baked.
So some of my go-to gluten-freepasta brands are ones that I
use again and again, and I dovary the brand based upon what
I'm doing with the pasta.
So Jovial Foods gluten-freepasta is one of my hands down
favorite ones, and the reasonbeing that it is made with
(02:31):
organic brown rice flour or youcan also get cassava flour as
well, and I don't do as well ongrains, so I like to tend to get
the cassava flour when I can,and so it's great because its
texture is firm and smooth.
It tastes great, like so closeto traditional pasta.
(02:52):
I don't get any complaints whenI use this brand of pasta.
We use it a lot for spaghetti,for fettuccine noodles.
Recently we tried their bow tiepasta, which was excellent in
texture, which is a hard thingto do for bow tie pasta and so
we absolutely love their bow tiepasta, which was excellent in
texture, which is a hard thingto do for bow tie pasta and so
we absolutely love their bow tiepasta.
They also have egg noodleoptions, and then all their
(03:13):
pastas except for the eggnoodles, as far as I'm aware,
are also egg free too, so mostof the ones that we use are
actually egg free, and so thisis a really great versatile
pasta egg-free, and so this is areally great versatile pasta.
Also, some two great versatilepastas and I use them
interchangeably is the Ronzonipasta as well as the Barilla
gluten-free pasta.
I feel like these two.
(03:38):
I just buy whichever one'scheaper at the store.
When I'm using these two for anapplication, they basically are
the same taste and texture.
To me, I haven't noticed adifference.
You could probably do a blindtest on me and I wouldn't be
able to tell you.
These are both made with rice,corn and a quinoa blend, which
gives a bit more of a familiarpasta bite to it.
It's going to become be able tobecome more al dente for you.
(03:59):
It is great for, excellent forbaked dishes like gluten-free
mac and cheese.
It's also great for pasta bakes.
It's also excellent forpressure cooking, which is key,
depending upon how you want touse your pasta.
Some gluten-free pastas do nothold up in the pressure cooker
or they kind of are weird orfunky, and we'll talk about that
on the next pasta segment.
So I have a great pressurecooker mac and cheese recipe on
(04:24):
theglutenfreeengineercom.
So if mac and cheese issomething you've been craving,
you're going to want to go checkthat one out because it is
quick.
It's a five minute cook timeplus whatever preheat time your
pressure cooker takes, and thenyou just mix in the cheese and,
optionally, milk and butter andyou're done Like it's.
(04:44):
Literally, you can have thisdish done in about 10 to 12
minutes and it's excellent.
It's homemade, it's justdelicious and I love how
forgiving the Ronzoni or theBrulella pasta brands are too.
If you slightly overcook it,they don't like go crazy or fall
apart or get super sticky.
This is also a great one thatI've used for pasta salads
(05:08):
Because it doesn't break downquickly.
It can actually store in thefridge for a few days with that
pasta salad type of dressing onit and it doesn't break apart
too quickly compared to whatsome of the other ones are, and
it's also easy to find in mostgrocery stores.
So Ronzoni and Barilla is agreat secondary option.
Again, jovial is my firstchoice because I don't tolerate
(05:31):
corn, but Ronzoni and barillaare excellent pastas if you
tolerate corn.
And then the next one is thebonza chickpea pasta.
Now, this one has higher proteinand higher fiber.
It's made from chickpeas.
They actually have boxed macand cheeses too that are
excellent tasting, and these aregreat for those looking for
(05:52):
extra protein or nutrition.
But some think it does have aslight chickpea taste.
It doesn't really bother me.
I don't quite notice it.
The one thing about this one isit does create a foam on top
when you're cooking it on thestove, and so it isn't
applicable to some applications,for example.
I've tried this one severaldifferent times in several
(06:13):
different ways in my mac andcheese recipe and it just
doesn't quite cook right in thepressure cooker because of this
foam that it creates when it'sboiling and I think that gets in
the way of the pressure cookingof it.
And cheese just doesn't want tostick to it because it's got
this weird like chickpea film toit.
Now when I say weird chickpeafilm to it, now when I say weird
(06:34):
chickpea film, it kind ofsounds like a turn off.
As far as actually drying it,it's not that bad.
When you're cooking on a pot ofwater and a stove, I usually
just skim off that foam and theyrecommend that you rinse it
after it's done cooking to getrid of that extra foam that's on
top.
So this was great.
If you want to, you know, havesauces like marinara or pesto.
Again, I don't quite recommenda cheese sauce on this one.
(06:56):
I've found that it just slipsright off of the pasta and
doesn't stick to it, and so thisone is a great, otherwise
versatile pasta for justtraditional.
You're going to cook the pastaon the stove, you're going to
rinse it and then you're goingto put a sauce on that type of
pasta.
So this is a great option forthat.
Now, another one you might notthink of is Annie Chun's
gluten-free noodles.
(07:17):
So they have super simpleingredients.
This one usually just has rice,maybe water and one other
ingredient in it.
This one's great for soups andin Asian dishes.
It's just literally a simplewhite rice noodle that you would
traditionally find in Asiandishes, but I found it also
works great in like Americantype of soups, like chicken and
(07:39):
noodle soup, and it's reallyreally quick at cooking.
It's like a five minute or lesstype of cooking.
So this is a great lunch optiontoo, when you don't have a lot
of time.
And in any Chun's type ofnoodles too, you can just warm
them up in water, soften them inwater too hot water, so look at
the directions on yourparticular box.
(08:00):
But this is a great cooking oneand it's also a great egg note
substitute if you can't tolerateeggs.
So you can use their flatnoodles in, say, chicken and
noodle soup if you don'ttolerate egg noodles, which I
sometimes sometimes do nottolerate egg noodles myself.
And then, lastly, homemade eggnoodles.
So this has been a staple and afamily favorite of mine for a
(08:24):
while.
Now.
I have a great simple recipefor homemade egg noodles which
you can find also on theglutenfreeengineercom.
It's simply the ingredients aregluten-free one to one flour,
eggs and salt.
That's it.
So if you are good with eggs,this is going to be a recipe
you're going to want to do, andit's really easy to make.
All you do is put it in yourfood processor to bring the
(08:47):
dough together and then you rollit out.
I actually have a dip pastamaker that attaches to my
KitchenAid mixer, makes it superfast and super easy, and you
can make these ahead and freezethem, or you can throw them
right in your dish right afteryou make them.
You don't have to dry eggnoodles out.
Some people don't realize thatyou can put egg noodles straight
into a dish right after youmake them.
(09:09):
You don't have to dry them out.
So we love using these to makeour homemade gluten-free chicken
noodle soup, where I will cooka chicken or two a boned chicken
or two in the crock pot all dayto really tenderize it.
Get all the yummy goodnessthat's out of the bones into
that chicken and into thechicken broth that it's sitting
in, and use that to make myhomemade gluten-free chicken and
(09:31):
noodle soup.
So let's go into some tips forperfect gluten-free pasta every
time.
First, we want to stir earlyand often.
This is even true intraditional pasta too, but
especially with gluten-freecooking, we want to be stirring
pretty often during the firstthree minutes to make sure that
they don't clump together.
Also, we don't want to overcook.
Make sure you time it and thentaste test it.
(09:52):
I like to pull a noodle out andlet it just kind of blow on a
little bit and take a bite of itand see how the texture is on
it.
And then sometimes we need torinse, like that chickpea pasta.
Or if you're using in a salador casserole and you want to
stop the cooking.
You do this for traditionalpasta as well, and then you can
also add oil if you're storingit for later, so that the pasta
(10:14):
doesn't stick together.
So what makes a greatgluten-free pasta?
Well, it comes up with manydifferent varieties of how you
combine the different flours.
It kind of depends upon whattype of pasta you're going to
come up with.
Plain rice pasta or cassavapasta is great for spaghetti
dishes, ones that you need tohold up a little bit more, like
(10:35):
in a baked dish, or mac andcheese, and you're going to
probably want a blend like corn,rice and quinoa.
Those are great for, you know,holding up for those longer cook
times or the bit more abusivecook times.
Oh, and I completely forgot tomention that Jovial makes an
excellent lasagna noodle pasta.
We use that one all the time.
(10:56):
It's a brown rice pasta.
Brilla also has a greatgluten-free pasta noodle too.
That one's corn based.
So I avoid that one now, but Iused to use it and it the
texture is great.
It's actually really greatpasta.
So pasta is one of thosecomfort foods we just don't want
to give up.
I know I don't want to give itup, and with the right brand you
(11:17):
don't have to settle for asecond best just because it's
gluten-free.
So the options I shared todayare the ones I use in my own
kitchen for my own family andfor my friends, and I hope they
make dinner routine a little biteasier for you and way more
delicious.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the gluten-free
engineer.
If you found value in thisstory, please share it with
(11:39):
someone who might needencouragement on their own
gluten-free journey.
For more tips, recipes,resources and even links to my
YouTube channel, head on over totheglutenfreeengineercom.
It's your one-stop hub to makegluten-free living simple, fun
and full of flavor.
And don't forget to subscribeso you never miss out on an
(12:00):
episode and we will see you nextweek.
The Gluten-Free Engineerpodcast is for informational and
entertainment purposes only.
I share my personal experiencesand stories about living with
celiac disease and navigating agluten-free lifestyle.
This podcast does not providemedical advice.
Always consult with a qualifiedhealthcare professional for
medical questions, concerns oradvice specific to your health.
Quick reminder before we get started on this episode
this podcast is based on mypersonal experiences and isn't
medical advice.
Are you tired of gluten-freepasta that turns to mush or,
worse, sticks together like glueand then falls apart the moment
you stir?
I know I've ran into both ofthese situations before, and
just because it says gluten-freeon the box doesn't mean it's
(00:22):
good necessarily.
In this episode, I'm sharingthe pasta brands I actually
trust, after years of trial anderror and soggy noodles.
If dinnertime pasta disasterssound all too familiar, keep
listening, because even yourgluten-eating family won't know
the difference when you grab oneof these.
Welcome to the Gluten-FreeEngineer Podcast.
(00:43):
I'm your host, keri Saunders.
In 2011, I was diagnosed withceliac disease, a moment that
changed everything, but I wasdetermined not to let it hold me
back.
With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer
the gluten-free lifestyle,breaking down recipes, safety
tips, travel hacks andeverything in between to rebuild
a life I love.
(01:03):
Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or simply
choose to live gluten-free, thispodcast is for you.
Join me each week as wesimplify the gluten-free
lifestyle, make it fun and provethat you don't have to miss out
on anything.
Welcome back to the show Todaywe're talking all about pasta.
It's a staple, a favorite ofmany Americans and those in
(01:25):
other countries as well, and ifyou've been eating gluten-free
for any length of time, you knowthe struggle is real when it
comes to pasta that tastes good,holds together and makes you
feel like a real comfort foodwin and has the texture that you
want.
So let's dig into what worksand what doesn't, and what
brands I recommend foreverything from spaghetti to
pasta salad to baked items withpasta.
(01:47):
So let's talk first about whypasta is tricky without gluten.
Gluten is what givestraditional pasta its stretch
and its chew, and when it'sremoved, the structure often
collapses, leaving you with acrumbly or gummy noodles.
This is why finding the rightgluten-free pasta isn't just
about ingredients.
It's about texture, cook timeand how it holds up when mixed
(02:11):
into sauces or baked.
So some of my go-to gluten-freepasta brands are ones that I
use again and again, and I dovary the brand based upon what
I'm doing with the pasta.
So Jovial Foods gluten-freepasta is one of my hands down
favorite ones, and the reasonbeing that it is made with
(02:31):
organic brown rice flour or youcan also get cassava flour as
well, and I don't do as well ongrains, so I like to tend to get
the cassava flour when I can,and so it's great because its
texture is firm and smooth.
It tastes great, like so closeto traditional pasta.
(02:52):
I don't get any complaints whenI use this brand of pasta.
We use it a lot for spaghetti,for fettuccine noodles.
Recently we tried their bow tiepasta, which was excellent in
texture, which is a hard thingto do for bow tie pasta and so
we absolutely love their bow tiepasta, which was excellent in
texture, which is a hard thingto do for bow tie pasta and so
we absolutely love their bow tiepasta.
They also have egg noodleoptions, and then all their
(03:13):
pastas except for the eggnoodles, as far as I'm aware,
are also egg free too, so mostof the ones that we use are
actually egg free, and so thisis a really great versatile
pasta egg-free, and so this is areally great versatile pasta.
Also, some two great versatilepastas and I use them
interchangeably is the Ronzonipasta as well as the Barilla
gluten-free pasta.
I feel like these two.
(03:38):
I just buy whichever one'scheaper at the store.
When I'm using these two for anapplication, they basically are
the same taste and texture.
To me, I haven't noticed adifference.
You could probably do a blindtest on me and I wouldn't be
able to tell you.
These are both made with rice,corn and a quinoa blend, which
gives a bit more of a familiarpasta bite to it.
It's going to become be able tobecome more al dente for you.
(03:59):
It is great for, excellent forbaked dishes like gluten-free
mac and cheese.
It's also great for pasta bakes.
It's also excellent forpressure cooking, which is key,
depending upon how you want touse your pasta.
Some gluten-free pastas do nothold up in the pressure cooker
or they kind of are weird orfunky, and we'll talk about that
on the next pasta segment.
So I have a great pressurecooker mac and cheese recipe on
(04:24):
theglutenfreeengineercom.
So if mac and cheese issomething you've been craving,
you're going to want to go checkthat one out because it is
quick.
It's a five minute cook timeplus whatever preheat time your
pressure cooker takes, and thenyou just mix in the cheese and,
optionally, milk and butter andyou're done Like it's.
(04:44):
Literally, you can have thisdish done in about 10 to 12
minutes and it's excellent.
It's homemade, it's justdelicious and I love how
forgiving the Ronzoni or theBrulella pasta brands are too.
If you slightly overcook it,they don't like go crazy or fall
apart or get super sticky.
This is also a great one thatI've used for pasta salads
(05:08):
Because it doesn't break downquickly.
It can actually store in thefridge for a few days with that
pasta salad type of dressing onit and it doesn't break apart
too quickly compared to whatsome of the other ones are, and
it's also easy to find in mostgrocery stores.
So Ronzoni and Barilla is agreat secondary option.
Again, jovial is my firstchoice because I don't tolerate
(05:31):
corn, but Ronzoni and barillaare excellent pastas if you
tolerate corn.
And then the next one is thebonza chickpea pasta.
Now, this one has higher proteinand higher fiber.
It's made from chickpeas.
They actually have boxed macand cheeses too that are
excellent tasting, and these aregreat for those looking for
(05:52):
extra protein or nutrition.
But some think it does have aslight chickpea taste.
It doesn't really bother me.
I don't quite notice it.
The one thing about this one isit does create a foam on top
when you're cooking it on thestove, and so it isn't
applicable to some applications,for example.
I've tried this one severaldifferent times in several
(06:13):
different ways in my mac andcheese recipe and it just
doesn't quite cook right in thepressure cooker because of this
foam that it creates when it'sboiling and I think that gets in
the way of the pressure cookingof it.
And cheese just doesn't want tostick to it because it's got
this weird like chickpea film toit.
Now when I say weird chickpeafilm to it, now when I say weird
(06:34):
chickpea film, it kind ofsounds like a turn off.
As far as actually drying it,it's not that bad.
When you're cooking on a pot ofwater and a stove, I usually
just skim off that foam and theyrecommend that you rinse it
after it's done cooking to getrid of that extra foam that's on
top.
So this was great.
If you want to, you know, havesauces like marinara or pesto.
Again, I don't quite recommenda cheese sauce on this one.
(06:56):
I've found that it just slipsright off of the pasta and
doesn't stick to it, and so thisone is a great, otherwise
versatile pasta for justtraditional.
You're going to cook the pastaon the stove, you're going to
rinse it and then you're goingto put a sauce on that type of
pasta.
So this is a great option forthat.
Now, another one you might notthink of is Annie Chun's
gluten-free noodles.
(07:17):
So they have super simpleingredients.
This one usually just has rice,maybe water and one other
ingredient in it.
This one's great for soups andin Asian dishes.
It's just literally a simplewhite rice noodle that you would
traditionally find in Asiandishes, but I found it also
works great in like Americantype of soups, like chicken and
(07:39):
noodle soup, and it's reallyreally quick at cooking.
It's like a five minute or lesstype of cooking.
So this is a great lunch optiontoo, when you don't have a lot
of time.
And in any Chun's type ofnoodles too, you can just warm
them up in water, soften them inwater too hot water, so look at
the directions on yourparticular box.
(08:00):
But this is a great cooking oneand it's also a great egg note
substitute if you can't tolerateeggs.
So you can use their flatnoodles in, say, chicken and
noodle soup if you don'ttolerate egg noodles, which I
sometimes sometimes do nottolerate egg noodles myself.
And then, lastly, homemade eggnoodles.
So this has been a staple and afamily favorite of mine for a
(08:24):
while.
Now.
I have a great simple recipefor homemade egg noodles which
you can find also on theglutenfreeengineercom.
It's simply the ingredients aregluten-free one to one flour,
eggs and salt.
That's it.
So if you are good with eggs,this is going to be a recipe
you're going to want to do, andit's really easy to make.
All you do is put it in yourfood processor to bring the
(08:47):
dough together and then you rollit out.
I actually have a dip pastamaker that attaches to my
KitchenAid mixer, makes it superfast and super easy, and you
can make these ahead and freezethem, or you can throw them
right in your dish right afteryou make them.
You don't have to dry eggnoodles out.
Some people don't realize thatyou can put egg noodles straight
into a dish right after youmake them.
(09:09):
You don't have to dry them out.
So we love using these to makeour homemade gluten-free chicken
noodle soup, where I will cooka chicken or two a boned chicken
or two in the crock pot all dayto really tenderize it.
Get all the yummy goodnessthat's out of the bones into
that chicken and into thechicken broth that it's sitting
in, and use that to make myhomemade gluten-free chicken and
(09:31):
noodle soup.
So let's go into some tips forperfect gluten-free pasta every
time.
First, we want to stir earlyand often.
This is even true intraditional pasta too, but
especially with gluten-freecooking, we want to be stirring
pretty often during the firstthree minutes to make sure that
they don't clump together.
Also, we don't want to overcook.
Make sure you time it and thentaste test it.
(09:52):
I like to pull a noodle out andlet it just kind of blow on a
little bit and take a bite of itand see how the texture is on
it.
And then sometimes we need torinse, like that chickpea pasta.
Or if you're using in a salador casserole and you want to
stop the cooking.
You do this for traditionalpasta as well, and then you can
also add oil if you're storingit for later, so that the pasta
(10:14):
doesn't stick together.
So what makes a greatgluten-free pasta?
Well, it comes up with manydifferent varieties of how you
combine the different flours.
It kind of depends upon whattype of pasta you're going to
come up with.
Plain rice pasta or cassavapasta is great for spaghetti
dishes, ones that you need tohold up a little bit more, like
(10:35):
in a baked dish, or mac andcheese, and you're going to
probably want a blend like corn,rice and quinoa.
Those are great for, you know,holding up for those longer cook
times or the bit more abusivecook times.
Oh, and I completely forgot tomention that Jovial makes an
excellent lasagna noodle pasta.
We use that one all the time.
(10:56):
It's a brown rice pasta.
Brilla also has a greatgluten-free pasta noodle too.
That one's corn based.
So I avoid that one now, but Iused to use it and it the
texture is great.
It's actually really greatpasta.
So pasta is one of thosecomfort foods we just don't want
to give up.
I know I don't want to give itup, and with the right brand you
(11:17):
don't have to settle for asecond best just because it's
gluten-free.
So the options I shared todayare the ones I use in my own
kitchen for my own family andfor my friends, and I hope they
make dinner routine a little biteasier for you and way more
delicious.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the gluten-free
engineer.
If you found value in thisstory, please share it with
(11:39):
someone who might needencouragement on their own
gluten-free journey.
For more tips, recipes,resources and even links to my
YouTube channel, head on over totheglutenfreeengineercom.
It's your one-stop hub to makegluten-free living simple, fun
and full of flavor.
And don't forget to subscribeso you never miss out on an
(12:00):
episode and we will see you nextweek.
The Gluten-Free Engineerpodcast is for informational and
entertainment purposes only.
I share my personal experiencesand stories about living with
celiac disease and navigating agluten-free lifestyle.
This podcast does not providemedical advice.
Always consult with a qualifiedhealthcare professional for
medical questions, concerns oradvice specific to your health.
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