4 Pro Tips for Cooking Better Gluten-Free Pasta (2024)

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4 Pro Tips for Cooking Better Gluten-Free Pasta? ›

Cook pasta in an extra-large saucepan, for best results use 1lt of salted water per 100g pasta. Allow the pasta to boil uncovered while it cooks. There is no need to add oil to the cooking water. Boil for 5 minutes then carefully taste the pasta every minute until it is 'al dente'

Cook pasta in an extra-large saucepan, for best results use 1lt of salted water per 100g pasta. Allow the pasta to boil uncovered while it cooks. There is no need to add oil to the cooking water. Boil for 5 minutes then carefully taste the pasta every minute until it is 'al dente'

Add a little olive oil to the pot.

Salty water is one of the keys to good pasta, gluten-free or not. Then, once the water starts boiling and before adding the pasta, pour a little olive oil into the pot to help keep the noodles from sticking together.

Because of the starch, gluten-free pasta noodles tend to cling together. Add a glug of olive oil to the water and make sure to run a spoon through it to redistribute every 30 seconds during the first few minutes of cooking. Once the pasta has begun to plump you don't have to worry about it as much.

This couldn't be further from the truth! Gluten free pasta can be cooked just as easily as wheat pasta. Thanks to our unique blend of corn and rice, there's no risk of mushy pasta. The only difference is that the whole grain rice pasta may take a bit longer to cook as the grain must be broken down.

There are many ways to increase moisture in a recipe. In general, recipes that call for pureed fruit, sour cream or yogurt are ones you can rely on for a moist product. In case your recipe does not call for these things, using brown sugar instead of white sugar to add moisture.

Don't forget to salt the water.

On its own, gluten-free pasta is really pretty tasteless. It needs seasoning, in the form of salt, just like regular pasta. After the water comes to a boil, add enough salt to make the water taste like the ocean (about 1/4 cup for a large pot of water), before adding the pasta.

Most gluten-free flours will have a unique taste, which can be hard to get used to eating. That's why we recommend adding extra vanilla. Adding more vanilla or other spices/flavorings will help cover these unfamiliar flavors.

Gluten free pasta tends to absorb more sauce than normal pasta. This means you might need to add more water to the sauce as you mix it through the pasta. Don't rinse your pasta.

How do you keep gluten-free pasta from boiling over? ›

According to Sarah Schmalbruch's INSIDER article Here's the Real Reason You're Adding Olive Oil to Boil Pasta – And It's Not Sticky Noodles, the real reason to add olive oil is to prevent the pasta water from boiling over the pot itself rather than to prevent noodles from sticking.

1) Never add oil to your water

The only way to avoid having blobs of pasta sticking together is to use a lot of water. This way, the starches will disperse in the water and won't act as glue. You will need one litre of water for every 100 grams of dry pasta.

In fact, pasta will continue to cook for several minutes after it is taken out of the pot. Any pasta that has been overcooked will start to fall apart and dissolve, especially pastas made with less-starchy ingredients that don't naturally bind together.

Chef Tips For Al Dente Gluten Free Pasta:

Add ice and water to a medium-sized bowl to make an ice-water bath. Add your pasta. This will halt the cooking process, so your pasta doesn't get mushy.

Unfortunately, it is not advisable to reheat gluten-free pasta because it is made of corn and rice, both of which break down more quickly and easily than wheat. As a result, gluten-free pasta tends to become mushy and tasteless when cooked a second time.

Not all gluten-free pastas taste like pasta — the high-protein ones absolutely do not — and many have a mushy or grainy texture, negating the joy of eating pasta. To counteract the texture problems, some brands make their pasta thicker, which gives the noodles a chewy texture (also not great).

Save the starchy water.

It acts as a sauce for the pasta recipe. Gluten-Free Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (pictured above) is a great example of this. If your pasta water gets super-starchy, that's okay in this recipe because that's exactly what it calls for!

Fill your pot 2/3 full of water. Gluten free pasta tends to expand more than regular pasta during cooking, and it creates a lot of foam, so leave yourself some extra room in the pot. Don't be afraid to add a little extra salt.