How To Make The Absolute Best Gluten-free Pasta

Want to make a perfect plate of gluten-free pasta at home?

With the gluten-free diet slowly taking over the world, gluten-free pasta is now a popular meal choice. Making gluten-free pasta can quickly become a disaster if you don’t know how. And then you are left with sticky and mushy noodles that ruin your dinner.

Pasta can become a reliable gluten-free option if you learn to cook it correctly. Everything about gluten-free pasta is different from traditional pasta recipes, from ingredients to the method of cooking.

So if you are thinking about switching to a gluten-free diet or have to for medical reasons, it is time to learn about cooking gluten-free pasta!

The Best Gluten-Free Pasta: Cooking and Serving Tips

1. Only use a large pot for boiling pasta

Gluten-free pasta contains more starch than traditional pasta, allowing the foam to form at the top of the water.

This can cause the water to boil out if you don’t use a big pot. Another essential point to remember is to ensure the water boils before putting the pasta in it.

Thus, we recommend using the largest pot in the kitchen and only filling it two-thirds of the way. Using more water also makes it easier to avoid pasta that is too starchy or sticky.

If your gluten-free pasta seems sticky after you boil it, ensure you use a larger pot and a lot of water.

2. Add salt to pasta water

Adding salt to pasta might seem like a hot take, but it is a crucial step in making gluten-free pasta.

This type of pasta is often bland and doesn’t have much taste of its own. Therefore, we recommend adding salt to the pasta water once the pasta starts to boil.

To give you a general guideline, add two tablespoons of salt for every pound of pasta you use.

Adding salt helps boost the gluten-free pasta’s taste, making it more flavorful. Once you add salt, stir the pasta to ensure every noodle gets the salt.

3. Adding Olive Oil to pasta

One of the most controversial things when making pasta is whether or not to add oil.

Adding oil can make it difficult for the sauce to stick to the pasta. But for some gluten-free pasta brands, adding oil can change the game.

If you always face the issue that your pasta noodles stick together too much, adding oil can help solve that problem. Once the water starts to boil, add some oil to the pot and stir for a few minutes.

It is your choice whether you want to add oil, but we suggest doing it to avoid your gluten-free pasta sticking together.

4. Stir the pasta constantly!

This might seem obvious, but stirring the pasta continuously is one of the best ways to ensure the noodles don’t stick together.

Stir every 20-30 seconds until the noodles settle on the pot’s bottom. Leaving it alone while the pasta cooks is one of the quickest ways to ruin the pasta.

You can also prevent the water from boiling when you stir it constantly. The starch content of gluten-free pasta is the main reason for the pasta to stick together and stick to the pan.

Once the pasta cooks, you can slow down on stirring. But ensure you don’t leave the pasta as it is even after that, and mix it until you are done cooking it.

5. Don’t trust the packaging instructions completely

Most pasta has cooking instructions on the back of the box, but they are not always accurate. You want the pasta to be al dente, which ideally means it is firm but soft at the same time.

Sometimes following the exact cooking times written on the box can overcook the pasta and ruin its texture.

Instead, check the noodles two minutes before and see if they are done. A simple way to test if the noodles are done is to take one out of the pot and taste it directly.

Taste the pasta a few times before the cooking time in the recipe so you don’t overcook it. Overcooking can turn your pasta into mush, so pay close attention while you cook the pasta and be smart about how long you decide to cook the dish.

6. Don’t forget to drain the pasta afterwards

Many cooking experts suggest rinsing the pasta after you boil it, but we don’t think that helps. Rinsing the pasta makes it cold; thus, you must reheat it later. Reheating increases the chances of the pasta breaking down, which is not ideal.

The best way to handle it is to put it through a filter quickly before you put the pasta back in the sauce. Please don’t leave the noodles in the strainer too long, or they will become mush.

Promptly drain them using a colander and then put them in another pot so you can cook them with sauce.

7. Cook the noodles properly in sauce or olive oil

Once you drain the pasta, immediately toss it into the sauce or olive oil.

Add a generous amount so the noodles can be coated with the flavour, which allows them not to dry out.

How well you mix is critical to ensuring the pasta is perfectly cooked.

Stir the pasta properly to ensure the sauce gets distributed evenly. We recommend serving the dish as soon as it is done, but that might only sometimes be possible.

So instead, you can coat the noodles in oil if you have to let it sit for a while and don’t want the pasta to dry.

Otherwise, enjoy the delicious gluten-free pasta with your loved ones and savour the unique flavours!

How to stop gluten-free pasta sticking together

If you have previously made gluten-free pasta and found it stuck together and ended up a gloopy sticky mess, then you need to try again using my tips above.

I promise you can cook gluten-free pasta without it sticking together by adding the oil, cooking in a large enough pot, and immediately straining the gluten-free pasta water.

Conclusion

Making gluten-free pasta is an art, something that requires a lot of technique and patience.

If you don’t cook it correctly, it will turn mushy and ruin the meal. Luckily, experts have figured out ways to prevent your gluten-free pasta from becoming a mushy mess.

This article discussed some helpful tips for cooking and serving gluten-free pasta.

Whether you had never made it before or never perfected the recipe, these tips will surely help you make a perfect plate of gluten-free pasta every time and enjoy a great dinner with loved ones!

The best way to cook gluten-free pasta