As I have mentioned, I love Italian food. When I first went off of gluten, I was completely disheartened that I would never find a good gluten free pasta and that any dreams I had of going to Italy were now gone. Both of these thoughts did not actually come to pass, praise be! Italy, as it turns out, is one of the most celiac friendly countries in the world. Celiac or Coeliac (as it is referred to in the majority of Europe), actually dates well back to the Roman era. A primary source was discovered that had been written by a doctor. The doctor claimed that his patient experienced severe pain whenever he consumed grains- he called it coeliac. Italy has a longstanding knowledge of celiac and its celiac foundation has been active since the 1970s. It is therefore a bit unsurprising that the best gluten free pasta I have been able to find comes from Italy. The brand is La Veneziana. They have a wide variety of gluten free pasta that are made from corn. In addition, they have an awesome potato gnocchi. Their products I have found are much easier to locate in Canada however they are available on Amazon in the US. The pasta is so good that my husband and mother now only want to eat this pasta. It is light and tastes great. I had a pasta craving and figured that we deserved a treat for a friday night dinner. Around Christmas time, I had taken up a fascination with the Feast of the 7 fishes from Italy and came across a video on Epicurious with Mario Batali making linguine with clams. The ingredients all looked fresh and I had never cooked with clams before- challenge accepted. What you will need: 10-12 littleneck clams per person 6 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp red pepper flakes 4 garlic cloves 14 oz san marzano tomatoes 1 cup dry white wine (I used pinot grigio) flat leaf parsley sea salt Prior to beginning your cooking, make sure to scrub the clams clean! Method: Place water in a large pot and salt. Bring water to a boil and then place pasta in the water. I chose to use fettuccine instead of the proposed linguine (as I have not yet found a gluten free linguine), the fettuccine worked great. Cook the pasta to al-dente and reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. This will come into play later! Place the olive oil into a large pan and allow the olive oil to heat for a few minutes. Chop the garlic and then place in the olive oil. The garlic should only be in long enough to brown the slightest bit (30 seconds to a minute depending on how high you have your burner). Once the garlic looks ready, add the clams and the red pepper flakes. Allow them to simmer for 1 minute. Next, add the white wine, tomatoes, and some parsley (about 1/2 cup). Allow the sauce to simmer for the next 7-10 minutes. In this time, the clams will open- a reminder- if a clam does not open even after the allotted time, do not eat it. Now, once the clams have all opened and the sauce has boiled down a bit, take the 1/2 cup of reserved pasta water and add that along with the pasta into the sauce. The pasta water has starch from the pasta and it will help the sauce bind together a bit more and really stick to the pasta. Add more parsley and allow the pasta to really come together for a few minutes. Your pasta is now ready to serve! It is your choice whether or not you would like to use parmesan cheese- the pasta has a bit of a kick to it as the red pepper flakes give it that extra punch. Place into your serving bowl of choice and enjoy! For the link to the recipe at epicurious go to:
www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/linguine-with-clams-em-linguine-con-le-vongole-em-350683 Comments are closed.
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AuthorA native Montrealer who is documenting gluten free recipes from her new home in Virginia. Archives
May 2017
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