The secret to going gluten-free? A great rice pasta

Some readers wonder why I seem to steer clear of wheat and prefer gluten-free products. Good question.

Surprisingly, it’s not about gluten. Yes, there is a heightened public awareness concerning gluten sensitivity. However, that’s not me.

Gluten-free products cannot contain any wheat flour. And all tasty food items made with wheat — like cookies, bread, bagels, pizza, etc. — trigger a strong desire in me to eat more. It’s like one cookie is too many and a dozen is not enough. For some reason, wheat seems to grease my fullness brakes and keep me hungry no matter how full I “really” am, unfortunately triggering overeating.

My solution: stop eating wheat in any form. No trigger, no hunger, no problem.

How did I do that?

More than two decades ago, after testing rice pasta (not made the same today), corn-based pasta and chickpea pasta, and not finding anything that was even close to an acceptable substitute, I landed on Asian rice noodles.

Asian rice noodles turned out to be THE answer. However, my Asian market didn’t have shaped noodles. There was no macaroni or penne or farfalle (bowtie) pasta. At that time, noodles only.

A few years ago, I came across Jovial Foods’ organic brown rice spaghetti. Honestly, I didn’t hold out much hope for it. I went ahead and cooked some Jovial spaghetti, sauced it with a tasty basil tomato sauce and topped it with grated real Parmesan-Reggiano cheese. I could not tell the difference between it and wheat-based spaghetti. It had a good texture, since Jovial extrudes its pasta through bronze dies. That creates a “tooth,” helping the pasta to hold onto the sauce.

Sincerely, I could not tell the difference between this brown rice pasta and wheat pasta. That’s turned out to be true for their shaped pastas, too. Their macaroni makes my macaroni and cheese nearly indistinguishable from wheat macaroni.

Recently I came across a most excellent New York Times recipe by Kay Chun for a pasta dish calling for rigatoni pasta, Italian sausage, sweet peppers, and broccoli.

Of course, I didn’t make it the same way Chun did. Instead of a pound of wheat-based rigatoni, I went with 12 ounces of organic, brown rice farfalle (bowties). I cut the use of olive oil way back (4 tablespoons to one), using the fat from the sausage instead, which added a big flavor boost.

Chun seasoned her dish with a dash of fresh lemon juice. Not a fan of lemon juice, I omitted it. And Chun didn’t require Parmesan-Reggiano cheese, which I used to kick that flavor up a notch.

I timed cooking my pasta so that just after draining, it went into the dish. The first time I cooked it earlier than that and left in the drainer. When I went to use it, the bowties were stuck together. Lesson learned.

How did my version turn out? It was so good, we now make it once a month.

Give it a try.

• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at 1leanwizard@gmail.com.

* * *

Pasta with Sausage, Sweet Peppers, and Broccoli

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound sweet or hot Italian pork sausage, casings removed

12 ounces dry, brown rice farfalle (butterfly-shaped) pasta

1 pound broccoli, cut into 1½-inch florets (about 4 cups)

2 medium (12 ounces) green or red bell peppers, cored, seeded and thinly sliced (about 2½ cups)

3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes, or to taste

Sea salt and ground black pepper

½ cup grated Parmesan-Reggiano (2 ounces) cheese

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet (I use a well-seasoned, steel wok) over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up the sausage with a spatula, until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer the sausage to a medium bowl and set aside.

Begin cooking the pasta, so that it is done (reserving one cup of the cooking water) and drained by the time the next step is completed.

In the remaining oil in the skillet, add the broccoli, peppers, and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until they soften and begin to brown, about 8 minutes. Reduce the heat to the broccoli mixture and then add the cooked pasta, and reserved water, the cooked sausage and any accumulated juices, along with the red-pepper flakes (if using), and stir together well until heated through, about 2 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve the pasta with the Parmesan for sprinkling on top. Makes six servings.

Nutrition values per serving (includes Parmesan and no added salt): 507 calories (40% from fat), 22.6 g fat (7.3 g saturated fat), 56 g carbohydrates (51 net carbs), 6.3 g sugars, 5.2 g fiber, 22 g protein, 40 mg cholesterol, 724 mg sodium.

— Adapted by Don Mauer