After reading about Le Veneziane on Bon Appetit's The Best Gluten-Free Pastas, I bought a package of their fettuccine from Vitacost.com. When it arrived, I noticed that it was only 8.8 ounces, which I worried would not be enough to feed a family of four, so into the pantry it went, not to be taken out again for months.
My daughters have been begging me to make pasta with cream sauce, and my husband and Nina (our international student) were not going to be home for dinner, so tonight seemed like the perfect time to make fettuccine for the first time in over six years.
I boiled some water in my medium size pot, added 1 tablespoon of kosher salt, and cooked the fettuccine for four minutes, stirring it pretty vigorously at the start to break apart the noodles, which were wound into six little balls. I knew we were in for a real treat when I sampled a noodle before I drained the pasta. It was heavenly without sauce! If I had been served this pasta in a restaurant, I would have been convinced that I had been given gluten-filled pasta, and would have been asking to speak to a manager or chef. It's that good! We love several brands of gluten free pasta, but this might be my new favorite. Oddly enough, I didn't think it tasted like corn pasta at all. The only ingredients are corn flour and emulsifier (mono and diglycerides of fatty acids). The pasta is made in Italy, so no need to worry about GMO corn. The package states that Le Veneziane is Italy's #1 gluten free pasta, which doesn't surprise me. We loved it so much, I ordered more fettucce (fettuccine) and rigatoni from Vitacost.com after dinner.
For the cream sauce, I used a variation of the sauce from my Creamy Garlic Chicken Penne recipe. It never looks super pretty, but it's really delicious. I first saute 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic in 1 tablespoon of butter, and 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat until the garlic begins to brown. I then add 1/2 cup of half & half, stirring it well for a couple of minutes as it warms up. While the pasta is draining, I add 5 or 6 tablespoons of grated/shaved cheese to my sauce, taking it off the heat, and stirring it until the cheese is incorporated. I combine the sauce and pasta in a large bowl, stir, then serve. Tonight, I used a shaved Italian cheese blend of Parmesan, Romano and Asiago that I purchased at The Fresh Market.
August 19, 2014 Update
My order of Le Veneziane pasta arrived from Vitacost today, so I changed my dinner plans and made rigatoni with peas, and the same cream sauce I used on the fettuccine. We loved the taste and texture of the rigatoni, which has always been one of my favorite cuts of pasta noodles. BiAglut and Le Veneziane are the only two companies I know of that make gluten free rigatoni, and they both taste as good as the wheat-filled pasta I ate pre-celiac. The Le Veneziane rigatoni and fettuccine have the same ingredients, and come in 8.8 oz packages, so I used two tonight, and doubled my cream sauce recipe for the five of us.
February 20, 2015 Update
At the Food Allergy & Celiac Convention at Disney, I bought two packages of Le Veneziane Ditalini from The Artisan Tavolo. I love these tiny little noodles, which would be great in soups, or as a side dish served with some butter and cheese. We have also been buying Le Veneziane penne from Vitacost. Amazon has a really good selection of Le Venziane products too.
December 11, 2015 Update
Earlier this year, I started making a recipe for Spaghetti with Romano & Black Pepper. This pasta dish has become a favorite in our house, and I make it with Le Veneziane spaghetti, if I have it in the house.
Many of the restaurants we dined at in New York City this summer use Le Veneziane. You can read my New York city reviews here.
Have you tried Le Veneziane Gluten Free Pasta?
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