Another Really Good Pasta Dish

The May issue of bon appetit magazine has a lovely picture of a pasta dish that I just knew I could recreate and make gluten free.  I did & it was awesome!  Here is the recipe taken right from the magazine.  The only change I made was to use GF pasta for my serving.  This has several ingredients but trust me, it is easy and oh, so good.  FYI, it is even better the next day.  Enjoy!

FETTUCCINE WITH PEAS, ASPARAGUS, AND PANCETTA

12 oz. Fettuccine or penne
3 oz pancetta or bacon, chopped
1 ¼ lb asparagus, trimmed, cut on diagonal into 1 inch pieces
2 cups shelled fresh peas, blanched 1 minute in boiling water drained, or frozen peas (do not thaw)
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced, white and pale green parts separated from dark green parts
2 garlic cloves pressed or chopped
½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese plus more for serving
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
¼ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley, divided
¼ cup thinly sliced fresh basil, divided

Cook pasta in a pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite.  Drain, reserving ½ cup pasta cooking liquid.  Return pasta to pot.

    Meanwhile, cook pancetta in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp.  Transfer pancetta to paper towels to drain.  Pour off all but 1 teaspoon drippings from skillet.  Add asparagus to drippings in skillet and sauté 3 minutes.  Add peas, white and pale green parts of green onions, and garlic and sauté until vegetables are just tender, about 2 minutes more.  Remove from heat.

    Add vegetable mixture, ¼ cup pasta cooking liquid, dark green parts of green onions, ½ cup Parmesan cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon peel, half of parsley and half of basil to pasta.  Toss, adding more cooking liquid by tablespoons if needed.  Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.  Transfer to large bowl.  Sprinkle pancetta, remaining parley and basil over.  Serve, passing more Parmesan cheese

That Taste’s Really Good!

If you aren’t participating in a gluten free diet on a daily basis like those of us who have had the calling, then you might think what we must eat is bland, tasteless, unappealing, unappetizing, or any other negative word you can think of. Well, for your information, my gluten filled friend (or gluten free friend), a GF diet can be just the opposite. Of course, you see, I am completely biased in my opinion, as I have no choice but to be. Those of us with Celiac Disease or gluten intolerance must live without wheat, rye and barley. It’s just a fact of our lives.

What this really means is that I’ve learned to make the best of it. Fortunately for me I love to cook and bake. It’s what I do. It’s how I de-stress. Needless to say, it was very difficult back in the day, to adapt to this diet. In the early 1990’s GF foods were almost impossible to find. They did not exist in local stores. I learned how to use the Internet and shopped there. Unfortunately I live in the east and most of what I found had to be shipped to me from the west coast. Often times I would order bread only to have it arrive about a week later. My initial excitement of finally being able to have anything made into a sandwich quickly turned into a huge disappointment. You see pre-baked products usually arrived with mold already growing. Double trouble. I am also allergic to mold. I once bought a whole case of GF crackers. Who doesn’t like or need crackers? Well, when I opened up that case fast and furious I discovered that these crackers were not crackers…they were odd shaped pieces of cardboard that no one could possibly eat. What was I thinking? Live and learn. That case sat in my basement cupboard for a really long time. I do believe the birds enjoyed it.

I bought cookbooks. I studied anything I could get my hands on to learn the art of gluten free cooking and baking. It is an art and I was determined to master it. Using gluten free ingredients cannot compare in any way to using wheat containing ingredients. GF flours do not react the same way to yeast, baking soda, baking powder, etc. But, if you are just learning, no need to panic. Really good cooks and bakers have perfected the whole process. You can find a huge variety of gluten free cookbooks on the market today. Early on for me, the only book I could find was called The Gluten Free Gourmet by Bette Hagman. For me, this was THE book. I use it today. It is my go-to cookbook. It is important to realize that for the gluten free cook, you just need to think differently. What this means is that you must pre-think each and everything you cook and bake. If you are using a GF cookbook and following the recipe (and the rules), no problem. But if you’re like me, you like to formulate your meal as you go, which can get a little tricky. You need to have GF staples on hand at all times. I am not much of a planner-ahead kind of girl. I do tend to fly by the seat of my pants at the end of the workday. I love the concept of 30-minute meals. I am one to throw pasta & veggies with broth & wine into a deep skillet and see what comes out. I always have artichokes, canned tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted peppers in a jar and capers in the fridge. It’s all about flavor. Don’t forget spices. All kinds. And don’t be afraid to use them. Some of these ingredients might sound odd, but they will make your dish pop!

The point I am trying to make here is simply that GF cooking and baking is easy, or it can be, with a little practice and patience. You will have the occasional failed loaf of bread, cake or whatever. We all do, I still do. Just keep at it. Each try will get better.

So How Are You Dealing With Your Family and Friends?

When I first began to tell people I had Celiac Disease I had some pretty odd reactions. Most people had never heard of it. If they had they didn’t know what it meant. Most don’t want to ask, after all, it does have that word “disease” in it. It’s not catchy, doesn’t spread like the common cold or the flu and you can’t get it from anyone, anywhere. Except, probably, from your long passed grandparent, aunt, uncle or some other distant, or perhaps, close relative. Celiac is usually an inherited disease, in the same family of diseases as diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. All autoimmune diseases. It just means the body turns on itself. There are little soldiers inside beating each other up. The more gluten you take in the happier they are. I generally am amused at the reaction I receive when asked how I possibly EAT! My rheumatologist, who I have seen for all these years and who diagnosed me after several years of trying to figure out why this crazy lady had so many really odd symptoms that no one else has, still asks me how do I live without pasta. He knows I come from a large Italian family & have big Sunday suppers, mostly of pasta with homemade sauce and homemade everything else. People always say they know they couldn’t do it. Oh yes you can. I just think of the alternative and now I’ll never go back to “toxic” pasta and “illegal” bread. No way. You see, bloating, cramping, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, on and on, is always in the back of my mind. I can’t tell you how many times I have attempted to order a meal at a restaurant that I could somehow manipulate to be gluten free by the time it arrived at my table. There are no restaurants where I live with the words “gluten free” on the menu so I must prod the server for information related to what might be in the food I want to order. Since most people don’t know what I mean by gluten free, I just ask if it contains wheat. If there is nothing visible on the plate that looks like wheat the answer will always be no. Don’t blame the server, they don’t know they are deceiving you. Always follow that up with something like…is there gravy?….is it breaded?….have those fries been dusted in flour?….is there croutons on the salad? The reaction I usually get when I say that I can’t have bread is this…”oh, there’s no wheat in it, it’s white bread”. I don’t laugh, that would be rude. I just follow that up with, sorry, can’t have it. We Celiac’s will never be able to educate the masses on what it really means to live without gluten. We just have to accept that this is our job, no pay of course. When someone doesn’t get it, just smile and say no thanks, and order the salad with oil and vinegar and dress it yourself.

I can't have Gluten, what the heck is that?

I was thinking today about how hard it was "back in the day" to find information on Celiac Disease and learning to live without wheat. That was about 15 years ago. There was not much available on the internet at that time let alone websites about having Celiac disease or being gluten free. I spent a lot of time at the library and in bookstores trying to get my hands on anything that I could that might help me learn to cook in a way that seemed completely foreign to me. The very first cookbook that I found was called The Gluten-Free Gourmet: Living Well without Wheat, Revised Edition. The inside cover says it was first published in 1990. I still use this cookbook. It is tattered and the pages are bent and soiled, much like my beloved Betty Crocker's Cookbook that came as a wedding gift. The basics of gluten free cooking and gluten free baking came to me from this book. There is nothing fancy about it. It is well written and to the point. It is as much a manual for the newly diagnosed Celiac or anyone who needs to be gluten free as it is a book full of recipes. The recipes are simple to understand and just as easy to put together. There is more information packed in this one little cookbook than most medical books I have found on the subject. If you are just entering the world of glutenless eating (not sure that's a word) you need this book. Don't be afraid, jump right in.

I am gluten free and you are too, or you probably wouldn't be here!

I've started this blog to share my experiences with Celiac Disease. I was diagnosed 15 years ago and have been living a gluten-free lifestyle ever since. Researching and finding information then was very difficult, not like today where you are literally a click away from all the information you need to get you going. Even though the information out there today is readily available that doesn't mean that it is easy to put into practice. Cooking and baking with gluten-free ingredients is just not the same as cooking and baking with wheat flour or other ingredients containing gluten. Learning to cook gluten-free is an art and not easily mastered by everyone. You have to be persistent and dedicated. No matter how many failures you have to keep trying. Practice makes perfect in the truest sense of the word. You will find that certain ingredients work in some recipes while those same ingredients won't work in other recipes, or won't work as well. Most recipes will take several tries to end up with something edible and ultimately good. I hope to help you through that process with this blog. If some of my ideas make your day a better one than it will have been worthwhile. Happy cooking to you!