Product Review: Schar Gluten Free Spaghetti

I’ve been doing gluten free food reviews for quite some time now. You can laugh if you want (we all do), but I am to the point where everything I eat gets analyzed and (sometimes) photographed. Then the package that the food came in goes into a big cardboard box under my desk that I creatively have named, “The Review Box”. Once a review is finished, I take the package out of the box and place it either in the trash or the recycling bin.

It is a pretty efficient system I have here (Don’t even get me started on the Review Log I keep). So, imagine my shock today when I realized that I hadn’t reviewed Schar Spaghetti yet. I have never even put a package in the box. The reason that this surprises me is that this spaghetti is my absolute favorite. It is a staple in my house. Well, I intend to correct this oversight today.

When I first went gluten free, pasta came in two types; corn or rice. I believe I have expressed before that rice pasta is not my thing. Unless it comes in the form of a Thai noodle, I pretty much avoid it. Corn pasta is good, but it wasn’t the same as the pasta I grew up with. Now there are scads of flavors out there, brown rice, veggie, quinoa, etc. Most of them are really good, but again, none had the same flavor or texture as “regular” pasta.

Then I found Schar Gluten Free Spaghetti. This stuff is actual spaghetti, not cappellini. (Yep, another picky soapbox of mine.) The noodles are nice and thick and almost always cook up perfectly al dente. They have an excellent bite to them. When you overcook it, it gets a bit starchy (like “regular” pasta) but doesn’t immediately turn to mush (like most gluten free pastas).

Schar makes their gluten free spaghetti with a blend of corn and rice flour with pea protein isolate mixed in. Now, I’m not sure what pea protein isolate is, but if that’s what makes this pasta so great then I’m glad it’s there. As an added bonus, it’s lactose free, which helps since D.D. and I are mildly lactose intolerant and my sister is totally dairy free.

Another thing I love about Schar gluten free spaghetti is that it comes in a 12 oz. package. This is a bonus to me, and really any large family. Due to the thin noodles and the 7 oz. package that you find with most gluten free spaghetti, I used to have to make two packages of pasta anytime we had guests for dinner. The one bag of Schar is enough to feed everyone who happens to be in the house. (Providing we don’t have too many drop ins :)

I recommend Schar gluten free spaghetti to anyone, but especially to those that are newly gluten free and looking for a pasta that is close to the “real thing”. I’ve had guests that were amazed to find out that the meal was gluten free. That, I suppose, carries a recommendation all it’s own.