Crushing My Craving For Pasta

Foodies, I am still battling my love for PASTA.

Despite my recent doctor’s advice, see my post http://joannsfoodbites.com/ways-to-lower-bad-cholesterol-triglycerides/

I am still cooking it at least once a week (okay, it was twice last week).

Believe me, the Lightlife plant-based, soy product  was great, but I can’t travel 30 miles to the nearest store for it, on a regular basis.

 

Imagine my jubilation, when I saw an advertisement for a new Dr. Oz show titled…

END THE WAR ON PASTA!

Food journalist, Mark Schatzker, who wrote, The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor was the guest, who explained a new research study released in the Nature’s Nutrition and Diabetes Journal which suggested:

maybe PASTA is not to blame for American’s obesity rates?

I see Italians, living in Italy, eating the luscious noodle all the time and they are slim and trim.

What are Italians doing differently, than Americans?

Americans Are Cooking Their Pasta Wrong

Best Practices for Cooking Dried Pasta

Cook to ONLY al-dente. The pasta will take longer to digest, thus you fill fuller quicker and tend to eat less.

Cooking it to just barely tender, al-dente, will prevent a spike in your blood sugar during digestion.

Make sure to use A LOT of water when boiling dried pasta. Recommendation was one pound of pasta to six quarts of water.

That is a lot of water.

Make sure to salt the water BEFORE you add the pasta.

Water must be at a strong, rolling boil BEFORE adding the noodles.

Stir it frequently! Moving it around in the pot will DECREASE the amount of starch ABSORBED by the pasta.

Starch is bad!

Allow it to cool before eating it. The carbohydrate enzymes will take longer to digest from a cool noodle.

A Pasta Realization

As foodies, we know the problem with pasta is the type of FLOUR used to make industrialized, mass-produced, boxed product. However, some brands are selling pasta made with soft, low-gluten wheat flours, as well as protein-free starch from beans and vegetables.

This originates in China where epicureans make long noodles or thin wrappers, prepared fresh, by hand; cooking them only for a few minutes, serving them while they are soft and slippery.

I need to experiment with different types of noodles and see which one can fill the void of my carb-loaded, spaghetti and meatballs ?

Alternatives To Consider

Of couse, there are zucchini noodles, which are delicious and great every once and while, but they do not have the silky texture, which I would miss.

 

 I am going to try Shirataki Noodles, which I think I have seen in the Asian section of my local supermarket. They are made from konjac yams and are naturally low-calorie, low-carb and gluten-free.

I wonder what whole wheat, gnocci pasta, which is not made from white flour, tastes like?

What about red lentil pasta, which has TWELVE times the fiber and SEVEN times the protein than the white flour counterpart.

According to EatThis.com:  It serves up 30 percent of the day’s folate, a nutrient that can aid weight loss efforts, and it’s also packed with 20 percent of the day’s thiamine, a vitamin that helps the body convert carbs into fuel.

 

 

Do you have any suggestions on how to crush my pasta cravings?  Let me know in the comments….

-happy cooking!