Breaking: Healthier Pasta Can Also Taste Good.
As January continues a healthier look at food and drinks for your small get togethers (or personal enjoyment), I wanted to share my discovery of Jovial pasta. I first heard about it on a Bon Appetit podcast, where one of the chefs was talking about how he used to make two kinds of pasta every time he and his family had pasta for dinner — a gluten free version for his wife and a regular kind for him and his kids. He tried Jovial pasta one day for her (made from 100% organic brown rice) and when he went to taste it for doneness, he realized that it tasted just as good as regular pasta did.
So for myself, as I look for little ways to inject healthier options into my diet, I tried it. Prior to this I tried whole wheat pasta, lentil pasta, cauliflower pasta...all of them. Some were better than others, but many tasted like cardboard or just didn’t have anywhere close to the same characteristics of regular pasta — like the texture, how it held sauce, etc.
If you go to their site, you will find that their story started when the founders discovered their daughter had a gluten sensitivity. And from there, they wanted to help other people like their daughter, be able to enjoy pasta and other foods. While I am focusing here on their line of 100% brown rice pasta, they also have focused on einkorn — an ancient version of wheat that sounds like they single-handedly brought back from 7500 BC. “Einkorn was the first seed planted by the first farmers 12,000 years ago during the Agricultural Revolution. Einkorn moved toward extinction during the Bronze Age. Left untouched, it’s the oldest and purest food in existence today.”
Ok, but back to the brown rice version...
And now, Jovial is all I use. It is widely available (I get it at Whole Foods or, if you live in St. Louis, Dierbergs) and they have a ton of types — from spaghetti to penne to lasagna and everything in between.
To showcase this pasta, I wanted to share one of the simplest pasta recipes out there — Cacio e pepe. Translated to English it means “cheese and pepper”. This is one of the most common and widely made dishes in Italy and you see it more and more on menus in the states. Here is how you make it:
Cacio e Pepe
Ingredients:
1 lb dried spaghetti (but can use any pasta if you want)
Salt
5-6 cups chicken stock (can use vegetable stock or water if you like, but the stock adds more flavor)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 cups FRESHLY grated parmesan cheese (or mix in pecorino if you like)
Instructions:
Get a large pot — 6 quarts if possible. Add in liquid and the pasta. Adjust liquid if needed to make sure that the pasta is fully submerged. Add a large pinch of salt.
NOTE: This may look odd to you — ”doesn’t seem like a lot of liquid like usual”. That’s ok here. When done, we are not going to drain the water. It is all going to soak in!
Cover the pot and bring to a boil.
When it starts to boil, remove the lid and boil for 8 minutes.
KEEP STIRRING as it boils. With minimal liquid, there is a greater chance that noodles stick together. If near the end the liquid almost fully evaporates and it is sticking, you can add a little liquid. NOTE: See image below for how it should look in the pot.
Once the pasta reaches the desired doneness, remove from heat and add in butter. Stir well to coat.
Add in cracked pepper and cheese, stir in completely.
When serving, top with extra pepper and cheese.
