Gluten Free Spiral Pasta With Mild Italian Sausage

My first cooking post! I made a gluten free pasta dish and took some pictures along the way. Obviously, making a pasta dish is not difficult but I thought it would be a good beginning blog post. When my husband and I were out to dinner in Steamboat Springs, Colorado at Mambo Italiano we ordered their gluten free pasta option that is available with all of their pasta dishes and it was delish! So I asked our server, who was very nice, if they made the pasta in house or if it was pre-made and she checked with the chef and found out that it was pre-made and gave me the brand name and I was lucky enough that a local grocery store near my home carries it. So here it is:

It is called Tinkyada and was about $4 for a 12oz bag. There are two different ways of cooking the pasta: 1) you can add the noodles to boiling water and let them boil for 1 to 2 minutes and then turn of the heat and let it set for 16 minutes stirring occasionally, or 2) add the noodles to boiling water and cook them at a medium heat for about 13 minutes or until you reach your desired texture. I opted for the second option and it worked out great! I cooked the entire bag and as soon as I reached the texture I wanted I emptied the pasta into a colander and rinsed with cool water to prevent the noodles from cooking any further and to rinse some of the slippery starchiness off. I then dished out the amount of pasta I wanted onto my plate and warmed it in the microwave for just 30 seconds and that was plenty of time to het it up. While the pasta was cooking I prepared the Italian Sausage which was already cooked but I always think meat tastes better when it is browned, so I heated up my skillet and sprayed it with a little olive oil cooking spray and added my sliced up sausage. I used Coleman Natural Mild Italian Chicken Sausage:

I really like this brand, the sausage is gluten free and very tasty. I browned the sausage:

Then I added some marinara sauce directly into the skillet with the sausage to get all the browned flavor out of the pan and into the sauce. I used Costco's Kirkland Signature Marinara Sauce which states that it is gluten free right on the label.

I also added some shaved parmesan cheese on top:

Here is the final product:

 

It was fantastic! The sausage and marinara sauce were delicious and I couldn't believe how great the pasta turned out, the texture was wonderful and not mushy at all, just like the package states. I'm excited to experiment more with gluten free cooking and baking and can't wait to share my discoveries!