Tag Archives: Italian cuisine

Manini’s Gluten-Free Pasta Review

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manini's gluten-fre pasta with pesto and sundried tomatoes

The boyfriend and I were craving pasta somethin’ fierce the other day, so we headed over to the trusty local Central Market to find some things to throw together in a carb-y pile of delicious. We were so pleasantly surprised to see Manini’s Gluten-Free pasta in the refrigerated gourmet Italian section! Apparently we really are lucky, as their website states that their fresh line of pasta is only available in select grocery stores in the Northwest at this time. Sometimes (OK, usually) I really do love living here!

manini's gluten-free pasta in container

There were several flavors available, such as lemon-thyme, or the roasted garlic that we decided to try. There were also little flat squares for making homemade ravioli, lasagna noodles, spaghetti, and tri-colored rigatoni.

We got some pesto and sun-dried tomatoes from the olive bar section (Central Market really is an awesome grocery store), grabbed a good-looking (on sale, of course) bottle of wine, some cured meat and cheeses from the cuttings basket, and hurried home to toss together our Italian Feast.

This pasta cooks really fast. I kept checking it to make sure I didn’t over-cook it. The package said to cook it for about three minutes in salted water with olive oil in it. I think I cooked it for about 4 minutes, but I think I like my pasta a bit more cooked than most people do. While the water was coming to a boil, I arranged the cheese and meat (coppa, my favorite!) on a plate. While pasta was boiling, I warmed the pesto and sun-dried tomatoes in a little pan. Then, I drained the pasta, tossed the sauce in, then put it on two plates and crushed some black pepper and scattered some crushed red pepper over the tops. A basil leaf garnish, and we were ready for some back deck fine dining!

This pasta has that delicious, fresh home-made pasta texture that I remember my parents making with one of those pasta cranks that seemed to be really popular in the nineties (any one else know what I’m talking about? I used to love turning that thing for them when I was little!). It really elevated the sauce to something special. I don’t think I would choose the roasted garlic flavor again for pesto, though. It made the overall taste thick and heavy, and it was a bit of a relief whenever I came across a sun-dried tomato. I would certainly use this pasta again, but with a light, chunky tomato or marinara-style sauce. All told, this meal took a maximum of fifteen minutes to make, and it was SO tasty. Of course, eating outside makes everything taste better!

Happy Eating!

Seattle Sans Gluten // Cafe Piccolo

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I do a lot of (some may say obsessive) browsing on the internet, looking for restaurants that serve gluten-free food. Italian food has been difficult to find, beyond gluten-free pizza and maybe pasta. So when I read that Cafe Piccolo made gluten-free ravioli, bread, parmigiana, and lasagna, I knew I had to go try it for myself.

Their menu has little notes on it about their ability to substitute gluten-free bread or pasta. The website says that they cannot make gluten-free ravioli or lasagna, but that is no longer the case! Our server informed us that the only thing the kitchen was unable to make gluten-free was the gnocchi. I briefly considered being sad about that, but I had so many choices (at an Italian restaurant!) that I really didn’t mind.

We settled on the antipasto plate to start. Our server brought out house-made gluten-free bread to accompany it. The bread was served with a wonderful paste made of herbs, spices, balsamic vinegar, and roasted garlic. I am so used to ordering antipasto with “no bread.” It was really nice to eat cheese and meat with some starch alongside it!

I really enjoyed the antipasto as well. The was a wide assortment of items on the plate, from carrots in mint oil, to marinated mushrooms, to cheese, to cured meat. There was just enough for a few tastes or bites of each item, but the variety was wider than a lot of antipasto plates I have encountered.

For our main course, we shared the Ravioli Sage and Brown Butter:

and the Calamari Amatriciana:

Both were very good, but I definitely preferred the calamari dish. The pasta, house made squid ink pappardelle, had a really great, soft, chewy (dare I say glutinous?) texture, and the calamari was cooked perfectly. One note, though, the food was very salty for my taste. I know that salt is a matter of palate, and mine probably just differed a great deal from that of the chef’s, but it made it a bit difficult for me to fully enjoy the meal. The boyfriend said he did not find it to be too salty, so I really do think it may have been just a matter of taste.

Every dessert at Cafe Piccolo is gluten-free! We finally settled on the Goat Cheesecake. It was really fantastic, and it got even better with every bite. It had a creamy texture and a really great tanginess that was never overpowering. I decided dessert needed some company in my belly, so I ordered the house Limoncello, which was wonderful. They also make a lot of other flavors of “-cello” there. The boyfriend had fennelcello, and he thought it was really good (I don’t really like fennel, so my opinion is not worth noting here).

Overall this was a really great dining experience. Our server was very knowledgeable about the menu and the gluten-free options. The restaurant itself had a softly lit, homey feel. The menu was extensive (and tasty sounding!) enough that I would like to go back to try some of the things that I was not able to on the first visit. Thank you, Cafe Piccolo for catering to gluten-free diners!