Whew, that name is a mouthful. Can you not call it spaghetti if it’s not made of wheat?

At any rate, I got this gluten-free spaghetti-style pasta hoping to find something that would hit the spot when I was really jonesing for a noodle. There were actually a few choices for GF noodles; some were made from rice, some corn, some quinoa. I chose the De Boles because it was the cheapest by far.

Seriously, it was Whole Foods prices at the Publix for most of the other brands. Where a normal package of wheat noodles might be a buck, the De Boles was two, and almost everything was between four and six.

The serving size is two ounces, which may be the same as regular wheaty pasta. I don’t know, since I haven’t looked at a box of wheat pasta for probably five years. And I didn’t look the last time I was at the grocery, because I just don’t think ahead like that.

ANYHOO.

I thawed out some of my frozen spaghetti sauce, and also threw down some of the gluten-free meatballs I made last week.

The noodles boiled for 7 minutes (the box advised 5-7) and were still a bit al dente. Next time, I’ll let them go 8 and see how that works. Not that I don’t mind a little bit of toothiness to my pasta, but I think I can improve.

The meatballs and sauce were fantastic, as usual. The noodles had a vague white rice flavor to them, which just felt weird in combination with the sauce. But the texture was decent, and it really did tackle the noodle yearning I was having in a way that spaghetti squash can’t quite.

I give the De Boles rice spaghetti-style pasta a 7 out of 10, with possible wiggle room up to an 8 if I can nail down the right cooking time.

For the record, because someone asked recently — yeah, this isn’t low-carb. Well, it kind of is, if you consider the huge piles of carb foods that conventional wisdom would have us eat. But the 2-ounce serving was only 42 grams of carbohydrate, which isn’t too bad. To lay it out, I eat 100% gluten-free, and probably 85% low-carb. I’m at my goal weight, so since I’m in maintenance mode, these days I’m trying out other non-wheat carbs to see what I can handle. I’ve been at goal for about a year and a half, and I’m still figuring out my limits for how I’ll eat for the rest of my life.