12 comments

  • bokkies 6 hours ago
    There are some corn/rice pastas that are pretty close to the real deal. Sure a seasoned pasta officianado could tell the difference, but we have gluten intolerant in the house so predominantly eat gluten free pastas. Never had a visitor or kids friends complaining (and kids will complain about anything). Happily chow down. There are also some pretty good grain free varieties made from tapioca and egg, we get lasagne sheets that are approved of by the only real Italian I known, they maintain the chewy/rubbery texture of lasagne well.
    • mapt 4 hours ago
      You don't need the wheat protein 'gluten' to make pasta at all.

      You do need some kind of protein. Carbohydrate hydration is a reversible process whose other endpoint is a solution, while (most) protein coagulation is a non-reversible polymerization process that creates an insoluble matrix. The less protein is available, the easier it is to "overcook" pasta into goop and then a starchy beverage. You see it in cooking the two common varieties of 'normal pasta' already - egg durum wheat pasta has more protein than pure durum wheat pasta, and is much harder to overcook.

    • DuncanCoffee 1 hour ago
      Pasta is the only thing I don't miss.

      I recently found some pasta made with 100% red lentils, rice or peas, which is really good, I can gladly offer it to people.

      They cost a premium but the state gives us around 100€ a month to spend, and I don't eat that much gluten free stuff. Pizza on the other hand makes me sad ;(

    • agoose77 5 hours ago
      Yeah, the Rummo Gluten Free pasta is just on another level in the UK vs the own-brand stuff. Thank goodness!
      • rjsw 1 hour ago
        I think the Tesco own-brand pasta is good right now, also think that Barilla used to be better a few years ago.
      • GordonS 5 hours ago
        Rummo is pretty good, but you have to cook it just right - a minute either side, and it's either grainy or falls apart as a soggy mess.

        Still, gluten-free pasta has come a long way.

    • Avshalom 3 hours ago
      I buy Jovial which is a just straight brown rice flour and as long as you cook it right (which in Albuquerque is a problem with wheat pasta too) it's great.
  • jakzurr 51 minutes ago
    OK, fun article. But holy smokes, when I first read the title, I thought it was saying, "GF pasta falls apart because of neutron scattering." Whew!
  • code_duck 3 hours ago
    "Gluten free pasta" is not an adequate description. It's defining a food product by what it is not made out of. I assume they mean chickpea, or one of the kinds that's a blend with quinoa, because corn or brown rice pasta is actually much more resilient than gluten pasta. You can cook the rice pasta far overtime and it does not fall apart. Chickpea pasta disintegrates, though. Anyway, not to distract from the real topic.
  • MiracleRabbit 6 hours ago
    Reminds me a bit of the research dept of the company I'm working for.

    If they have too much free time they put much weirdo stuff into their devices just to see what.. happens.

    They have a spectacular collection of crystals scanned.

  • hunterpayne 8 hours ago
    This might be the most Italian thing I have ever read.
  • fnordpiglet 9 hours ago
    God bless science
    • analog31 9 hours ago
      God bless gluten. ;-)
      • logifail 8 hours ago
        I and two of my three kids have coeliac(0), so we may have to disagree on that!

        Can confirm that various GF alternatives really don't come close to the originals. Without the gluten things seem to be too "biscuity"...

        0) Third child positive for "predisposition to coeliac" on a genetic test, but no symptoms and an endoscopy was negative too. Let's see.

        • luqtas 7 hours ago
          gotta try the combo VEGAN + CELIAC hehehe

          i literally gave up from Brazilian industrialized/processed food a long time ago :D

          • whiterock 1 hour ago
            what are you saying - you are coeliac and gave up on eating gluten-free?
      • wk_end 9 hours ago
        Indeed, blessed by His noodly appendage.
  • virtualritz 3 hours ago
    "Materials

    Two types of spaghetti (regular No. 5 and gluten-free) produced by the Barilla company (Italy) were purchased in a supermarket."

    Are you kidding me? You did a study and tested /one/ kind of gluten-free pasta?

    There are so many different kinds from different companies. One type from Barilla is nowhere near representative to draw a useful conclusion.

    Especially as unlike many other gluten-free pasta products it lacks an important binding agent.[1]

    As someone with a gluten-allergic partner I regularly make pancakes and bake bread with (Italian!) rice-based flour.

    And they are difficult to distinguish from the flour based ones, in taste, texture, fluffiness and and structural integrity.

    The secret to this is xantham gum. It acts as a binding agent in gluten-free baking, providing the elasticity and stickiness that gluten typically offers. It helps to hold ingredients together and improve the texture.

    I learned this when eating excellent gluten-free pinza, in a small place in Catania, Sicily, whose owner has celiac disease.

    Ah yes, as far as pasta goes there is also research about this ofc[2]

    [1] https://www.barilla.com/en-us/products/pasta/gluten-free/glu...

    [2] "Incorporation of xanthan gum to gluten-free pasta with cassava starch. Physical, textural and sensory attributes"

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00236...

  • cubefox 2 hours ago
    The headline is ambiguous and misleading. The reason that different types of pasta have different structural integrity is not that they scatter neutrons differently.

    Neutron scattering was merely the tool with which they investigated the different molecular structures, which ultimately explain the differences in stability.

  • SV_BubbleTime 9 hours ago
    > cooked in D20

    Of all the options for heavy water, deuterium oxide, 2H2O, D2O… the latter is my least favorite because every time my inclination is to try and think of what element D is on the periodic table.

  • throw310822 5 hours ago
    There's a reason it's called gluten.

    From Middle French gluten, borrowed from Latin glūten (“glue”).

  • throw567643u8 7 hours ago
    > Greg Smith from ISIS as well as collaborators

    Didn't know ISIS gave a hoot about gluten free.

  • Traubenfuchs 7 hours ago
    Gluten free pasta is the same kind of oxymoron as lactose free cow milk. Might look the same at first glance but absolutely fails at replicating the most important property: taste. And here we have scientists proving it‘s worse in other aspects as well.
    • tigermafia 5 hours ago
      Not true. There is brilliant gluten free pasta out there which tastes very good and most importantly holds sauces well - which is one of the most important properties of pasta. I assume you just have never attempted to substitute properly before making bold claims. Or your cooking is lacking so I lean towards ignorance + skill issue.
    • haritha-j 1 hour ago
      I'm no expert, but aldi's cheap lactose free milk tastes the same as milk to me.
    • Klonoar 3 hours ago
      Removing lactose from things is largely solved at this point. If you’re experiencing an unfortunate taste you should try a different brand; the Lactaid brand (which is what everyone seems to know of) isn’t great.
    • Avshalom 3 hours ago
      Rice and buckwheat noodles have a long and distinguished history.
    • NickC25 11 minutes ago
      Meh, I disagree.

      I get my GF pasta from a local italian food importer. the quality of the pasta is out of this world. i've done blind tasting tests with said importer and he couldn't tell the difference between GF and non GF.

      there are crappy brands out there for sure and definitely some GF products are bad. some aren't.