So I have been sitting here staring at this screen for a good hour now trying to knock this post out.
I keep getting distracted by dilly-dalling, and cannot seem to focus on writing this post.
Also Blurred Lines is playing right now, and one cannot just sit still with that song busting out.
Not possible.
Part of my distraction is also that I have barely seen the glow of a computer for the last week, I mean I come back to cyber world and royal babies are being born, bachelorette mens tell all has already happened, and five million emails are sitting in my inbox.
Remind me to not go off the map again.
Or remind me to do it again, I'm not quite sure yet.
Before all the craziness and visitors arrived last week, I had a mission to test and begin reviews for the eight hundred boxes of products I have received over the last couple weeks. I wanted everything to be done and gone in time for the festivities, if for any reason but to clear the boxes out of my hallway.
I mostly succeeded, at the very last minute.
The fine folks at Jovial sent me a couple boxes of their gluten free pastas last week, and due to my ever expanding love of pasta; I couldn't wait to try them out.
Jovial is not a brand I see to frequently around these parts, especially not in the pasta section. I have seen a couple of their cookie products lining the shelves and assumed desserts where what they made. Boy was I surprised when I opened up a box of noodles!
And man was I even more surprised when I learned the majority of their products are pasta, or pasta related!
Jovial (which means happy, or cheerful. In case you where wondering.) has both wheat and gluten free products, all completely organic. In their gluten free corner, they have noodles, cookies, olive oil and canned tomatoes.
The noodles are all made in a dedicated allergen free facility (yay dedicated facilities!) and their cookies are made on sanitized equipment on designated days.
I can't wait to get my teeth into some of those cookies ;)
The first pasta I tried out was the tagliatelle.
Tagliatelle if you don't know, is a traditional egg pasta. The ingredients are so incredibly simple with just brown rice flour and eggs listed.
Because I had received two types of noodles, I wanted to try one cold and one warm.
The tagliatelle went for the cold.
I kept it simple by just adding lots of vegetables and a light roasted pepper sauce, and letting all the flavors meld together in the fridge for a couple hours.
This is really a catch all dish, no "recipe" needed (other then the red pepper sauce, click the link above for that) so you can throw in anything you want.
I added lightly steamed broccoli, red onions, bell peppers, spinach, and cherry tomatoes.
It was yummeroo!
The noodles absorbed all of the flavors so wonderfully, just like real wheat noodles do. You may have noticed in your own endeavors that gluten free noodles tend to just get soggier in time, not more flavorful like glutenous noodles do.
But these Jovial noodles did not get all soggy and gross. Win!
Besides that, what do you really say about a noodle, ya know? It had good texture, and it took on flavors well. 'nough said.
Next up was the spaghetti noodles.
I felt the only way to go with traditional spaghetti noodles, was to make a traditional spaghetti with meatballs. Right?
For the spaghetti sauce in this dish, I roasted some tomatoes, garlic and bell peppers (roasted tomatoes forever!) in the oven to make the base of the sauce.
Have you ever roasted whole garlic bulbs? I do it all the time. Its delicious.
What you do, if you've never done it before; is cut off the top of a whole garlic bulb, and wrap the rest of it in foil. Bake for about a half an hour, or until the garlic has gotten all juicy and delicious.
Yum!
So after baking all that goodness up, you'll throw the tomatoes, peppers and garlic insides into a saucepan, along with a jar of tomato sauce. Add a little fresh basil and red wine vinegar, and call it a day!
Pre-made sauce made better.
Also, try not to forget you have meatballs in the oven during that whole time. They won't thank you for it later.
Now that you're digging into your spaghetti and meatballs, you'll notice how wonderful it tastes. Aside from the delicious sauce, or the too tough meatballs; there is a perfect noodle base. Firm noodles that hold their own against all of the other flavors and textures, and best of all don't shatter to a million pieces when you twirl your fork around them. All I want is to have a little Lady and the Tramp action going on when I eat spaghetti.
Jovial succeeded in that.
Enjoy!
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