Spicy One Pot Gluten-Free Tomato Mushroom Basil Pasta

I have been loving the chance to finally make foods I’ve always wanted to make thanks to my Bucket List Challenge sponsored by my valued partners at Silk, makers of wonderful plant-based milks and other foods.   I’ve whipped up Gluten-Free Lemon Pepper Fettucine from scratch, How to Make Vietnamese Vegetable Spring Rolls, and How to Grill Perfect New York Strip and Portobello Mushroom Steaks (with some fun DIY projects over the summer).

This month I have a fun meatless dish I think you’ll love, especially those who are gluten-free.  Are you addicted to Pinterest like I am?  I remember the first time I stumbled into Pinterest when it was just starting and thought it was the most beautiful website I’d ever seen.  Filled with gorgeous images, I spent hours meandering through it dreaming of new recipes, travels, DIY projects and admiring the photography.

For those who aren’t familiar, Pinterest is a free website were users can set up virtual pinning boards like pinning pictures to a real bulletin board.  You can create any subject board you wish and pin virtual images with links from websites or make them yourself too.  It’s a great way to plan trips, plan parties, collect recipes, gift ideas and more.  To show you what I mean here is my Pinterest account and Silk’s for you to see (and follow too!)

Pinterest has grown by leaps and bounds, really acting now as a search engine.  Any time I am interested in something that is one of the first places I search for ideas.  During last summer I started running into ‘one pot pasta’ recipes; as in you throw everything in the pot at the same time and it ends up with a beautiful, fully cooked dish at the end.  Sort of like TV cooking segments where they begin to make the food in front of you and then, voila, it pops out of the oven done.  Truth?  I did not believe it was possible.

Despite being dubious I was sort of fascinated by the concept.  What a dream come true!  Almost a magical concept.  Could something be that easy?!  Well I decided to try it out, however with gluten-free pasta.

I did some sleuthing and learned that Martha Stewart is apparently the source of the easy peasy pasta recipe.  After watching a video on her site and studying some similar recipes I began experimenting on my own, adding ingredients I love and finding a method that works with gluten-free pasta.  The original method delivers start to finish in 10 minutes however gluten-free pasta cooks on average one third longer than wheat based pasta.  My goal was to devise a method to make my recipe within a reasonable time frame making it an appealing alternative to cooking pasta and a sauce separately in the traditional method.

A point I’d like to make is that one cannot use the term ‘gluten-free pasta’ without being specific to what type of gluten-free pasta it is.  Gluten-free pastas can be made from a variety of grains with wildly differing results.  When I first became gluten-free, one big family experiment was finding a pasta substitute that we could eat with a flavor and texture as close to traditional wheat pasta as possible.  My personal preference for this recipe is to use a brown rice spaghetti pasta.  Brown rice maintains a structure and texture very similar to wheat spaghetti as well as has a pleasant flavor.

Through varying the temperature of the recipe throughout the cooking I ended with a complete cooking time of 15-18 minutes which I feel makes this a great option for a one pot recipe.  Watching the transformation from ingredients to a complete, creamy flavorful pasta is enchanting.  And in case you are wondering, you’ll never miss meat in this dish!

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Spicy One Pot Gluten-Free Tomato Mushroom Basil Pasta

A perfect quick dish for busy nights when time is short but big flavors can't be shortchanged. All the ingredients are thrown into a large stock pot and stirred through a 15 minute cooking cycle to yield a creamy, spicy, flavorful pasta that is also gluten-free!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes

Author Toni Dash

Ingredients

• 12 ounces Gluten Free Brown Rice Spaghetti Pasta
• 12 ounces fresh Tomatoes (grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes or a mixture), chopped or halved if using grape or cherry varieties
• 1 small Red Onion , peeled, halved and sliced into 1/8-inch thick sliced
• 3 large Garlic Cloves , diced
• 4 ounces Cremini Mushrooms , cleaned* and sliced
• 6-8 large fresh Basil leaves , torn
• ½ teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
• 2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
• ½ teaspoon Black Pepper , freshly ground
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 4 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• ½ cup Chardonnay Wine (can use additional broth instead if preferred)

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients to a large stock pot and bring to a rolling boil over high heat, stirring periodically to mix the ingredients and submerge pasta in the liquid. Boil for 3 minutes and reduce heat to medium to allow the mixture to simmer.
2. Place the lid on the pan allowing about an inch opening. Allow the pasta to simmer, stirring every few minutes to thoroughly mix ingredients together. Allow to cook until the pasta noodles are fully softened; about 12-15 minutes. Serve immediately or allow pasta to sit in the pan with the lid on (off heat) for up to 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe Notes

*To maintain the structure of mushrooms, using a mushroom brush or a dampened paper towel to lightly rub the surface of the mushroom cap removing any debris are easy ways to clean the mushrooms before cooking them.Adapted from Martha Stewart

This conversation is sponsored by Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.