Characterisation of gluten-free pasta through conventional and innovative methods: evaluation of the cooking behaviour

The rapid stiffening of a well-developed gluten network able to entrap swollen starch granules is a key factor for the high quality of durum wheat pasta during cooking. Good resistance and firmness, low stickiness and limited release of organic materials into the cooking water are quality traits of primary importance for traditional pasta. In gluten-free (GF) pasta, the formation of a scaffold of retrograded starch can be an alternative to gluten networking: it confers rigidity to the cooked product and reduces pasta stickiness and loss of soluble materials into the cooking water. In a previous paper, 14 commercial GF spaghetti samples were studied as uncooked products from a chemical, biochemical and physical point of view. The aim of this study was to determine the cooking behaviour of these samples. A durum wheat pasta was also included as reference. Suitable cooking conditions were adopted and different conventional and innovative evaluations (i.e. compression test, creep test) were performed as a function of cooking time. Different behaviours were evidenced, often related to the ultrastructural organization of the uncooked products. In particular, the creep test revealed to be very effective in discriminating among the properties of the different GF spaghetti.