Introduction

Anna:

For a long time, Michelle kept asking me to write a book on gluten-free Italian food, but I refused because I didn’t like the idea of having to exclude my beloved pasta from anything I wrote.

Then one day, Michelle sent me a large package. ‘What is it?’ I thought. I started unpacking, and out came bags and bags of different pasta: pasta made with rice flour, with cornflour, with beans… I was stunned, but I was even more stunned when I began to cook and eat them. ‘Not bad,’ I thought, ‘not bad at all. Actually, some are very good.’ I was hooked, and this book is the result.

In some of the recipes you will find that we suggest the use of Sacla’ pesto or other Sacla’ Free From sauces. As anybody who knows me and has read my books will know, I am not a cook who relies on any sort of prepared food – I like to make it all myself. But, sometimes even I am short of time, and I certainly know that many of my readers are often short of time. So I tried some of those….

I know that Sacla’ sauces are all made in Italy. I have been to their factory in Asti many times and also tasted the raw products. I have also been to the fields where the basil for the Sacla’ pesto is grown. They are on the border of Piedmont and Liguria, just the right spot to get the breeze from the sea, tempered by the drier climate of the inland.

There, under a huge walnut tree, we sat down to the most delicious trofie al pesto alla Genovese I have ever had. I was chatting to Sandra, one of the growers, and asked her if she makes her pesto
in the mortar or in a food processor. She looked at me, laughed and said ‘Ma, veramente , I simply unscrew a jar of the pesto. It is just as good and it saves a lot of time.’

I feel this is the best accolade, and I leave the final judgement to you.

vi – FREEFROM ALL’ITALIANA