When "Pasta" is just not pasta

For many years now, I've tried to find suitable substitutes for real Italian pasta. Not because I personally wanted to eat it, but because the ever increasing population of diabetics and those who are looking to reduce the "white" products (i.e. flour, sugar, white rice, bread, etc) from their diets. I truly don't mind being a guinea pig to try new products since I like to have personal knowledge of the product before I go and feed it to clients or friends and family.

I thought I would share my findings thus far:

Whole Wheat Pasta - any brand. I can't eat it with marinara sauce. I can barely eat it right after it's cooked. It's too "gummy" for my taste. I really love my pasta "al dente" which is practically impossible to do with whole wheat pasta products. However, I do find that if you use whole grain pasta in a baked pasta dish or even a liquidy cold salad, it stands up nicely.

Dreamfield's - this pasta product has more protein and less carbs than traditional pasta products. And, it cooks up almost like the real thing. This pasta can be served with red sauce or any other favorite pasta sauce and there is no noticeable conflict in taste as there is with whole wheat pastas. I am a big fan of this product that is sometimes hard to find in all the different shapes. They only make a few kinds.

Barilla Plus - this pasta is up there with Dreamfield's as far as having more protein (from bean flour) and that it cooks almost like the real thing. So when you can't find one, you can substitute the other.

Food for Life Ezekial 4:9 Whole Grain Pasta Penne - this IS NOT PASTA. It's really dense, gummy, and chewy. The taste is so strong you can't drown it out with any type of sauce. I ate it because it's "good for me"...but it was not pleasant. I don't recommend this product at all. However, I absolutely LOVE Ezekial bread, toasted with nut butter and homemade strawberry jam. I suppose if you could toast the pasta, it might taste better?!

Rice noodles - no particular brand. Only a good, in my opinion, for asian dishes. Rice "pasta" is very hard to keep "al dente" and have it taste good.

So this is where I am so far. If you know of another product brand I should try, please comment on this post. I will keep posting the results as they come in.