Quinoa Linguine

As I think I've mentioned, I'm making an effort to eat everything in my pantry before I move out of my apartment at the end of the month.  I've used up all the easy ingredients:  cous cous, premade sauces, spaghetti, etc., which leaves me with some oddballs.

Earlier this summer I found quinoa pastas at Whole Foods; I really love quinoa as a grain, so I thought I'd give it a shot (it is a super food, after all), leaving the store with rotini and linguine. 

The rotini was decidedly not good.  Kind of grainy, the way bad whole wheat pasta is, but worse.  Needless to say, the linguine was sentenced to the back of the pantry and not thought of again.  Until today.  When I didn't have any more normal pasta.

Throwing caution to the wind, I boiled the "pasta," which I tossed with some more pantry staples:  sauteed canned artichoke hearts, cannellini beans, pesto, leftover tapenade, and some cherry tomatoes I picked up at the grocery store.  Tossed it all together and topped it off with some grated parmesan.

And... it wasn't bad.  Really not bad, almost borderline good.  I would never compare it to fresh pasta or good-quality dried, but it was certainly better than some of the whole wheat pastas I've had.  I think the difference is that this variety is made with a corn and quinoa flour blend, where the rotini may have been strictly quinoa.  I'm not sure that I'll "never god back to 'plain' noodles again," as the package says, but I just may be a repeat customer, if I'm feeling carb-guilty.

Chalk up another one for health food overcoming the odds.