San Remo gluten-free pasta was something that I didn't know was available in the Philippines until I heard from Animetric's blog that it is for sale at Sysu Food Hub. To say that I was excited to buy some is an understatement. I have a lot of friends who are gluten intolerant and as someone who loves entertaining at home, I always feel sad when they can't enjoy the same pasta dishes that I serve to other guests. Sure, they can have other types of noodles but I've always wanted them to taste my non gluten-free pasta concoctions. 

I've been cooking my longanisa and tinapa aglio e olio pasta dish for a few years now and last weekend was the first time that my gluten-free loved ones got to taste it in all its glory. 

By the way, I bought my box of San Remo gluten-free pasta at Sysu Food Hub (blog here). You can also order online via their Shopee store because I don't think San Remo gluten-free pasta products are available in typical groceries. There carry lots of kinds of gluten-free pasta but for this aglio e olio recipe, I used thin spaghetti.

By the way, aglio e olio just means oil and garlic so it's just a fancy way to refer to pasta that's been coated with a 'sauce' made from garlic infused olive oil. The star of the dish is really the pasta and the olive oil used. 

Good thing that San Remo gluten-free pasta is the same quality as their other pasta products so I had an easy time preparing food with it. I did notice that given the small diameter of the gluten-free pasta, it took longer to cook than regular pasta and it also remained al dente longer (I took a bite of the pasta I left in the pot with the warm pasta water after half an hour and it was still a bit al dente).

You cook San Remo gluten-free pasta the same way you cook regular pasta.

I'm gonna mention La Espanola Extra Virgin Olive Oil because it is really good. It doesn't come as strong as other brands of extra virgin olive oil which I think was a good touch for this dish so you can really taste the longanisa, garlic, and tinapa more.

There is no exact recipe for my longanisa and tinapa aglio e olio. You simply saute a lot of garlic in olive oil, making sure that it does not turn golden brown and then add longanisa minus the casing plus some tinapa flakes. You may use any longanisa but I use my homemade garlic longanisa.

I hope no aglio e olio purists got offended because I added some onions. You can certainly do without onions but I have some onions that I wanted to use up, so bawal magreklamo dahil kusina ko to hahahah!

Simply eyeball the amount of longanisa and tinapa flakes. For my aglio e olio recipe, I usually use 1 longanisa and 1 tablespoon of tinapa flakes per serving of pasta (1 cup is about 1 serving). The tinapa flakes almost dissolved in the olive oil.

Of course, you already pre-cook the San Remo gluten-free pasta before adding to the sauteed tinapa flakes and longanisa. 

I like my aglio e olio to be almost like fried noodles so I usually allow it to stay in the pan until there is no more visible pasta liquid and looks like the above. You may add chili flakes upon serving or while cooking. I didn't add some in here because my guests last weekend have sensitive tummies. 

I was really surprised at how 'normal' San Remo gluten-free pasta tasted like. I can't tell it from regular pasta and my guests enjoyed my longanisa and tinapa aglio olio without having upset tummies. That made me really happy. I can't wait to shop for my new stash of San Remo gluten-free pasta so I can cook some more goodies.

If you're from the US, you can buy San Remo gluten-free pasta in most stores like Target, Costco, Walmart etc. You can also buy online at Amazon. I am from the Philippines so there is only 1 store in the entire country that carries San Remo gluten-free pasta products and it is Sysu Food Hub in Quezon City.