You know the shirataki, and in general the konjac pasta that you can now also find in supermarkets , the one with zero calories?

Well, it is true that you eat a dish whose only calories are those of the seasoning, but as I wrote here too , shirataki and other konjac-based products that are so fashionable have two defects: the first, which are gelatinous, and basically tasteless, so you have to know how to season them to get something that vaguely resembles Chinese soy noodles; the second, which being made entirely of konjac or glucomannan, can be indigestible to many , so frequent use is not recommended.

Two limits for a product that, among other things, is different from pasta, it is quite another thing. Starting from these limits, a group of Italian pasta makers has created a new type of pasta , the “functional” pasta La Zero. Pasta with 69 calories (per 100 gr. Of rehydrated product), which cooks exactly like normal pasta, but which has less than a third (almost a quarter) of its calories and which is much more similar to traditional pasta than shirataki. It is not gelatinous despite having konjac flour, on the contrary it is rough in consistency and even chewing it has greater taste . And although it is obviously different from traditional pasta, it is a food that meets the tastes of us Italians much more than shirataki.

It is called La Zero , and in these days I have been able to try it in the following formats: rigatoni, cous cous and linguine. The samples were provided to me by the company as a gift but I waited a few days to write this product review because I ate them for 3 days in a row, in order to make sure they didn’t give me the same problems as konjac-only pasta: that is bloating, constipation and other digestive problems. In the article you will find a photo taken from the blog A cat in the kitchen. 
The result? In three days of this pasta I have not encountered the same problems I had with shirataki.I explain it with the fact that La Zero pasta does not only use Konjac flour, but also vegetable fibers and amaranth flour or rice flour: these fibers are called “functional” because they are soluble and useful for nourishing the intestinal bacterial flora and reducing blood sugar.

Amaranth is a pseudo-cereal (or false cereal), considered a superfood, because it does not contain gluten and is rich in potassium, ideal for fighting water retention and perfect in slimming diets. Rice is great for flattening the belly and is also gluten-free.