Who doesn’t love a delicious pasta recipe? Rich tomatoes, herby sauce or something light and lemony; all these pasta flavors might seem out of reach if you’re committed to the keto diet. But there’s no need to put those pasta cravings away completely. Our best keto pasta recipe means you can combine your Italian cravings without breaking your diet.
What Is the Keto Diet?
The Keto Diet is a popular trend. The idea is to encourage your body to enter a phase of ketosis, where you use ketones as an energy source by breaking down fat instead of burning carbohydrates. This occurs by eating food low in carbohydrates, to encourage the body to switch to using its own fat reserves naturally.
By definition, the keto diet is low carb. This means saying goodbye to bread, potatoes, and of course, pasta.
Benefits of Keto Foods
Keto foods include:
- Shellfish
- Salmon
- Tuna
- Avocado
- Eggs
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Meat like chicken, beef and pork
- Bacon and sausage as long as they’re not sweet-cured as sugar spoils the keto diet
- Oils like olive oil and coconut oil
- Unsweetened full-fat dairy items like cheese
- Leafy green vegetables
You can see from this list that it’s easy to have a balanced and nutritious diet while on the Keto plan. There’s many proteins here, plus vitamins, minerals, and also beneficial fatty acids. Benefits of eating these foods may include:
- Lower or better-regulated blood sugar
- More balanced energy levels
- May help lower blood pressure
- Can help with cardiovascular problems
- Weight loss
Keto Pasta vs. Regular Pasta
Regular pasta is a global staple. It comes in all shapes and sizes, from twisty fusilli to straight and narrow ziti. Good quality, Italian pasta is made from durum wheat dough. Cheaper pasta may have cheaper grains mixed in with the durum wheat. Either way, pasta is incredibly high in carbs, with just one cup of cooked spaghetti containing 40 grams of carbohydrates.
A keto pasta dough recipe has to find a way to create the same look and feel as regular pasta while reducing that carbohydrate number. Some keto fans have decided to forego the dough entirely, opting for vegetable alternatives such as “zoodles”; twisty spirals of zucchini in place of traditional noodles. Low carb doughs may be made out of nut flour, eggs, or glucomannan, a fiber that comes from the konjac root.
Egg pasta should be treated with caution as it may still have high amounts of wheat or other grain flour in the recipe. Always check the label. Our recipe utilizes a type of noodle that, even if you can’t find it in the store, is easy enough to make at home with the right sort of equipment.
Keto Pasta Recipe: Bolognese Bake
There are many top keto-friendly pasta recipes out there, but we’ve chosen Bolognese, as it’s such a family favorite. Plenty of meat, rich sauce, and veggies melt together to produce the ultimate comfort food. This recipe uses “zoodles,” but you could easily substitute your own version of keto pasta such as spaghetti squash or maybe an almond flour noodle.
Variations of Keto Pasta
As long as you’re avoiding wheat and rice-based pasta, you should be able to keep your pasta cravings low carb and keto-friendly. Here are some of the different versions of keto pasta you might want to try on your keto journey:
- Palmini pasta made from “heart of palm,” naturally low in carbs
- Almond Flour Pasta
- “Spaghetti” noodles made from spaghetti squash or zucchini
- Substitute lasagna sheets with eggplant, zucchini or even turkey slices
- Psyllium husk pasta- you can buy the powder and make it yourself at home
- Shirataki noodles, a Japanese, low-carb option
- Kelp noodles made from edible seaweed, very high in nutrients
Hopefully, you’ll be all fired up for your next keto Italian meal- perfect for date night. It’s true– You can have your pasta, and eat it too.
The takeaway of the article: The keto diet is low carb and may promote weight loss and other health benefits. Regular pasta is not keto-friendly, but there are plenty of keto pasta options available. Try our Keto Pasta Bolognese and bring some Italian flair back into your dinner time.
