Product Review: Rudi’s Gluten-Free Rosemary and Olive Oil Ciabatta Rolls

Product: Rudi’s Gluten-Free Rosemary and Olive Oil Ciabatta Rolls – $7.49+

Thank you, dearest Raisin Rack, in Columbus, Ohio.  Because ever since I heard of the debut of the Rudi’s Gluten-Free Ciabatta Rolls…I’d been wanting to try them out.  I used to get samples of their products all the time…but that has sort of stopped in the past year.  Too bad, I loved being able to try out products that take forever to make it to my area.  While Louisville, Kentucky is quite the foodie mecca, it still lags behind at times when it comes to gluten-free foods in the grocery stores.  Even the most dedicated of natural food stores around here (and we have plenty) don’t get in these products for what seems like a year from their debut.

BUT…

Apparently, Raisin Rack, up where my friend Jenn lives near Columbus, Ohio…is quite the opposite.

On a visit there awhile back…I was given the task of filling up a nice basket of products that I haven’t seen before…or have wanted to try…but are not always readily available in our area.  I took to this task with a gleam in my eye and products on the mind.  And just as my basket was full…I wandered past a freezer at the end of an aisle and glanced down to the bottom…only to see…Rudi’s Gluten-Free Ciabatta Rolls…both types: Original and Rosemary and Olive Oil.

I gave my roomie the gluten-free doe eyes of puppy dog pleading…and she relented and let me add one to the already full basket I was hauling around the store.  I opted for the Rosemary and Olive Oil variety because…um…yum!  Jenn was helping me Tetris the products so more could get in there.  HA!  Brilliant.

However, with a fantastic, local, allergen-free bakery in my city…I sometimes don’t get to bread-y things in my freezer for some time.  And can you blame me?  Well…despite a stop at the bakery this morning…tonight when I was cooking up some zucchini noodle pasta with portobello mushrooms and a garlic marinara sauce with homemade basil pesto…I figured…with the low carbness (is that a word?  It is now…) of the meal itself, I would go ahead and give the Rudi’s Gluten-Free Rosemary and Olive Oil Ciabatta Rolls a try.  Seemed like a good time to do so!

So…while Germany and Ghana draw in their World Cup match…I began making ribbons of zucchini with my mandolin slicer…chopping up huge portobello mushroom caps…and making my own vegan basil pesto with the pesto Cathy and I are growing on our balcony.  As I got the portobello mushrooms into a sauté pan to begin cooking and sweating out…I got out the Rudi’s Gluten-Free Rosemary and Olive Oil Ciabatta Rolls and plucked two from the package.  They were actually light and airy…not what I was expecting at all.  But…hell…the only other gluten-free ciabatta rolls I’ve had are Schar’s…and they are really good.

I preheated the oven to 400°F and placed the rolls on a baking sheet.  Once the oven was properly warmed…into the oven the rolls went for 10 minutes.  That gave me ample time to not only watch the end of the World Cup match, but also get the zucchini noodles in the pan with some olive oil…add the mushrooms back in…season…add the sauce…and get it all together.  They rolls finished up just as I was finishing up placing the zucchini pasta into bowls and polishing it all up with my homemade pesto.

I pulled the Rudi’s Gluten-Free Rosemary and Olive Oil Ciabatta Rolls from the oven.  They didn’t look much different from when I put them in the oven…maybe a little more golden…hard to say.  But…they smelled fantastic.  I’m a huge fan of rosemary…and so is Cathy.  We each got one roll and a bowl of my made-only-with-veggies “pasta” dish and dinner was served.

While we watched “The Supersizers Go…Seventies” we indulged in our own meal…thankful we weren’t eating the tinned and powdered rubbish the people in England ate in the Seventies.  Real food here.  With a side of one simple gluten-free roll.

The Rudi’s Gluten-Free Rosemary and Olive Oil are really…really good.  Honestly.  They may not look like much, but one bite…and you’ll be sold too.  The outside of the roll gets that nice crusty, crunchy crust on it.  But the inside…still soft and doughy and just…mmmm.  I think Cathy would normally melt some butter inside and dig in.  But we had pasta…and this sort of bread is great for sucking up the last bit of sauce.  And when your noodles are made from zucchini…you tend to have some sauce…or at least some veggies to pile on top.  The bread was amazing.  I was actually very impressed because, while rosemary is one of my favorite spices…it can overwhelm and overpower quite easily.  Not here.  They use just the right amount so that you get the flavor without it taking over your palate.  Oh, I hope we get these soon in our stores around here.  Otherwise…next time I visit Jenn in Columbus, I am taking a cooler…ice packs…and stocking up!

Ciabatta with herbs and olive oil…awesome.  And without all the hassle of making up a flour blend that works with this sort of bread and doing it myself.  LOVE IT!!

So, let’s talk ingredients.  One thing I love about Rudi’s Gluten-Free products is that they use real ingredients…no junk…no chemicals.  It holds true with their Gluten-Free Rosemary and Olive Oil Ciabatta Rolls too.  The ingredients are: water, potato extract, tapioca starch, rice flour, rice starch, evaporated cane juice (cane sugar), egg white, yeast, sea salt, xanthan gum, olive oil, rosemary, sodium bicarbonate, garlic powder, natural enzymes.

As for nutrition…I love these stats.  A serving of the Rudi’s Gluten-Free Rosemary and Olive Oil Ciabatta Rolls is one roll.  With this one roll, you will be consuming 70 calories and 0 grams of fat.  YES…FAT FREE!!  While on the subject of fat, you won’t find saturated or trans-fats in these rolls either.  LOVE.  One roll provides 170 mg sodium and 1 gram of sugar.  LOVE THIS!  Oh…and they are cholesterol free too!  Non-GMO.  And you will be taking in 1 gram of protein…but these rolls have no fiber.  So don’t make a meal out of these…they won’t leave you feeling full.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the products that Rudi’s Gluten-Free has out on the market.  It’s the sandwich bread that I purchase each week.  It’s the wraps I purchase to make tacos or the like.  And now…it’s the rolls I serve at dinner.  Because when a company cares that much about the quality of their food…it shows.  Gluten-free foods are a science, but when done correctly…they can knock your foodie socks off.

My feet are bare.

HA!

Rudi’s Gluten-Free…another stellar product!!  Thank you for making dinner rolls so delicious!