Highlighting the local chefs, restaurants, and businesses that rock.
Picture this: It’s a Friday night and you find yourself cooking a gourmet-style meal to impress your friends and loved ones. You set your ingredients on your counter to prepare your extravagant and delicious dish: salt for boiling your water, olive oil or butter, and a package of Gourmet Texas Pasta from Round Rock, Texas. That’s it.
Gourmet Texas Pasta is creating pasta so flavorful that all you need to do is boil the noodles and toss them in olive oil or butter. Whether you are stopping by their shop in Round Rock or picking up a flavor to try at your local Whole Foods, you will soon find out why this spot rocks!
Endless Pastabilities
From selling designer dresses to working on a farm, Courtney Heitmann, owner of Gourmet Texas Pasta, has a story of endless pastabilities.
Before making one-of-a-kind pasta, Courtney started her career out in the fashion world, “It’s kind of a funny story I will try to give you the short version! I moved to Texas 10 years ago, I was working in fashion and I convinced the owner of the company to let me work from home. I asked for a raise and they said no, so I spurted out, I want to move to Texas.”
Courtney and her sister moved to the Lone Star State, and she continued working for the upscale clothing line. Not long after, she decided to quit and was faced with a crossroads of sorts. Heitmann asked herself, “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?” Little did she know that the journey she was about to embark on would lead her to Gourmet Texas Pasta.
Her sister had found a job on a farm and a door of opportunity opened for Courtney to work there as well, “At the time my sister was working on a farm, and she told me they needed an extra hand. I went to help out, and one of the local farmers told me about this pasta company that was hiring. I introduced myself to the previous owner’s wife at the time. She said, ‘Go into the kitchen to see if it’s something you enjoy doing.’ Sure enough, I came in here and I thought wow I didn’t know anything like this even existed. It was so cool.”
Working in fashion to working in food manufacturing may seem like a big leap, but not for Courtney.
Every holiday season, Courtney would join her Mom in the kitchen to help whip up impressive cuisine for family and dishes for dinner parties. Ultimately, her love for cooking and eating delicious food landed her exactly where she was supposed to be.
For the next 6+ months, Courtney worked for Gourmet Texas Pasta before deciding to purchase the company and make pasta full-time, “I started mixing, I started creating new flavors, I started selling at farmers markets, and I ended up buying the company.”
Toss The Sauce
Two of the many reasons that Gourmet Texas Pasta rocks is the fact that the pasta is vegan, and packed full of flavor.
The exclusion of eggs is what gives Gourmet Texas Pasta the vegan stamp of approval, “We don’t make your traditional pasta. We don’t use eggs in it, so it’s not like you see us put a bunch of egg yolks in the middle of the flour and beat it together.”
To replace the eggs, locally sourced vegetables and herbs are used to bind the pasta together. The end result is a pasta packed full of flavor. In fact, this pasta is so flavorful that Gourmet Texas Pasta proudly embraces their motto, “Toss The Sauce.”
Let the flavor of the noodles be the star of the show and do all the talking for your tastebuds!
All you have to do is:
1. Salt the water
2. Boil the water, add the pasta, and let the pasta absorb the salt to bring out the flavor
3. Toss the pasta in olive oil or butter
And as Courtney would say, “Viola! It’s a done deal. It’s the easiest, most delicious dinner you will ever have.”
Pasta lovers and health food fanatics will be happy to know that not only is the pasta flavorful, but it’s also nutritious. Gourmet Texas Pasta uses Non-GMO 100% Durum Whole Wheat Flour providing you with 10 grams of protein in every serving. The vegetables and herbs used are sourced from local farms and local spice companies, and give you 8 grams of fiber in every serving as well.
Perhaps you are reading this and thinking, “would be nice to try but I am gluten-free.” No problem! Gourmet Texas Pasta has not forgotten about their celiac and gluten-free customers and offers 12 gluten-free flavors. Don’t worry, the noodles won’t fall apart or turn mushy like other gluten-free pastas you may have tried.
Having pasta every night of the week doesn’t sound so bad after all!
Find Your Pasta Flavor
With flavors ranging from pizza to wild mushroom and even cajun, you might be wondering what flavor you should try. We asked Courtney herself and here are the top three flavors she recommends:
1. Artichoke Heart Linguine: Courtney’s absolute favorite. Toss it in butter and sprinkle it with a little bit of parmesan cheese.
2. Roasted Garlic & Jalapeno Shells: Perfect for those who love a good mac and cheese.
3. Garlic Lemon Pepper: Tastes like a scampi sauce. Make a delicious vegan scampi, or if you do eat meat or shellfish, Courtney suggests adding shrimp to make a shrimp scampi.
Bonus flavor: Garlic Lemon Pepper.
Most unique flavor: The Chocolate Dessert Linguine is “probably our most interesting flavor and your kid’s favorite” according to Courtney. Eat it for dinner or dessert, whichever you prefer. Enjoy with a dollop of ice cream, sprinkles, salted caramel sauce, or any other sweet topping you have on hand. For a savory twist, pair it with a mole sauce.
Grab A Box, Or Two
After you serve up a plate of Gourmet Texas Pasta for your dinner party guests, we are certain they will be asking where they can purchase a box themselves. You can find Gourmet Texas Pasta in all 36 Texas Whole Foods locations, seasonal flavors like Hatch Green Chili in Central Market, specialty stores, farmers markets, and online.
For a truly unique experience, stop by Gourmet Texas Pasta in Round Rock and purchase straight from Courtney’s kitchen. You can even go on a tour to see how the pasta is made from start to finish at this spot that absolutely rocks!
Check out additional spots that rock in Round Rock like Palermo Pasta House, and Rock N Grill Authentic Indian Cuisine.
all photos courtesy of: Gourmet Texas Pasta