Zizzi, Cambridge

My first taste of gluten-free pasta (not cooked by myself at home) happened at Zizzi in Cambridge as part of my friend's hen weekend. Zizzi is a large chain of Italian restaurants which you will find all over the UK and the great thing about them is they have their own allergen menu's.

They offer a vegetarian, nut free, gluten-free, vegan, soya free, alcohol free, fish free, egg free, and dairy free menu, all separate from the regular main menu - that's quite an impressive list of dietary requirements if you ask me!

I was keen to try their gluten-free pasta dishes as I have found it quite difficult to master the art of pasta cooking at home myself. I've noticed with gluten-free pasta if you overcook it even just by a few seconds sometimes you end up with a sticky mess of pasta all congealed together. Not good! Timing is definitely key.

If you ask for the allergen menu you will soon find the gluten-free section clearly labelled and it's easy to navigate your way down the list. Plus there is actually quite a lot of choice if you love Italian food. Zizzi very helpfully list all their pasta sauces from the main menu that are gluten-free which can all be served with gluten-free fusilli. They also do gluten-free pizza bases which I would love to try next time.

You can view their entire allergen menu online here

I went for the pesto rosso which was a spicy chicken dish with red pesto. Sadly when my pasta arrived it was a little bit undercooked but I blame this on the fact that it was a busy Saturday night and we were part of a hen party of 21 people! The staff were rushing around like mad things trying to get all our meals out at the same time and to be fair they didn't do a bad job. That said, I enjoyed the meal and the sauce was lovely and rich, full of flavour and it tasted pretty authentically Italian too.

So rather than being overcooked my pasta was undercooked which surprised me a little but I would definitely go back again on a quieter night and probably order the same thing to give Zizzi a second chance. Top marks to Zizzi for their allergen menu though!