Pagoda-Shaped Quinoa Pasta, Japanese Rice Bran Oil

In recent years, quinoa has become a staple in health food stores because of its nutritional value. It’s a high-protein grain grown in the Andes and introduced to the United States by a Torrance-based American company, the Quinoa Corp. Now, besides selling the nutty grain in its pure form, the company is selling a number of products made with quinoa. One of the most interesting is the wheat-less Ancient Harvest Supergrain Quinoa Pasta. This is especially good for those who avoid pasta because they are allergic to gluten.

The Quinoa Corp. makes four wheat-free pasta varieties: elbows, shells, rotelle and garden pagodas. (The tricolor pagodas look uncannily like those Oriental structures.)

Three other pastas--spaghetti, rotini and flats (fine flat noodles cut into short lengths)--are made with a combination of whole-wheat flour and quinoa. This blend produces pasta that Quinoa Corp. president David F. Schnorr says is “not as creamy and smooth as some of the gourmet pastas. But it has all the nutrition and more.”

The containers are printed with cooking times and recipes tailored to each type of pasta. With the shells, blue cheese and almonds are recommended; an Italian sausage salad is suggested for the rotelle .

The quinoa pastas, as well as whole-grain quinoa and quinoa flour, are available at Quinn’s and other natural-foods stores.

OIL FROM JAPAN: Rice grown in the south of Japan is hulled and stripped of its bran coating, then pressed to extract oil. The Japanese have used this rice bran oil for decades, often without knowing that it comes from rice because the label merely says “salad oil” or “cooking oil.” Now Select Origins Inc., of Yaphank, N.Y., is bottling and distributing the Japanese-made oil in the United States.

There are many advantages to rice bran oil: It is virtually flavorless, it keeps almost indefinitely, and it has a high smoke point, which makes it excellent for deep-frying and stir-frying. The disadvantage is that it costs more than other oils. A 12.5-ounce bottle was $2.49 at a Pavilions market and $2.99 at Gelson’s. However, the product turned up at a 99 Cent store for . . . 99 cents.

Select Origins ships the oil to markets in plastic bottles holding 5, 12.5 or 25 ounces. A gallon size is available by mail order; call the company at (800) 822-2092.