Warning! I know just enough about nutrition to be dangerous& Here goes anyway.
Sounds like you needed sugar, not carbs from the pasta, at least in the short term. When I finish a hard ride, I reach for protein, some fat (not a dirty word), and a little sugar. The protein allows you to rebuild your damaged muscles before your next ride, the fat quickly refills your tank since you are almost certainly running at a calorie deficit, and the sugar gives you a quick burst like, well, sugar.
There are plenty of fancy and expensive sports drinks/foods that provide all this, but dairy works as well as any, and better than most. Try grabbing some chocolate milk, fruit yogurt, or ice cream after your ride. This is why Dairy Queen is so popular among touring cyclists, even if they never thought of it as recovery food.
In my very poor understanding of nutrition, sports drinks serve a few purposes. First, they are should taste good so that they entice you to drink a sufficient amount of water. Next they deliver sugar to give you quick energy. The arguments between the types of sugar, be they dextrose, sucrose, fructose, or whatever go way over my head, but their primary goal is the same. The final benefit of sports drinks is salt. How much salt you need varies from person to person, but cramping is usually a sign that you are running low on salt.
For most people, standard Gatorade works as well as any of the fancier sports drinks, as can the powdered lemonade or tea mixes, or even Tang. Some other, more natural choices include diluted fruit juice or honey.
Sean