There are many SDMB threads about pasta. But I couldn’t find one on whether the cheaper noodles are essentially almost as good as expensive ones. I’m not talking about fancy additions like squid ink or dehydrated vegetable powder. No doubt fancier noodles may boost fibre or have more novel shapes. They say the sauce sticks better to noodles which have been shaped by bronze, and fresh pasta has its own pleasures. And maybe the two pound bag is less pretty than a demure box.
But when all is said and done, are pricier dried pasta noodles worth your pesos? Well prepared with decent sauce, could you even tell if a solid store brand was used? If you prefer the best brands, give a percentage on how much you think they are better.
Don’t know what you are asking about. Is dried pasta pricier than some other type? Never seen pre-cooked pasta being sold except in frozen meals. Fresh pasta may be much better tasting than dried but migt be made with dull flavorless flour. Fresh pasta is not pre-cooked though, it’s just not dried. Many restaurants used pre-cooked and portioned pasta, generally cooked the same day, to save time.
I’m not sure I can tell difference in quality, but my wife has trained me to buy slow-dried pasta with a rough surface. Not the cheaper, polished looking stuff which is dried at high temps. I think the theory with the rough surface is that the sauce sticks to it better.
Yes, they say noodles shaped using bronze implements make sauce stick better. But if the alternative is just some other type of metal, that might be third place reasoning? Once it is shaped, it is shaped.
I have a lot of brands in my house. I don’t know if it’s just outright wanton preferential orientation when it comes to whether wanting cheap or expensive pasta matters or not but I think it could be such that it doesn’t really matter.
The other day I noticed that low fat powdered parmesan was cheaper than normal. I was like I’m not going to just get low fat and get myself into that rodeo. I bought the normal one at a dollar more. I don’t know if the low-fat was on discount but I could have been falling into a situation where I was choosing something that’s a path of least resistance for me as far as allowing myself to say that the situation is good enough for me.
I do think that low fat powdered parmesan could have been trolling my buster-ass.
There are 3 main factors for why more expensive dried pasta is better than the cheap stuff. Some of this has already been covered:
Cheap pasta is very smooth because it’s extruded with Teflon dies, vs. more expensive pasta, which has a rougher surface from bronze dies. This means sauce will stick better.
Cheap pasta is quick-dried at high temperatures. This negatively affects the protein structure of the pasta, resulting in pasta with an inferior texture that gets mushy in sauce more quickly.
Cheap pasta may be made with a lesser quality flour than expensive.
I have never noticed any difference although I doubt I have purchased the more expensive brands. The one exception is the angel hair from Dollar General. It is too soft compared to any other brand. After 10 minutes it is a stuck together mess.
How do you tell the “rough” slow dried pastas? Is it obvious? Any brand names to keep in mind?
Tangent - There used be be a pasta store near where I used to live. Fresh pasta cut right in front of you. Different kinds, different flavors. You took it home and cooked it. It was wonderful.
I will make my own. I love fresh. But my wife doesn’t care one way or another. So, since it’s a bit of work, I don’t do it that often.
TIL from this thread that “rough” dried pasta is advantageous. The pasta I most frequently use is Barilla spaghettini. It’s not something I’d rank as especially high quality but it’s a decent product – the key is always the sauce, and also getting the cook time just right for al dente, which is why I always buy the same brand once I’ve got the cook time down pat. If someone has a brand recommendation for a high quality spaghetti/spaghettini, I’d be willing to give it a try. If my local supermarket doesn’t have it, I’m sure Pusateri’s has all kinds (a reference that anyone in the GTA will understand; it’s the equivalent of Fauchon in Paris).
The only fresh pasta I currently buy is imported Italian ravioli. For noodle-type pastas, I find that the dried stuff produces a better al dente texture.
I think it depends on what you want out of your pasta. There’s certainly nothing wrong with a decent store brand, but I like my pasta to be thick and toothsome, and the better brands tend to suit those desires.
Sfoglini and DeLallo are my personal favorites. And I’ll take the DeLallo Jumbo Shell pasta for making stuffed shells over almost any other brand. They hold together really well and are easier to work with. Cheap jumbo shells just suck.
Who cooks angel hair pasta for 10 minutes, though? That should take 5 minutes, tops. And it does need to be stirred almost constantly during that time.
I’ve cut way back on the amount of pasta I eat (in an effort to avoid the carbs) but when I did, I bought Barilla or another name brand. As I remember, a one-pound box of Barilla spaghetti was about a buck, and that could make dinner for me for multiple evenings, so it was never a problem. I’ve also bought the “fresh” pasta in the refrigerated section, though usually that was tortellini.
And edited to add, I just checked the website for my local supermarket; a pound of Barilla spaghetti is $2.50, so not likely to break the bank.
I don’t have an answer for the OP, but for what I tend to use pasta for these days, I doubt it much matters. My pasta consumption is pretty much limited to either a super-cheesy baked mac 'n cheese, so well seasoned with black pepper and/or other additions that the noodles are almost an afterthought, or a pasta salad with a very flavorful dressing.
In the latter case, I find it best to slightly undercook the pasta and then add about half the dressing (usually some mixture of sour cream, pesto, mayonnaise, and/or vinegar-and-oil mix) and let it sit overnight - the pasta then absorbs a lot of the dressing. The next day I add the rest of the dressing and whatever vegetable/protein/condiment lumps I want. For a method like that, I think the pasta shape probably matters more than whether it was an el cheapo brand or something more expensive.
The thing about store brands is they are usually made by the same companies as the more premium ones. That might not always be true, and it doesn’t necessarily mean they are made of the same quality flour.
I doubt that a piece of any common metal used to cut the pasta is all that expensive. They aren’t using diamonds. So I think when the sauce isn’t sticking to the pasta, it’s mainly the shape. I’ve never seen an anti-magnetic reaction where the sauce just goes into a ball and refuses to play. And thought the ends are all ragged, the pieces all look different and the sauce ain’t stickin’…they must have used Teflon.
Maybe noodles are cheap enough it doesn’t matter. But grocery prices can sometimes shock these days. I know a couple places that make and sell fresh pasta. I think the texture is nicer but not dramatically so. The taste still depends on the sauce. And I like meaty sauces which do not befit every noodle. Store brands means fewer options.
As to the actual question IMO the fancy dried stuff is significantly better than the worst of the discount store brands, but not materially better than mainstream brands.
The finish smoothness vs sauce adherence is an actual difference. But depending on your sauce and shape may be all but imperceptible.
In any case pasta is so close to free that splurging even unnecessarily isn’t going to matter.
Bronze cut pasta seems to make a difference to me. So does coarse semolina.
There are premium store brands as well. 365 Organic pasta from Whole Foods is both bronze extruded and made with coarse semolina. Prince is not. I think I can easily tell the difference both in the tendency to get mushy in a very small interval of cooking time variation and from an ability to hold sauce.
But maybe it’s all in my head. Very well could be.
