As part of a recent cooking demo, I decided I would do a taste test of of the so-called ‘better for you pastas’. Now in all honesty, I do not believe that pasta, or carbohydrates in general, is what is making Americans fat, so it is hard for me to sit around and berate pasta as the end-all enemy. However, people do eat far to much pasta far to often and so one can speculate that they are consuming a huge number of calories which aren’t nutrient dense, and that this is where the problem truly lies. Never fear Americans, our savvy Capitalist companies have found the answer with value added pastas. Now of course it depends on what you are looking for; high fiber, high protein, high vitamins, whole wheat taste, whole wheat without the whole taste - the options seem endless, so we put 3 different kinds to the test: Barilla Plus, Ronzoni Smart Taste, Barilla White Fiber. Experiment Disclaimer: I bought each brand in a different shape so it was easy for me to identify what was being taste tested – there may be people in the tasting pool who are discriminatory towards certain shapes.
About 3/5 of the audience liked the Barilla Plus (yellow box) the best. They commented that it had a nice texture and wasn’t overly ‘wheaty’ or ‘grainy’ but that it did have a slightly different taste from regular pasta which wouldn’t compromise the taste of sauces.
The rest of the audience liked the Ronzoni Smart Taste (which is my favorite of the 3 as well). It is the same color and texture as regular pasta, though it can be overcooked more easily then regular pasta can be. The people who did not like the Smart Taste, said that it was to soft, thus they must be true aldente pasta lovers!
No one (except 1 staff member) liked the Barilla White Fiber. They found to soft, mushy, and without texture. The White Fiber is the newest of the three products and it definitely has some tweaking to go before it becomes a consumer favorite. It easily breaks down in the pot and in your mouth, probably because the added fiber makes the shape of the pasta very delicate once it has started absorbing water, and the nature of granulated fiber (think Metamucil) is to absorb water and dissolve - not something that is super sexy for pasta.
What’s the moral of my story? If you are going to eat pasta less then 1x/week and not a lot of it, just buy the regular/real stuff. If you are concerned that you will go overkill with your portions, buy the fresh pasta, it is a little denser and people tend to eat a smaller portion of it because it sits heavier in the stomach.
Happy Cheesing!
thpt
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