THE QUICK PANTRY
PASTA
Pasta is cheap, it cooks quickly, and it’s endlessly versatile, so it’s no wonder that busy cooks find themselves reaching for pasta for a quick dinner. But the array of choices you’ll find at the supermarket is dizzying. Here’s a guide to the brands that have won our tastings.
IN THIS SECTION:
SPAGHETTI
It addition to pairing nicely with our pestos and other fast sauces, a box of spaghetti, plus a few ingredients, can mean dinner in a hurry—think Spaghetti with Lemon, Basil, and Shrimp or Lemon-Pepper Spaghetti with Tuna. Our favorite brand of spaghetti is De Cecco Spaghetti No. 12. This Italian import boasts rich, nutty, and wheaty strands that have a firm bite and offer “good chew.”
MACARONI
We press elbow macaroni into service for lots of quick dinners, from Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta Bake to Skillet Baked Macaroni and Cheese. Our preferred brand is Barilla, which is an Italian brand that makes pasta for the American market domestically. Our tasters praised these elbows for their “wheaty,” “buttery” flavor and “firm texture.” Their ridged surface and slight twist were big hits with our tasters and ensured this pasta held onto sauce well.
PENNE
We like to pair penne with chunky sauces or use it in casseroles. We sampled a number of imported brands, which boasted traditional techniques and ingredients, such as slow kneading, mixing cold mountain spring water with hard durum semolina, and extruding the dough through traditional bronze dies. But in the end our top-ranked penne was a domestic brand. Mueller’s Penne Rigate was praised by tasters for having a “hearty,” “wheaty” flavor and “good texture.”
NO-BOIL LASAGNA NOODLES
These convenient noodles put lasagna within reach on busy weeknights, which is why you’ll find three easy lasagna recipes in this book. The most common no-boil noodle is a rectangle, measuring 7 inches long and 3½ inches wide; three noodles fit perfectly in a 13 by 9-inch pan, and two noodles fit nicely in an 8-inch pan. Our top-rated brand is Barilla No-Boil Lasagne; these delicate, flat noodles closely resemble fresh pasta in texture.
RAVIOLI AND TORTELLINI
Though nothing compares with homemade, we’ve found a few brands of ravioli and tortellini that offer great cheesy flavor and a tender texture. While they can be simply dressed with a quick tomato sauce, we also use these pastas in speedy one-pot suppers, soups, and more. (Click here.) Our favorite brand of frozen ravioli is Rosetto Cheese Ravioli, left; for fresh ravioli, which are essential for recipes where the pasta cooks in the sauce, we like Buitoni Four Cheese Ravioli, center. For tortellini, we like Barilla Three Cheese Tortellini, right.
WHOLE-WHEAT SPAGHETTI
We’ve tried many whole-wheat or multigrain spaghettis that had a mushy texture and tasted like cardboard. However, we found one brand that offered both a firm texture and good flavor. Bionaturae Organic 100% Whole Wheat Spaghetti was praised for its “earthy,” “nutty” flavor and “pleasantly chewy” texture. It’s custom-milled for good flavor, extruded through a bronze, not Teflon, die to build gluten in the dough, and slowly dried for complex flavor and a sturdy texture.
