is it me, or have (dried) pasta prices gone crazy?
DW is pining for stuffed shells - jumbo size, ricotta . . .etc
not brand has jumbo shells on the shelf - multiple markets checked . . .
Amazon and Walmart - basically $4 per pound…
anyone else noticed unusual ‘shortages’ of (dried) pastas?
several weeks back there were no elbows to be had - none, no brand, no generic, not available . . .
I’ve not noticed any unusually high prices or shortages, but Aldi’s had some of my favorites available lately: bucatini, fettucce, linguini, conchiglie & rigatoni - all their house brand, Priano. Bronze cut & made in Italy - no complaints. No elbows, however.
I live in Los Angeles, CA. I haven’t noticed shortages of shapes of dried pasta nor have I noticed price increases.
For the longest time, I always knew that good price on Barilla pasta (spaghetti, fettucini, elbows) was $.99 for a 1 lb box. ‘Normal’ retail price was about $1.25-$1.50
Now, if I see it aroud for under $1.50, I’ll consider picking some up. And prices have become much more volitile. I’ve seen it go from over $2/lb and down to (rarely) $.99 again. IF you can even find the particular shape you want. There were several weeks where, for whatever reason, I could only find ‘thin spaghetti - No 3’ rather than 'spaghetti - No 5). Other weeks, no elbows. Then they return.
This is in Sacramento, fwiw. And occasionally, different stores will seem to get mutually exclusive shipments. i.e. I can only find elbows at Target, but Save Mart has spaghetti, and for some reason only Safeway has the small shells.
I have a pasta machine. I have a couple of bags of 00 pasta flour and a couple of semolina. I can make it with just water instead of eggs if I have to.
This is the extent of my doomsday prepping.
Up here most Barilla pastas are $2/lb. But jumbo shells are $3.50 for 12 ounces.
The only time I’ve seen Barilla for that low of a price was in the aftermath of their CEO’s idiotic, homophobic remarks.
I was astounded to see top imports at $6.99-7.99 a pound recently at my corner carriage trade super. But delighted to liberate several pounds of Rao’s in several shapes at $2. a pound at a country discount store.
I havent noticed any pasta shortages in the UK but I read reports that the price has increased by 32% over the last 12 months.
I forgot about this. Whoops.
Is this true for many wheat/flour product too?
That is a long time ago. I remember reading it on Chowhound. Not sure about pasta, but I have definitely seen price increase for ramen (I don’t mean instant noodle)
There was def a rise in prices after the invasion of Ukraine.
Right that is definitely correct, but I guess I am not sure if the pasta price increases (people talking about) is due to that, or if there is a bigger jump than flour increases.
It’s only been a bit over a year. Not sure why prices would’ve come down.
That article is from 2013. Here’s the latest.
And as much as I try to be a conscientious consumer, I’m positive that I purchase items from companies who are headed by jerks (eg, I still drive a gas-fueled car so I’m dependent on slimy oil companies).
The way to deal with that is to buy stock in them. I own stock in most of the majors and they pay a nice dividend. Me and Warren like ‘em. After many years of following the markets, I have found a sure fire way to under perform is to make investments based on how you want things to be rather than understanding how people behave differently than what they say they want.
I wasn’t commenting on Barilla’s present attitude toward the LGBT community.
All I was saying is that the price of Barilla pasta was low for quite some time after their idiotic CEO made his homophobic remarks.
I have never been impressed with Barilla pasta so I’ve always bought other brands.
Barilla is (or at least, has been) the cheapest version of half-decent ‘commodity’ pasta. It’s teflon die, and they use fast drying (you can tell by the darker yellow color), but for weeknight sauce-from-a-jar dinner, it’s just fine, and it’s CONSISTENT. I cook any given shape for some time, and it’s the same, every time. If I ‘downgrade’ to store-brand pasta, I get less consistency, and I find that the window between “still raw in the middle” and “turning to mush” is much shorter. On the other hand, upgrading to De Cecco (which is often promoted as the next step up) was a not insignificant price increase for what I didn’t believe was a commensurate increase in product quality. Or rather, not enough that I could notice, in the way I was using it. That might be different if I was regularly cooking fresh meats or veggies in an oil/butter sauce where I was carefully emulsifying things with the pasta water and such. But I’m often as not throwing on some butter and some cheese from a green plastic can and calling it a day.
Is De Cecco better? Yeah. Rao’s is good too. But not so much better as to justify the premium cost.
I mostly buy Anna and Riscossa brand pastas.
I buy De Cecco for lasagna and for the Cook’s Illustrated recipe for Spaghetti all’assassina. Cook’s Illustrated states in the recipe that they developed it using De Cecco #12 spaghetti so they can’t guarantee the results with other pasta.
Me too. Mrs H used to work for Shell and the generosity of its pension scheme maintains our lifestyle.
