I grew up with San Giorgio because that is what the commissary had. My wife prefers Barilla. The Sam’s Club house brand Member’s Mark (?) is fine.
I really like Walmart’s own brand imported from Italy. Stupid cheap but excellent quality. The kind of rough surface that holds the sauce.
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Bronze die-cut pasta is my thing also because of how its coarseness allows sauce to adhere. I also look for durum semolina (wheat) and water (if mentioned) as the ingredients. Plus eggs when I’m buying an egg noodle pasta. Nothing else.
More than 99% of the time I have had good luck when sticking to that formula. Even when I pick up an Italian brand I have never heard of, at a cheap price. A recent exception is a bag of Alessi organic spaghetti alla chitarra that I don’t love and won’t buy again.
- Everyday: Either random Italian brands that meet the specs above. Garofolo—their spaghetti is a fave. Barilla as a solid and widely available supermarket choice. Now and then I find a store-label brand that I find perfectly agreeable and cheaper than Barilla.
Here I haven’t run across the Rummo brand
that @naf mentions. I’d like to try it if I do because the perfect texture in spaghetti is one of life’s quiet joys.
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Fancy: When I want egg pasta or decide that my recipe warrants a splurge on a cool shape, I’m a fan of Rustichella d’Abruzzo.
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Whole wheat: I have had good luck with Trader Joe’s. Barilla’s is a decent second. Whole wheat spaghetti usually goes from al dente to disintegrated in the blink of an eye when I’m cooking. These brands have worked best.
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Thanks for the many replies. I don’t believe I’ve seen the brands mentioned in addition to Barilla except De Cecco which is consistently more $$. But I will look around, and I like the flour/water rule of thumb. I bought a fancy bag once, from a local Italian restaurant that does exclusively pasta. But it cost $9 or 10, so naturally I haven’t used it - just sitting in my pantry… I forgot the Italian name, but it translates to cock’s combs. Very pretty.
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Creste di gallo! This past winter we were loving that sturdy shape paired with various chunky sauces.
Ours was a random brand from Italy whose name I do not remember.
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I was completely unaware of that Walmart pasta. I’ll have to give it a try.
It is frequently in short stock. Worth looking for.
It’s been a while since I’ve sought out pasta, ad I’ve avoided that aisle often strung the pandemic. I vaguely recall seeing orechiette either from Barilla or Prince., but more often I’m picking up a pack here or there at my discount store. They often have DeCecco or some other imported Italian that i don’t readily find.
Picked up some spaghetti, penne, trompetti, and fusilli today. Really inexpensive. Thanks for the heads up.
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I recall some opposition to the bowtie pasta shape but it gave some body to this fresh corn salad earlier today
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That looks like fun. I’ve been watching episodes of Pasta Grannies on YouTube and am hooked.
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Grannies on YT is fun! The pasta doc is 8 mini episodes about 10 mins each.
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I see that Shoprite has just introduced a new shape of pasta: “Pot-Ready Spaghetti”. This is just spaghetti at half the usual length. This will let people cook spaghetti in smaller pots with less water, although they could get the same effect by just breaking the spaghetti in half, which is why to my mind this is more “cabinet-ready” than “pot-ready”–the box is a lot closer in shape to other pastas.
(Apparently Kroger and other stores have this as well, but this was the first time I had seen it.)
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I do eat several types but only like 2: linguine and bucatini. Must be dried, don’t like texture of fresh pasta.
Bucatini with sepia ink from the other day
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With pureed sweetcorn sauce and cheese
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Runner-up is home-made pici. It’s a bit like Udon in terms of thickness.
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I’ve been breaking spaghetti in half for years - just be sure to wrap a towel around it so little pieces don’t go flying.
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Agnoletti, Raviolo, Tortellini, Spaghetti & all ribbon pasta, and short pasta occasionally … I only buy Ecological Pasta made in Italy and I only prepare ravioli or agnoletti – Big job, highly laborious and only for Christmas holidays which in Spain go from the 24th of December through January 6th, The Three Wise Men or Los Reyes Magi …
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The last photo…I’m ready for a closeup! Delicious.
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That was amazingly delicious.
We were in Italy … The baby octopus was sublimely delicately tender.
Have a nice evening … Already 23.30 here.
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