Your favourite brands and types of pasta

vernplum said:
May we know your favourite brand? :)

I just watched this last week. It opened my eyes a little:

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I've not seen that video. Alex is very passionate about the details and I like that. Like anything in life VP the nuance of a topic for an individual is based on their knowledge and experience. Hopefully Alex changes the mind of a few people on why someone might pay more for pasta. Anyway my favorite is Mancini Pastificio although some shapes I might prefer from another brand and one for example is Molisana, but both are great. My everyday pasta's are either Rummo or De Checco which are heads above the average brand imo. Alex went into the kind of detail I appreciate and obviously you as well, thanks for the video.

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I don´t think we´ve actually got a favourite, although I love Di Cecco and La Molisana. on a day to day basis, we probably buy local brands; for a special occasion, I´d use the above , or buy from a local supplier (called Buonissima - phenomenal stuffed pastas) OR make my own.
Venezuelans are huge pasta eaters, eating an average of over 12 kgs per person per year.
 
karadekoolaid said:
Venezuelans are huge pasta eaters, eating an average of over 12 kgs per person per year.
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Is that uncooked weight? I'm trying to work what what that means per average week, per person. Uncooked weight that works out 230g of pasta per week per person. An average serving is let us say 90g? So that would mean 2 to 3 times per week. In fact, that doesn't seem huge.
What do they tend to eat it with?

My favourite pasta is probably linguine. I'm not sure why - maybe because it is quite delicate. But I do use penne - its cheap. I don't really have a particular brand. To be honest I can't tell much difference between expensive and cheap. I'm not so keen on wholewheat pasta. Does anyone here like that?
 
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De Cecco is great! But it's the only "special" brand I've ever been able to find.

I really like Alex's channel, he goes way into the details most people don't know or care about, but that just shows how much depth there is to even supposedly simple foods.
 
Pasta is something I think is worth spending a bit more on so I never use basic or supermarket own brand pastas. I mostly use Garofalo and Delverde, but also Barilla for things like macaroni cheese.

In terms of shape...for long pasta I slightly prefer linguini, tagliatelle and fettuccine over spaghetti. And for short pasta I think my favourites are gemelli, casarecce and orecchiette. Though I'll also use lots of others as the fancy takes me :D

I'm so happy that it looks like our Italy holiday is finally going to happen this year....we originally planned it for 2020, delayed it until 2021, but fingers crossed its finally going to go ahead in May :hyper:
 
Morning Glory said:
Is that uncooked weight? I'm trying to work what what that means per average week, per person. Uncooked weight that works out 230g of pasta per week per person. An average serving is let us say 90g? So that would mean 2 to 3 times per week. In fact, that doesn't seem huge.
What do they tend to eat it with?
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No idea, MG; but if you think about it, everyone in the country eats pasta at least 3 times a week...as compared to 2.5 kgs per capita in the UK Pasta consumption worldwide
Typically, a tomato sauce or a version of bolognese, but there´s a lot of creative stuff going on out there. Of course, it´s convenient and cheap, and when more than half the population is barely above the poverty line, it´s an instant solution.
 
Morning Glory said:
Is that uncooked weight? I'm trying to work what what that means per average week, per person. Uncooked weight that works out 230g of pasta per week per person. An average serving is let us say 90g? So that would mean 2 to 3 times per week. In fact, that doesn't seem huge.
What do they tend to eat it with?

My favourite pasta is probably linguine. I'm not sure why - maybe because it is quite delicate. But I do use penne - its cheap. I don't really have a particular brand. To be honest I can't tell much difference between expensive and cheap. I'm not so keen on wholewheat pasta. Does anyone here like that?
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Whole wheat and durum have totally different genetic (DNA) makeups which over the years have found their suitability's based on those differences.

There are pasta's that use whole wheat but it can get confusing because most pasta manufacturers in Italy refer to durum wheat as whole wheat, which is not what your talking about. That is not durum wheat but a wheat used in bread making that is ground into whole wheat flour.

In that regard it's mostly marketing. We've been told for the last 40+ years that white flour is bad for us and if you ate whole wheat your forgiven, except they forgot to tell Italy.
 
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garlichead said:
There are pasta's that use whole wheat but it can get confusing because most pasta manufacturers in Italy refer to durum wheat as whole wheat, which is not what your talking about.
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I think that what we would call whole wheat is available these days in Italy though probably not in restaurants. But there is 'stroncatura' Why Was the Calabrian Pasta Stroncatura Illegal?
 
Morning Glory said:
I think that what we would call whole wheat is available these days in Italy though probably not in restaurants. But there is 'stroncatura' Why Was the Calabrian Pasta Stroncatura Illegal?
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A hybrid that has worked and one I'm familiar with but never consumed. In NA and I suspect in the UK whole wheat refers to bread flour but not semolina. I suspect some whole wheat pasta's will have some semolina in them.
 
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The pasta shape I use the most is probably linguine. When we make spaghetti (the dish), we don’t use spaghetti (the pasta). :wink:

Shapes just depend on what I’m making. I do like orecchiette quite a bit, but I use tri-color corkscrew for pasta salads, flat sheets for lasagna (not the curly kind), etc.

Brands…not it order of preference or frequency, but I probably buy Private Selection (Kroger), De Cecco, or Barilla the most.

I remember a taste-test review some years ago of whole wheat pasta on America’s Test Kitchen, and I think it was the one time they couldn’t recommend anything, they found it all so substandard. :laugh:
 
La Molisana is very appreciated also in Italy.
DeCecco in my opinion is good too

Barilla, in my opinion, is very bad...but just right now barilla is launching a new line (red box) with a superior quality (and more expensive): I haven't tried it yet but whoever did it confirms that it is better

my favourite pasta is those from Gragnano: Rummo, Liguori, Garofalo, pastificio dei campi...

my favourite format are fusilli, penne rigate, spaghetti alla chitarra

edit: I forgot DELVERDE that is a very good pasta IMHO
 
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Cthulhu said:
La Molisana is very appreciated also in Italy.
DeCecco in my opinion is good too

Barilla, in my opinion, is very bad...but just right now barilla is launching a new line (red box) with a superior quality (and more expensive): I haven't tried it yet but whoever did it confirms that it is better

my favourite pasta is those from Gragnano: Rummo, Liguori, Garofalo, pastificio dei campi...

my favourite format are fusilli, penne rigate, spaghetti alla chitarra

edit: I forgot DELVERDE that is a very good pasta IMHO
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For the restaurant and if it's not freshly made in house then we use Rummo even though it's triple the cost of the cheapest and double that of Barilla. Garbage in garbage out. I use to use DELVERDE years and years ago before I knew very much about pasta in general and thought then that it was a cut above all others at that time. Imported better pasta and artisanal pasta wasn't a thing then.
 
MrsDangermouse said:
Pasta is something I think is worth spending a bit more on so I never use basic or supermarket own brand pastas. I mostly use Garofalo and Delverde, but also Barilla for things like macaroni cheese.

In terms of shape...for long pasta I slightly prefer linguini, tagliatelle and fettuccine over spaghetti. And for short pasta I think my favourites are gemelli, casarecce and orecchiette. Though I'll also use lots of others as the fancy takes me :D

I'm so happy that it looks like our Italy holiday is finally going to happen this year....we originally planned it for 2020, delayed it until 2021, but fingers crossed its finally going to go ahead in May :hyper:
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wow! where will you go in Italy? You will eat a lot of pasta :laugh:
 
karadekoolaid said:
.as compared to 2.5 kgs per capita in the UK
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Its difficult to believe its this low, as there are numerous fresh and frozen pasta ready meals sold by supermarkets and when people panic bought for the lock down, pasta was one of the first things to fly off the shelf. I suspect most UK families eat it once a week. Y'know, I'm not sure how this data is gathered in the first place!
 
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