basics pasta ok ?

Stephen_Leak

TEENY wrote: »

It can go a bit sticky.

All pasta can do this. Add a couple of drops of olive oil to the cooking water.

destiny_star2006

i buy any pasta which i grab from the shelv and have used sp pasta from asda on many occasions and have never noticed any difference as long as wot ure mixing it with taste nice then your fine x

lil_me

I always rinse before cooking and make sure it goes into water that is boiling quite violently which has a little oil in (any will do but I use olive oil), always use the basics stuff in this way or other ones I get on offer, I think we're on 'green asda' ones at the mo (smart price/value)

Agutka

carolinosourus wrote: »

Also on Breakfast this morning they were talking about the price of onions going up by about 50% and we're going to have to start importing them!

Hmmm, that doesn't seem to be anywhere near to what OH's payrise is this year :rolleyes:
Seems like we won't even be able to afford the value ranges soon!

Our food bills have been so high recently OH was happy he found an answer on Martin's site - go down a brand, he said. Bless him, why does he think his cornish pasties have had a rather vegetarian quality about them?:rotfl:
I have seriously been watching my spending, value stuff, reduced stuff. But the bill at the end is always rising... I cannot believe the price rises we've had recently.

Alfietinker

We've always bought value pasta/lasagne/spaghetti and can't taste any difference at all. (Unless we compare it to fresh tortellinni which we sometimes splurge on). We've stopped buying it recently though because we've gone over to wholewheat.

Stephen_Leak

I think the bottom line here is that there appears to be no difference in taste.

If you prefer your pasta 'al dente', you need the 100% durum wheat stuff. If you prefer your pasta soft, the "value" stuff is not only perfectly OK, but also cheaper.

Becles

You get what you pay for IMO. The lower quality pasta like Value/Basics ranges will be made with lower quality wheat. This is what causes the stickiness that people have mentioned. I don't like the taste and texture of cheap pasta.

My favourite pasta is DeCecco. It stays firm but it doesn't go sticky, and it tastes much nicer than the cheaper ranges.

I buy Tesco own brand (not value) if I'm feeling a bit skint though, but it never tastes as nice as the DeCecco.

Stephen_Leak

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

Add a couple of drops of olive oil to the cooking water.

I must recind this.

I have been told, not only by an unimpeachable source but also in no uncertain terms, that this is a culinary urban myth.

If you use enough water, add the pasta when the water is boiling, stir the pasta and don’t wander off (Italians have a saying, “Gli spaghetti amano la compagnia” or “Spaghetti loves company”) and don’t overcook it, adding olive oil to the water to stop it sticking is totally unnecessary. The oil also makes it difficult for the sauce to stick to the pasta.

Angelina-M

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

OK. I've checked the ingedients labels on ASDA's own brand and budget spaghettis. The own brand one was just durum wheat flour. The budget one was 50% durum wheat flour and 50% soft wheat flour.

100% durum makes the better quality pasta. The wheat flour is a filler as it is cheaper to produce.

I only buy 100% durum wheat pasta. I really like the Aldi one at about 70p for a huge bag. I have a friend who is a chef and he recommended I try it as its the only one he will use.

caroline1973lefty

I really didn't like the value pasta when i tried it, though own brands and Lidls are fine. I read on the BBC website that the price of wheat (and therefore pasta) is at record levels partly due to bad weather/harvests last year, but more because food prices generally are going up as the Chinese and Indians seek to emulate the Western diet by eating more meat and dairy. Higher meat consumption is a really inefficient way of using land, compared to a more vegetarian diet, because so much grain has to be produced to feed animals. Due to rising prices, there have been wheat riots in China, pasta riots in Italy, and Tortilla riots in Mexico, apparantly!

So I guess the best way to save money immediately, and help the wider problem with food shortages and rising prices in the longer term too, is just to eat less meat and more beans, lentils etc - I have been doing this for environmental reasons for the last year or so, and would estimate that my food bills have halved, and i wouldn't say i spend particularly longer cooking. I always used to end up wasting meat anyway cos i don't have a freezer.