Is supermarket pasta any different to branded?

[reallyworriedjobhunter]

I am talking normal pasta.

One of the tubes in this photo is Napolina and one is Sainsbury's. No discernable difference at all? The Napolina one is very slightly bigger.

For a 500g packet, Napolina is £1.50 and Sainsbury's is 69p.

Yup

Well, I make my own. It is very satisfying. You don't need much because home made is so filling. So it would be a regular conversation for me, when talking about food to friends.

No different to making your own pizza or pastry.

Quick cook pasta is actively revolting.

Generic supermarket pasta and Napolino are all pretty much indistinguishable and do the job.

De Cecco and other bronze die pastas are noticeably better so I always stock up when that’s on offer.

My DD was obsessed with Eat Well For Less when she was little so we used to do home Taste Tests in the half term holidays for fun. She would make voting cards and everything.

We could taste the difference between quick cook, generic and posh, but not a difference within the various generic labels.

To a PP - we could all tell the difference between Weetabix and off brand wheat biscuit cereal too. Even the 7yo.
No difference found with loads of types of cereal, but Weetabix was an exception.

@SuiGeneris you've just sent me down a delicious pasta shaped rabbit hole looking at La Tua Pasta’s website. Thank you for this hook up!

I'm sure someone will come along soon to tell everyone that they should be growing their own wheat and raising their own hens for eggs.
And each hen will feed a family of four for a week .

I find some posh pasta quite heavy. Barilla works for me. Own brand fusilli etc for DS. I did however, notice the ridiculous price difference with rice. Always prefer Bens, but I can’t justify it anymore. Fiver a box, where I live! Even on offer, it’s €€€.

I love eat well for less and taste test

I know my coffee. This isn't my coffee. This is horrible

Oh

It's my costly coffee 😂😂😂

To be fair, you can usually pick them up very cheap in charity shops. That's where the one we were given as a wedding present ended up a couple of years after we got married when we worked out we'd only used it a few times and it was taking up valuable cupboard space 🤣

Or you can roll it out with a rolling pin and get an arm workout at the same time. 😁I buy Rummo when it's on special offer or (Italian) co-op if it's not. Fresh pasta isn't really a substitute for dried pasta - one has eggs (usually) and one doesn't.

I know. It's the same for soup, ketchup, cereal and everything else that people insist they could only possibly eat/use the branded version that's 3 x the price of the supermarket own brand because they're so special and discerning and every single time they either can't pick 'their' brand out of a line up or declare it to be disgusting and then think the Lidl or Aldi version is much nicer instead.

Own brand wholewheat or homemade. Homemade can be time consuming but is very easy and can be dried or frozen afterwards.

Depends what the pasta is for. If it’s the star of the dish I will shell out a bit more (see what I did there - but actually I hate pasta shells). Even perhaps as far as getting fresh egg pasta.

if it’s for the kids for a quick supper then not so much. I don’t rate Napolina as a brand unless it’s their bronze die. De Cecco is probably the best option as frequently on offer. Lidl Deluxe is good. Waitrose own brand good but eye watering.

meh, I think they are all a vehicle for sauce and cheese anyway.

but I have to say I really dislike fresh egg pasta. too wobbly.
and quick cook pasta also has this texture.

I always think long spaghetti tastes better than short but maybe it's because it's a nice brand not supermarket own?
Not had any in years as can't justify a whole Ocado order for a packet and nowhere else seems to stock it.

Di Martino was the original in the blue paper would love to find that if anyone knows where.

Judging by their supermarket shelves i suspect that the vast majority of Italians use dried pasta day to day rather than making their own.

😂 We can assume the OP is not a Sicilian Nonna with more money than average?
The ingredients alone would cost far more.

Really? I’ve never met a child IRL who makes their own pasta 😂

They sell it in an Italian deli down the road from me. Costs a bloody fortune!

De Cecco is the only one I would bother to pay more for. It is definitely better.

But of course, if you're on a tight budget, the cheaper ones are fine.

I love watching the pasta grannies making pasta shapes. Awesome. But then they serve it on the table which I like less!

I could send you a photo of my 2yo rolling pasta out (with supervision), it’s a really fun way to get them into cooking. All about the process rather than the result though so if he’s helping I don’t mind it takes time.

The problem with DIT taste tests is that you already know which is which! So your bias will influence the outcome.
My DH once said he couldn’t drink a cup of tea because I’d put caster sugar in it which tasted different than granulated sugar. He wouldn’t listen when I said they’re the same. I did a taste test with him where he genuinely didn’t know which drink was which, and I secretly included sweeteners, so 3 drinks.
He spotted the sweetener drink and claimed it was the caster sugar, but thought the other 2 were the same, ie granulated.
The power of prior knowledge is immense!

Confirming that I am not a Sicilian Nonna. 40s full time working mother of three, two with SEN, doing an MSc on the side.

We do make our own pizza but pasta is something we eat when we need something quite quick to cook and easy to clean up. And cheap!

You’re ok. Life’s too short to get your toddler to make their own pasta. I’ve seen how grubby their fingernails can be!

I'm on a really tight budget, so buy own-brand everything.
There probably is a difference, but not enough to cause me to spend that much more when I'm trying to save. The own-brand ones still taste great to me!