August 19, 2011

You get what you pay for


I've blogged before on how our family loves quality, organic when we can food. The one thing I've been wanting to do forever, is find a whole wheat pasta that didn't taste like cardboard. You know the kind, where the minute to start to chew, you wish you could spit it out?! Well, that was me anyway. My compromise was to buy this. I call it the gateway to whole wheat pasta. I still love it, and will continue to buy it, but I felt that it wasn't quite the real deal, and I kept hearing how it was best to eat the full on brown pasta.
A few days ago while browsing Whole Foods dry pasta section, I picked up three different kinds and really examined them. I found that the De Cecco brand was very dark, and I could see me not liking that one. Then there was the Whole foods brand at a mere $1.49 for a pound. It too was very dark, and I worried that it would be the same story.
Then I found this one!! I loved the rustic bag with the pretty gold closures, but most of all I liked how light in color it was. I started reading the package, and was swept away with the fancy words and how they use techniques from long ago...and on and on. Oh, and they use mountain spring water to blend in with the whole wheat semolina. OK sold! The price was $3.59 for the bag. It better be good!!
The old adage of you get what you paid for really fit the bill with this purchase. Once cooked, I did the taste test before I put my homemade sauce on it, and wowzers it was good!! Only a slight hint that it was whole wheat, but it really delivered in taste. The sauce clung to it just as the package had said it would.
I think we can now be full fledged whole wheat pasta eaters. Ladies and gentleman, we have a winner.

If you can't read the name from the picture, it is called Montebello, and it was established in 1388. I think they know what they are doing.

If you want to switch from white pasta to brown, this is a great one!
Does anyone have others they like?

8 comments:

  1. THANK YOU! lol...i need this. I wonder if they sell it in Canada? btw...i have never baked a pie. ever. but these berries would be soooo good in one, you have inspired me :)

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  2. How funny that a spaghetti dinner is on the menu for tonite! I'll have to make a note of that pasta.

    Have a good one, Bonnie

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  3. So glad I read this today! I've been wanting to make the switch for a long time, but the first time I bought ww pasta was to make a batch of baby food dinners for Scarlett, and I wasn't keen on the taste at all. I've been nervous about wrecking a whole nights dinner with it ever since, lol.

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  4. I spend half my time in shops here trying to find stuff not containinf corn syrup....that stuff is acurse.

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  5. Thanks for the pasta review. I've put in on my W.F. list. I make some of our pasta and have never tried using whole wheat (or part) flour. I'd like to try a pasta made by a process from 1300!!

    Like your new look on the blog.

    Best,
    Bonnie

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  6. Update: I just bought some more the other night but in a different shape, almost like a shell of sorts, and made it with a fancy tuna, fennel and fuji apple concoction and it was so good, Still loving it!!!

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  7. Thanks . I will try this one. I would rather eat whole wheat pasta but had not found one all of us like

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  8. from france I don't have much to say on US brand of course.
    But just a thought if you like whole pasta, or want a healthy change to white wheat... *
    When I had to go gluten-free, a new world opened to me as I found we don't have to stick to wheat and thinks like black rice pasta, or buckwheat pasta, or quinoa-carrot pasta etc.... are equally good.
    Of course various brands had to have crash-tests first but I'm now familiar which what is worth it etc... and as you said at more than 3 euros a pound of GF pasta, they ebtter be good !
    Alos it is important for people to go that if they go "whole wheat" they have to avoid non-organic because all the pesticides used in regular cultures go into the "skin/shell" that makes the difference between whole & white. so they eat much more pesticide with non-organic whole than non-organic white, which than has no health benefits at all !
    sorry for the long ramble, but I totally agree with your food decisions !

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