Choosing Pasta

If Italian: never settle for anything but the finest pasta lest your nona teleports behind you and psshhh nothin' personal kid

Else: who cares, if it's not whole wheat it's probably fine

>>8754987
Barilla here is dirt cheap, no more than $0.80-$1 for a pound.

Usually grocery chains have their own brand that is around the same price or even cheaper.

You can get organic and other imported/premium brands for about $1.50-$4 per pound, the higher end being specialty pastas like gnocchi.

I typically grab HEB Organic linguini or penne because they're my favorite varieties and it's basically the same price as the cheaper pastas anyway.

You are mostly paying for the brand name. If you want high good pasta, make it fresh.

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>>8754987
USAfag here.

First we have the really cheap generic brands. I don't like those because they tend to get an awful lot of starch into the pasta water. Even if you are careful about cooking time the water becomes a foamy mess and the pasta is often very sticky even if it's nowhere close to being done yet. I avoid it.

Barilla is a commonly available brand here. It's always a safe bet.

I have tried various brands of premium pasta. Some of them have been a major disappointment, others have been fantastic. Lately I have been buying pic related. It is double the price of Barilla but it has a really wonderful texture. And frankly it's still very economical compared to many other ingredients. They stock the same pasta in other shapes as well. I like this one for meat-based sauce.

>>8754987
Barilla pasta is fine. I don't notice much of a difference with the more expensive dry pasta. I can vouch for the frozen egg noodles though. Texture is a lot better.

I look at the ingredients

>>8755021
Well two pasta can use wheat but one can pay for good wheat and other can pay for cheap wheat. Also expensive processing can yeld better results than cheap processing. All pasta have the same basic ingredients here.

>>8755000
>whole wheat
Once bought whole wheat (costs triple barilla) and put everything in the trash. Who the fuck though it would be a good idea?

>>8755008
My fresh sauce is much much better than canned sauce. My fresh pasta in worse than barilla. No way all the work pays off.

>>8755059
>My fresh sauce is much much better than canned sauce. My fresh pasta in worse than barilla. No way all the work pays off.

This, pretty much.

I cook nearly all of the food I eat from scratch, but I'm a strong believe in picking the right battles. Making my own pasta is entirely too much work, much like making a demi-glace.

>>8755115

I find it confusing you look at pasta and demi-glace the same way.

Making pasta is a lot of hands-on work, and it takes some skill to determine the right texture for the dough as well.

Making demi-glace requires very little hands-on effort and pretty close to zero skill. the only think it takes is time, 99% of which is hands-off waiting.

>>8755146
A demi-glace involves a fuckton of bones, veggies, herbs, as well as roasting, simmering, and straining, as well as 8 hours or more all for only a sauce.

>>8755207

The ingredient volume may be large but the effort isn't. Slap in the oven to roast then go do something else for 45 min. Transfer to the stock pot. Go go something else for 10 hours. Put on higher heat to reduce. Go do something else....

Plus, you're doing the majority of that to make stock anyway. The only extra step for demi-glace is the reduction.

And I certainly wouldn't call it "only a sauce", good stock is the fucking foundation of a kitchen. You use it for so many things: soup, braising/poaching liquid, stews, sauces, etc.

I would argue that this is one of the BEST examples of how a small amount of effort has a huge payoff in usefulness and quality. If I had to name one thing that made the biggest difference in improving my cooking it would easily be learning to make homemade stock.

>>8755226
I think we'll agree to disagree on this.

I rarely have enough extra bones on-hand, because typically the foods I serve were either purchased as filets/bone-out cuts, or I serve the meal bone-in, as with ribs. I would probably have to purchase bones for the stock or otherwise see if the butcher has any leftover. This, combined with the effort of purchasing and prepping veggies, roasting, plus the half-day simmer causes me to feel constrained; I'm not going to leave the house for a full workday with a burner on or a hot oven.

I think you're also forgetting the extra step in a demi-glace, which is the espagnole. This involves another go-round on the stove with its own set of ingredients, and can only be made after you've finished the aforementioned stock. A demi-glace is NOT just a reduced stock.

At this point, I would have rather purchased a good stock and/or demi-glace that someone else makes and sells, so that I can use it for a stew or braise that's going to take a few hours anyway; except this time, I've got a main course after many hours, not just an ingredient.

>>8755273
Fair enough. I make a point of always buying meat bone-in so I can save the bones for stock. If I don't have enough then I'll just buy some bones or cheap bony cuts while I'm on one of my normal shopping runs. The veggies aren't a concern since I always have veggies for mirepoix on hand anyway.

I make large batches of stock whenever I'm at home on a weekend. I just let the stock go while I'm doing other things. If you need to leave and don't want to leave an oven unattended then just use a crock pot. Or a pressure cooker to do it in 1/3 the time. If you make a big batch then it's simple to portion it up and freeze for use later. Then when you need some just grab it and go.

Do you have any suggestions for decent brands of stock or demi glace to try out? Every one I've tried has been either shit quality or dreadfully expensive.