We rely on dried pasta from the store for the majority of our pasta dishes, saving the homemade version for special occasions and dinner parties. But fresh pasta is so good! Could it be easier to whip up on a weeknight than we think?
Putting dried pasta from the grocery store up against fresh pasta made at home really isn't a fair comparison, so we thought we'd make this one a three-way contest. We'll keep the dried pasta since that's what most of us cook most often, but add in fresh (or freshly frozen) pasta bought at a gourmet shop. Our favorite comes from Dave's Fresh Pasta in Davis Square outside of Boston, and their prices seem both reasonable and representative.
• Find It! Dave's Fresh Pasta in Davis Square, Somerville, MA
For the dried pasta, we'll use Barilla-brand linguine. For the homemade pasta, we'll follow our recipe for three-egg fresh pasta (recipe available here). All costs were taken from Peapod Online Grocery. In the homemade cost, we don't account for the cost of salt or other typical pantry staples.
COST BREAKDOWN
Based on our subjective experience, a pound of dried pasta gives us roughly eight servings and a pound of fresh pasta gives us about four.
• Barilla Pasta Linguine
TOTAL: $1.49
PER SERVING: $0.19
• Dave's Pasta Fresh Egg Pasta
TOTAL: $3.75/pound
PER SERVING: $0.94
• Homemade Pasta
2 cups flour: $0.38
1/2 teaspoon salt: $0.00
3 eggs: $0.55
Makes about a pound of pasta
TOTAL: $0.93
PER SERVING: $0.23
TIME BREAKDOWN
• Barilla Pasta Linguine: Prep Time - 0 minutes; Cook Time - about 9 minutes
• Dave's Pasta Fresh Egg Pasta: Prep Time - 0 minutes; Cook Time - about 3 minutes
• Homemade Pasta: Active Prep Time - about 20 minutes; Total Prep Time - about 50 minutes; Cook Time - about 3 minutes
CONVENIENCE
No matter which way you cut it, making homemade pasta takes a bit of time. It's not the kind of thing we are every likely to make on a weeknight after a long day of work. But if we have a little extra time - if we're not quite so starving or maybe on a weekend evening - making our own pasta is totally doable.
Also remember that fresh pasta freezes very well, so it's very possible to make a big batch every few weeks and freeze portions for quick weeknight meals.
TASTINESS AND HEALTHFULNESS
Fresh pasta, either homemade or bought in a gourmet store like Dave's Pasta, is really incredible stuff. It's chewy and soft. Sauce clings to it, making every bite flavorful. The majority of dried pasta just pales in comparison.
You'll find similar ingredients in both fresh and dried pasta (except for the eggs). As with any do-it-yourself cooking project, the advantage of making your own pasta is that you have control over the exact ingredients going into your pasta: free-range eggs, higher-quality flour, and so on.
MAKE OR BUY?
If cost weren't an issue, we'd probably buy batches of gourmet fresh pasta and freeze them for all our weeknight meals and dinner parties. This would be the best of both worlds, both convenient and super tasty. But, alas, we can usually only afford to buy fresh pasta on special occasions.
It would be an interesting experiment to commit, for just a few weeks, to making big batches of homemade pasta and freezing it in portions to see how convenient this ends up feeling. If we can make enough in one afternoon to see us through a month of pasta dishes, that might give it an edge over dried pasta.
OUR VERDICT: For the time being, dried pasta will continue to rule the weeknights and homemade pasta can have the weekends.
Do you make and freeze your own pasta for weeknight meals? Or do you rely on dry pasta for most meals?
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Comments (20)
But Barilla is not a goo dried pasta; I think you have to compare with a better dried pasta -- ideally an Italian artisanal product.
I used to make pasta somewhat frequently before I had kids. I haven't done it in years, but I think when they are older they would really enjoy doing that with me.
The active time for making fresh pasta in a food processor is probably about 15 minutes (including washing the bowl and blade afterwards). It's really not that much more work than using dried.
An italian point of view: at home you can normally make egg pasta quite easily but it's not that easy to produce the dried pasta made only of water and hard flour (we call it grano duro and I don't know if it has a better translation). Egg pasta is VERY different from dried pasta. I come from a region where egg pasta is very popular but I don't like it sooo much so I prefer to buy good quality dried pasta. If you consider the price, even of you buy most expensive brands (today I bought 500 gr of penne for € 2,90) the impact on the price of the finished dish is always low.
Dave's used to be a couple blocks away from where I lived when I was a college student at Tufts! Everything that they make in the store is amazing, but their spinach and ricotta raviolis are exceptionally outstanding. Now I'll need to make a special trip to Davis this weekend!
Dave's gives a kick-@ss course in fresh pasta making (among other things) and it really is pretty easy to do. Hardest part is rolling it out. I think you could make your own fresh pasta on a sunday and freeze batches for use during the week.
We are grateful to have Dave's right down the street so we take advantage of their delicious options regularly.
Don't like Barilla, either. I'd use DeCecco as the comparison, and it's quite a bit more expensive.
You're forgetting something here. Egg pasta dough is much more filling than dried pasta or pasta dough made only with water. My husband I took to making homemade pasta once a week (on weeknights) after I got a pasta maker from friends as a gift. Not only does it taste better, but we eat less of it and are full for a longer period of time.
Yes, it does take a bit more time to make, but on the other hand, I usually make the dough while the sauce is cooking, take the dog out while the dough chills and then reheat the sauce while the pasta is rolled and cooked.
A tip for rolling/cutting: Roll it in batches and start the process with a rolling pin. It makes the whole thing a lot easier.
Maybe it's just me, but to get that chewy al dente quality, I prefer dried pasta. Fresh always seems a little too soft. I'm intrigued yet worried by the part about freezing fresh pasta - I wonder if this would make it even mushier when cooked?
I make home-made pasta all the time - I do large batches once or twice a month and then freeze it. It can go straight into the bowling water from the freezer and still tastes great.
The only time I buy premade pasta now is for shapes I can't or won't make myself, i.e. penne.
The cost is so slight to me that it seems silly to nitpick over it. Sure, I would have fresh homemade pasta all times we eat pasta but I have a full time job and yep its easier to dump a box in some boiling water than kneading and rolling on a weeknight. No matter what. T What it really comes down to are easy:
- I make fresh pasta when I have time. Messier though.
-I buy good quality dried/ parcooked pasta when I am making something special but I don't want to worry with making the pasta myself. Not as easy to find so this is rare.
-Plain ol dried pastas for regular pasta. Dinner on a weeknight type pasta. Easy, convenient, readily available.
Its not at all a cost or flavor issue, its really a mess and convenience issue in my home. I like to relax after work with my family a bit, not spend it washing out my food processor or cleaning pasta out my pasta roller.
my kitchenaid pasta attachment is the difference in making homemade pasta on a weeknight. super easy and doesn't take much longer. just make the sauce while to dough is resting. also, its way easier to make tasty whole wheat or half whole wheat pasta this way. the dried whole wheat pasta pales in comparison.
Because I'm cutting off eating earlier before bedtime, I often come home too late to make it on a weeknight, so making homemade pasta has really become just a Friday/Saturday/Sunday activity now (but what a great way to spend a Sunday evening). Also, when we had small kids underfoot, I taught them how to make pasta and then delegated the task to them... a great trick my mother used to use, once I teach you I forget how it's made, after the kids knew then all the family pasta feeds were on them! (and I just consulted, if they needed help, while enjoying a glass of wine... perfect!)
Making homemade pasta brings back memories of my husband and I before we were married and had a young child. It was fun at the time but I honestly don't see me doing this anytime soon. The demands of my job and family life just make dumping a box of dried pasta into the water so much easier. I'd rather concentrate my efforts on what goes on top of the pasta than the pasta itself.
Also, I love Barilla. Its one of my go-to brands.
I agree with Valeria, fresh egg pasta vs eggless dried pasta is really not a good comparison - they are very different. Also agree that making good pasta at home with semolina and water is trickier than when you use egg.
I have the same experience as elaineathon regarding getting the al dente texture - only happens with dried. Is it even possible with fresh?
Since Barilla is getting so many negative comments here, what brands of dried pasta do you folks recommend?
My favourite brand of dry pasta is Rigorosa. It makes the most wonderful al dente pasta I've ever found; it makes any sauce work.
I also like Gragnano, Afeltra Pastaio, and Garofolo as second choices. These are variously available in local grocery stores, although the Rigorosa I can only find at Eataly (Torino).
If I'm in a grocery store without those choices, I will reach for DeCecco over Barilla. As others have pointed out, egg pasta is completely different. My 7 year old daughter loves to make it (from her Silver Spoon Cookbook for Kids) on weekends, but on weeknights there is just no time for it.
DeCecco is pretty good among big producers, Voiello the same. If you can find any producer from the city of Gragnano (small town near Napoli) they are considered the best for dried pasta. Gragnano is both a brand and a place, most of high end pasta makers are from Gragnano. Good quality pasta has a very pale light color when dry. Many pasta producers use grain from USA and Canada because we don't have enough in Italy....grain shipped from North America to Italy and then shipped back as pasta....not very environment friendly.
Fresh egg pasta and dried non-egg pasta are totally different things. They both are delicious (in my opinion), but shouldn't be used for the same sauces. Fresh pasta is better suited to buttery, creamy sauces or sauces with light flavours, while dried pasta is better suited for olive oil, tomato and meaty, heavier and chunkier sauces.
I love fresh egg pasta, but whenever I hear people talk about how they wish they could only eat fresh pasta I wonder how much this is because it is more expensive and so they think it has to be superior. Or do you really want to miss the feeling of eating spaghetti pomodorro al dente?
Barilla is perfectly fine. I've tried everything from cheap to expensive and other than Skinner and store brand, they are all within the same range as far as taste. Now, homemade is head and shoulders better. But, I am betting that in a blind test, no one would know one pasta over the other. It's just snobbery to pretend differently.
@Sisterfunkhaus
It is probably true to say that *most* people couldn't tell the difference between pasta brands in a blind tasting, but it's certainly *not* true to say no one could. I find it pretty easy to distinguish between them, the main differences being texture and taste. Some brands are mushier than others and tend to break up when cooked and it's just about impossible to cook them al dente.
I agree with others that De Cecco is the best of the mass produced brands, but Barilla is acceptable and better than many others. When I lived in the UK I particularly liked the Loyd Grossman brand which is made by Garofalo in Gragnano.