Pasta Expert Guesses Cheap vs Expensive Pasta | Price Points | Epicurious

I'm mad Abdul and I'm a pasta expert it's gluten all right I'm ready in front of us here we have two types of dried pasta what makes dry pasta unique is that it simply flour and water mixed together to create a dough which is then extruded or rolled sheeted cut and dried we're looking for primarily two things that we're gonna be talking about elasticity the stretch in the dough and plasticity that sort of bite that you're gonna be having let's talk about these two pastas when purchasing a pasta one of the first things that I'm looking for is going to be the color what does the pasta look like typically speaking when you're buying a dried pasta you want the color to be that of a warm yellow if it looks artificial it's probably artificial if it looks too pale it might be being made with a flower that isn't as superior as a natural yellow hue of that which is women durum flour when you're comparing these two pastas side by side we can see that pasta a is a little bit more pale in color the second thing that I'm looking for after color is going to be the texture what does the pasta feel like on the outside typically speaking the artisanal pastas the ones that are going to cost you a little bit more are made with bronze dyes the bronze dyes results in a more textured outside of a pasta the texture is going to allow to have more little nooks and crannies and grooves on it that are going to hold the sauce better lesser quality pastas are extruded through Teflon dyes Teflon is as hopefully many of you know is a nonstick surface it's very smooth and allows for the pasta to be extruded much faster without any sort of adhesion to the dye itself so when I look at pasta B and I picked this up and i start to feel pasta B immediately it has a very very smooth texture to it with no rigidity and it's almost kind of got like a little bit of a shine to it which kind of is an indication to me that this was made with a Teflon dye on sort of a more of a mass production level so something that's also really interesting on these artisanal or potentially more expensive processes that they're going to come with this sort of light dusting which is a residual effect from dry which is also an indication of typically a better quality when you can see it next to pasta B that really doesn't have any of that and it has a super smooth exterior and none of that at all this kind of indication of a mass-produced Teflon extruded pasta shape we'll see what happens let's cook these guys up and find out for sure all right so here we have our two cooked pastas side by side first out of the gates pasta a so when I take this pasta penne shape and I give it a little press on it immediately bounces back to me that's a great indication of the texture and the integrity of that pasta shape itself let's give it a bite these pastas have been cooked and have been sitting for already for a few minutes and what will happen within the process of a cooked pasta it will continue to sort of cook itself within moisture absorption better quality pastas after they're cooked will still maintain their al dente texture versus lesser quality pastas which over time as they sit will turn really mushy and potentially could get slimy and just have a really strange texture to them to clarify with the term al dente it literally translates to the tooth so in Italian language they're basically meaning that when you bite into cooked pasta not raw it's still gonna have that to the tooth texture that has a bite to it this pastas cooked perfectly but yet it still has a bite to it but there will be this sort of ever-so-slight white little line within the inside of the pasta that's sort of to me is just a quality indicator of the way the pasta was made from the flour and the dough the kneading in the extrusion that creates that sort of texture and that sort of white line with them the inside of the pasta noodle so moving onto pasta B I'm immediately looking at this and seeing that the pasta noodles are kind of sticking together that to me is an indication of a less expensive less quality pasta product because the starch is that on the outside aren't as maintained as the ones on a better quality product this is still holding its shape pretty well after it's been cooked but it doesn't bounce back as aggressively in my hand as pasta aided through all these calculations of the visual the aroma and the taste and the texture I would have to say that pasta a would be the more expensive pasta on this table moment of truth oh wow that's nine dollars a pound I would say the proof is in the pudding man nine dollars a pound is a lot of money to spend on a pasta I think it's important to know that even though that this cost sixty-seven cents a pound and this cost nine dollars a pound this still gets the job done it's still gonna be delicious and neat really well if you're trying to do something really artisanal and have like a really special occasion and a special event certainly go out and spend the money on the special occasions sort of pasta things but it still tastes really good it still eats really well and I guarantee that my two-year-old son would absolutely love this in front of me here we have fresh pasta now something that's very important to note about fresh pasta is that comparing it to dry pasta is really like comparing apples to oranges fresh pasta definitely eats differently it has different flavor textural qualities to dry pasta but it's a little bit more delicate than dry pasta would be so it stands up better to sauces that might be a little less dense in nature and more often than not fresh pasta has egg added to it so the better quality eggs you able to find local organic will also result in a better quality texture and mouthfeel to the pasta that you're eating as fresh pastas are made since they're not dried the pasta will begin to oxidize and that you will be seeing representative of these tiny little black specks that could be potentially on the noodle itself within the noodle itself and all over the noodle itself which is simply an indication of age it's not going to get you sick it's not gonna taste bad but it will be an indication if the pasta noodle is probably made a few days in advance looking at these two pastas they immediately look very similar to me in color pasta B looks a little more yellower than pasta a but it certainly does look like it's been bundled but more of an a flat sort of layout that may not have any sort of indication on quality or price point to be very honest with you but think of what you would do if you're in a grocery store if something visually looks more appealing to you you might be more inclined to pay low more fort pasta a also has this sort of gorgeous artisanal bundle to it coated with a lot more flowers so it's kind of hard to tell just out of the gates my hunch for these two pastas is that I would say the more expensive one would be the one that's in these bundles what we're looking for when we're biting into a fresh pasta is we still want to have that gorgeous chew when you're buying and cooking and eating fresh pasta the term al dente the term to the tooth which is indicative for the dry pasta doesn't typically apply to fresh pasta you will get a slight bite from any sort of additional protein like egg that's added to it but it's never that al dente texture that you'll get from dried pasta I think the next thing we need to do is cook them up to really get a deeper look at what might cost more than the other so here we have it both of the pastas have been cooked something that's very important to note about fresh pasta is that they will take half the amount of time or less and when it would typically take to cook a dried pasta of the same shape I can see that this pasta a has a little bit more of a yellow hue to it which again could be indicative of maybe a better egg that's been used and the better quality that you have the more indicative of a color that will be both in its raw state and its cook state but something that's really important that the fresh pasta a good note that it's cooked properly it will still have an elasticity to it where you can should be able to tug on it and it will have that really great sort of rubber banding effect without breaking right away it should stretch and then eventually pull and break like that so that's a really good indication of a good quality pasta that's not really mushy or starchy or too tacky and it's falling apart within that test let's give it a taste this to me is a great fresh pasta noodle it has a really good sort of chew to it and mouthfeel to it it's not overly starchy or slimy on the outside it's got really great flavor I get that sort of nuttiness to the flour I get that little bit of the egg within the noodle itself now let's try pasta be great flavor great texture this one has a little bit more of a chew to it than pasta eh this is gonna be tough because these are both really good pastas visually they're very similar and again guys for me this is gonna be the toughest one because for all intents and purposes these are both very good noodles so I'm gonna go with pasta a is more expensive than pasta B let's see what we got haha I did it again the only reason I could really justify the increased cost on pasta a would be potentially if you were going over to someone's home and you wanted to present a gift that had this gorgeous beautiful bird's nest' bundle I think that would be an opportunity to justify the price point of pasta a but if you're just going home to cook the pasta for yourself and eat it I would tend to go towards buying pasta B for myself moving along the next evolution of fresh pasta would naturally be some form of stuffed pasta when you're making a stuffed pasta you clearly can't make it with dried pasta you have to make the fresh pasta first and then hopefully make some incredible delicious filling to put inside of it now that being said all of the quality indicators for fresh pasta are still present within a stuffed pasta when making a stuffed fresh pasta there will always be an egg in the dough to help with the durability of that dough when it's being stuffed and filled with an additional filling that could potentially have more moisture to it to help the pasta hold up to the weight and the viscosity of that filling in the cooking process here today we have what looks to be two tortellinis these tortellini on my B side look like they've been made with some form of green vegetable my guess would be B spinach since it's probably the most common and the tortellini which are slightly larger for pasta a just looks like a really great egg enriched pasta dough stuffed with a filling that I can't really tell what they are at the moment and now we're gonna give the pastas of smell that's got that same sort of nuttiness and egg quality and aroma which smells really really good smells like some fresh no rancidity all really great signs and the same goes for pasta beam if you happen to find a stuffed pasta that isn't completely uniform in its shape and size that could be an indication of a higher price point because it was potentially made artesian aliy by hand in a smaller specialty shop it's time to cook them up and see what they taste like so we have our stuff pastas all cooked up I'm looking at it the way that they cooked up they're still all really holding the shape very well none of them are falling apart none of them have turned to mush moving on to pasta B after it's been cooked visually looking at it they all look really uniform and consistent and really pretty to me pasta a looks like a more artisanal pasta and pasta B looks like something that's more commercial your mass-produced let's give a bite into this green tortellini textual of the pasta tastes really great you get a small nuance of that vegetal spinach flavor in the dough itself this filling which is some form of cheese filling has sort of a browner kind of color to it flavor-wise is still really kind of bland but the color to me is I have an indication that this might be a lower pricepoint pasta now let's give pasta a bite the quality the pasta itself tastes really great but the flavor of the filling is kind of lackluster so if I had to guess which of these cost more than the other pasta a again pasta a has been my leader so far but this is tough for me because honestly all things being considered the pastas on both of them are both very good imma stick with my answer final answer pasta a is more expensive than pasta B let's see well how we did oh my god this is $14 a pound so when purchasing stuff pasta is the price differentials can actually make a big difference in the quality of what you're buying typically speaking if I were to be purchasing a stuffed pasta that was made with let's say a veal and Parmesan mortadella prosciutto filling that was really artisanal it would make sense that it would cost a lot more to purchase it because you're putting inside of it much more expensive ingredients the texture and the flavor the fillings are so similar that I think it's really indistinguishable I think from the home use I would go with pasta B as your winner for what I would buy for myself in front of us now we have more dry pastas but we're going more into the realms of those specialty dry pastas that may have been flavored with some form of addition or additive of maybe a vegetable or maybe some form of other puree that might go into the formation of the pasta immediately in front of me we can see that pasta a is a green pasta typically speaking in most grocery stores the green is indicative of spinach and pasta B is this gorgeous looking yellow pasta that is really pretty it's got this really nice bright yellow hue to it it has those specks within it but those are not oxidization specks those respects of whatever it was it was made to flavor or and/or color the pasta if I think this one spinach I'm gonna go ahead and say that I think this one is saffron it's known as something that is a luxury ingredient which would be very indicative of a higher cost price point for the pasta more often than not these specialty pastas are simply made by substituting out the water with a specialty ingredient that's being made to go within the dough to give it its unique flavor and color you're not really to be able to flavor-wise tell them until you cook it and eat it so let's cook these up and learn some more about them they're visually both very very beautiful I love the bright yellow color on pasta B and the green on pasta a for me could be a little bit deeper maybe a little bit darker that would probably be an indication of a higher price point pasta if the green color was more of a deeper darker spinach color the aroma of the pasta doesn't jump out screaming I'm spinach that being said let's check out the texture next I'm just gonna use my hands so the pasta looks like it's been perfectly cooked it still has a good degree of elasticity to it it's not falling apart time to give it a taste yeah there's not much flavor in the vegetable region happening with this particular pasta but as far as the pasta itself it tastes great the textures beautiful it's a really good pasta this pasta actually has like a really beautiful aroma coming off of it you're getting this beautiful slightly floral slightly almost like a lemony aroma coming off the pasta we're gonna pick up pasta B let's give it a bite I can taste the saffron this pasta it's absolutely saffron it's jumping out at me it's screaming that it's saffron just because of that in itself and knowing the price point of what saffron costs I'm gonna go out and say that pasta B in this round is gonna be the more expensive pasta versus pasta a let's see if I'm right oh goodness if you're buying any sort of luxury ingredient is always going to cost more so when you're going out and wanting to buy a specialty or flavored pasta bear in mind the cost of the ingredients that are going into make it will certainly have a huge influence on what the cost of the product is ultimately going to be when you're purchasing it gluten-free pasta is a pasta Ruppel kit that is made with the absence of gluten gluten is that incredible protein that allows for the elasticity or the stretch and making any form of dough many people have in tolerances to gluten and as such pastas have been developed and have made exceptional leaps and bounds in the last 10 years or so within the quality parameters of being able to produce these gluten-free pastas the two most recognized gluten-free pastas on our market are typically made with either rice or corn and I've even seen things made out of nut flours for gluten-free pastas there are gluten-free pastas on on the market that actually cook up quite delicious and really well and aren't even that costly anymore either immediately in front of me we have two very distinctive colors pasta be kind of jumps out at you right it's like an orangish almost looks like a cheeto or Dorito colored that's gonna say to me that that is a corn based pasta and then looking at pasta a this kind of looks more of like a traditional styled rice or brown rice pasta being that rice and brown rice don't have that sort of hue to it it would make sense that this wouldn't have a yellow hue to it it would be more indicative of the grain of what it's being used to make with the only other way to figure this out is to cook them up and try so here we have our cook gluten-free pastas starting off with pasta a the visual that I'm getting out of it is I can already see some noodles that are starting to break apart which could be an indicator of a lower pricepoint gluten free pasta since they're not staying together as well during the cooking process so the next I'm gonna do is gonna take a look at this was sort of that elasticity component behind it and what's really fascinating to me with these gluten-free pastas is that they're able to achieve this sort of elasticity or this little bit of stretch without having the one thing in it that should be creating it let's give it a taste for me it kind of has this sort of interesting mouth coating from this pasta is sort of like creating a film over my tongue it's kind of drying out my mouth a little bit and the texture when you bite into it that interesting elasticity and the pull isn't really translating it to my bite of this it's kind of more crumbling and breaking apart versus chewing so going over to pasta be an elite just looking right at it it looks of being a good quality the color of that what is most likely corn really sort of pops so I guess the last thing we need to do is get on in there and give it a taste pasta B has a little bit of a chew to it it still almost even has that sort of al dente texture to it which is really kind of fascinating by no means is it traditional dried pasta but it's pretty close the one that I think cost more would be pasta B $4 a pound for this gluten free 14:53 for this gluten free but I think the great thing to take away from all this is that if you can't or don't want to eat gluten there are certainly some incredible options out there for you to try to cook up and eat at home the textural difference between the low price point and the high price point certainly was there however the lower price point for an everyday cook if you're eating at home and you want to have gluten-free pasta I don't think you need to spend 1450 pound on a gluten-free product we've looked at tasted and tried a lot of different pastas today and I think one of the most important takeaways is that you don't necessarily need to spend a lot of money to have a great quality product so when you're out there buy and pastas find what's right for you find what you like to eat that meets the means of your budget and just keep on cooking and keep on eating [Music]

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 849,334

Rating: 4.9085832 out of 5

Keywords: pasta, pasta expert, noodle expert, fresh pasta, dry pasta, stuffed pasta, cheap pasta vs expensive pasta, cheap vs expensive, italian food expert, cheap pasta, expensive pasta, pasta reviews, pasta taste test, penne, ravioli, tortellini, gluten free pasta, cheap vs expensive food, pasta comparison, pasta review, pasta test, choose the best pasta, corn pasta, best pasta, most expensive pasta, cheapest pasta, pasta price, pasta prices, cheap vs expensive pasta, epicurious

Id: PaxYlED9h2s

Length: 19min 0sec (1140 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 16 2019