I have two brands of spaghetti, and I'm wondering if anyone can shed insight into which one of them has better quality.
I have been cooking a certain brand X of spaghetti for some time. When cooking, the noodles sort of float and play around near the top of the pot, making it easier for me to grab a piece and test for firmness. The resulting pasta water is pale or off-white.
On the other hand, another brand Z of spaghetti seems to be denser and sticks to the bottom during cooking. At the start, upon dumping into boiling water, the pasta softens/flexes much sooner than brand X. Finally, the resulting pasta water is more yellow in color. Because brand Z spaghetti sinks at the bottom of the deep pot, it has to be stirred constantly, to avoid overcooking and fusing of noodle strands.
As cooked, the Brand X spaghetti is thicker than Brand Z – both cooked to my own standard of al dente, around 9 minutes.
Without knowing the price of the two brands, would anyone be able to tell any tell-tale factors of quality for store bought spaghetti noodles?
Best Answer
Are these fresh pastas or dried? That might explain the differences in cooking "behaviors"- however, I agree completely with mrog- I would just go with which ever one you like more.