That’s disappointing 😕 I’d probably not even inflict it on the minions and just toss it.

Whip up something quick like spaetzle to go with your sauce.

Thanks! I didn't make the sauce. I have good pasta to use with it.... Not cute, but tasty.

Ugh, I’ve been there and it is disappointing.

I'm very careful about what pasta I buy, and I don't even care that much about the price. In Culver City, I would go to Sorrento Deli to buy pasta, as they have a large selection that is imported from Italy, and everything I've bought there has been very good. I'm going to have to find an Italian deli in Palm Springs, but that should not be difficult. Otherwise, I can buy pasta at Gelson's in Rancho Mirage.

Well, there is this market in Palm Springs, but their selection of pasta is rather limited, especially compared to Sorrento. I'll have to see what Trader Joe's has the next time I go there, but that has not where I've bought pasta in the past.

Wondering if it was one of those 'alternative' type pastas made from rice or beans, etc.?

Nope. I found the label. I usually buy Italian die cut, same priciples as Lars, though from local stores. This says ”organic durum wheat semolina sourced from Puglia, Italy.” and ”Product of Italy”. With a Trader Joe's label. I tried a piece this morning and the surface tasted okay, but as one chewed, the same white flour taste. I don't season the pasta water if there's going to be a coating, so I'm comparing bare to bare. It's ridiculously bad.

And when we've talked about the starch water's usage, I've said there isn't sufficient starch in my pasta water for that to work. Well, I used a skimmer to remove the pasta because I'd been having a clumsy day, and what was left was a black-enameled-inside pot, paper white with starch! I thought of nothing so much as the cheap macaroni that was widely used when I was a kid (and my mother got the real stuff from the Italian deli). This awful pasta must be from the cheap macaroni factory of Italy!

Oh, and my favorite macaroni for M&C is Barilla protein+, which has pea protein added, which gives it extra strength for dense cheese, and is tasty. And, it's discontinued, but my favorite spaghetti was DeBoles whole wheat with Jerusalem artichoke flour, and I also liked Tolerant brand organic black bean penne which was just black bean with no wheat flour. Those had to be watched carefully because they went from crunchy to waterlogged inhalf a minute. The regular, high quality, dried wheat pasta is more forgiving, but it also has texture and flavor.

Was it organic cascatelli? I've been buying that here and like it a lot.

Or was it one of these?

I've been enjoying their organic pastas for years and never had such an experience - I wonder if what you had was really old or something?

I couldn't tell you about old, but I've only had it a few months. It's the one that says Gigli. It absorbed the water normally, so couldn't have been too old, right? It might just be a bad bag—I trust you and believe you've had good ones. Maybe it got over heated in shipping? I mean, all I did was boil it, as one does with dry pasta, and it's so bad. It's not under or over, just cooked, but falling apart and bad tasting. I made soup today (no pasta). It came out fine. ;)

Success! I held out the bag of cooked pasta to one of the minions and her eyes lit up! I told her exactly what it was and that I didn't like it, and she was fine with that, ;)

She's nuts!

ROTFL! I don't care. More power to her if she figures out something nice. The only rescue I could think of was noodle kugel, and who wants that much noodle kugel?

I probably would 😋

I would have guessed overcooked if it had not just happened to us recently. A fiocchetti that was under, under, then aldente,...seconds later mush and water-logged. I had enough to try a couple more times...steamed, pan seared. Still awful and no flavor at all.

DH had a funky stomach a month ago. After 24hours of my homemade master stock, a dumpling or noodle sounded good. Yuck. Wrong texture.

I think I tried the gigli before and it cooked up rather like a wide egg noodle - can't recall it falling apart or any off taste, tho.

Someone on Gardenweb recommended the trofie, and we like it. Cascatelli is really good too - that's the new pasta shape invented by Dan Pashman

Yeah, the edges coming off was overcooked style behavior, but the rest of it was just barely cooked through. I was standing over it, waiting for it. Actual egg noodles have flavor. I looked at the label again yesterday and it said something about keeping in a cool place, reinforcing my guess that it got overheated in transit. I dunno. ”still awful and no flavor at all” sounds familiar. :) Colleen, if you weren't half a world away, I'd make you a big dish of noodle kugle!