Tips for saving money on pasta as suggested by the ThriftyFun community.
I always buy pasta in the bulk section. It is all pretty much the same quality and it is so much cheaper. I store it in canisters or leftover canning jars from spaghetti, it keeps for a long time. If I have a little bit of different shapes left over, I will just mix them together and use them for pasta salad or in soup.
By Jess
We have used the cheapest pasta our entire lifetime. It is perfectly fine. However, I find the duram wheat pastas really do cook up better and hold up better for leftovers or freezing leftovers. They keep their "bite". Barilla is my preference and it goes on sale all the time and has coupons out, too. There are only 2 of us eating though.
I haven't had much luck with whole wheat or whole grain pastas as far as taste or texture and they are pricey. Full Circle Organic thin spaghetti is the only one I have tried and liked.
I have never tried them but the pastas in the Hispanic section of the grocery store (or at an ethnic grocery if you have one) are inexpensive and come in many different shapes, especially cute little shapes for soups etc.
By KL
My husband loves homemade chicken soup and his grandmother used to make the noodles for the soup. So I looked on line for a pasta recipe that would be simple and remind my husband of "the good old days". I found a recipe that required a tiny bit of butter, flour, 2 eggs, milk, and a pinch of salt. It made a soft dough, which I formed into a ball, let it set for 10 minutes, rolled it out thin and used a small water bottle lid and cut out a bunch of little circles. I put them in the chicken soup and boiled it for 3 minutes. It was so good. I will never make chicken noodle soup any other way, besides it brought a satisfied smile to my husband's face.
By Linda M.
A lot of times the grocery stores that I go to have the pasta on sale, the brand name stuff instead of their brand. So I try to stock up then, they are sometimes $1.
I am always amazed to see the prices people pay for pasta sauce, some are $5 for a small 16 ounce jar! I buy the Contadina "105" oz (this is not a typo) can at Sam's for under $2. Cooks always add their own touch of seasoning to even the expensive stuff, so why not save money and add your own spices to the basic tomato sauce, it's way better.
I chop 2 large onions, fry in olive oil, add 6 toes of chopped garlic when the onions are done. Cook till you smell the garlic. Pour in about 1 or 2 cups of sauce, some fresh or frozen basil leaf and simmer on low for 20 minutes. Remove from heat add another cup of sauce to cool it down, put in a blender and liquefy, return to pot. Add the rest of the sauce and cook for 30 minutes. (My kids won't eat anything with a visible onion in it )
You then freeze this sauce. When you want Pizza sauce, add pizza seasonings to thawed sauce, or add the Encherito dry mix for Mexican dishes. Meat adds a flavor of its own, as does chicken. It is very versatile sauce and so cheap! Generic pasta is fine but Americans tend to overcook their pasta, it tastes better al dente, tender to the teeth.
By Diane Bove
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