I grew up with an Italian-American grandfather who loved to cook big pots of spaghetti and meatballs. Now, I consider it one of my feel-good meals — one that always takes me back to their house (where my great-uncle always offered you a glass of amaretto at the end of dinner). The thing is, my family isn’t exactly picky about the pasta we use, and we definitely aren’t making it from scratch. So for my own Sunday suppers, I had to ask chefs: What is the best boxed spaghetti?
Spoiler alert: None of them said Barilla, one of the most popular grocery store brands and the one I currently have in my pantry. But the reason comes down to texture, not necessarily flavor. “Most supermarket spaghetti is extruded through Teflon dies, which results in a slippery texture,” explains Daniel P. Craig, chef and founder of Kitchen Deets. (Barilla’s blue-box pastas are cut this way.)
Instead, chefs prefer pasta cut with bronze dies. “The brass leaves the pasta rough, with little divots that grab sauce,” says Dean White, chef and co-owner of C&W Steakhouse Ballantyne Village in Charlotte, N.C. So next to making it from scratch, here’s the best boxed spaghetti at the grocery store, with noodles that will actually grip your sauce.
Walmart
Craig recommends De Cecco, a bronze-cut pasta sitting on many grocery store shelves. “The best supermarket pasta is not the most expensive. The best supermarket pasta is the one that has a rough texture, because the sauce needs something to stick to,” he says.
Target
Paola Da Re, chef and owner of Pasta Sisters in Los Angeles, spends a lot of time making pasta from scratch using her family’s recipes. (She even sells it at some local grocery stores in southern California.) But for busy families that don’t have a lot of time, she recommends Rummo.
“Their methods, like slow-drying at low temperatures and using bronze dies, contribute to a nice bite and a textured surface that helps the sauce cling to the pasta,” she explains. However, she adds that even when she’s using boxed pasta as a shortcut, she likes to prepare homemade sauce.
Amazon
Yes, this pasta is from Barilla, but it’s not the standard stuff — it’s the brand’s “bronze cut” line. It even claims “excellent sauce grip” right on the packaging.
“As a mom, I’m looking for easy-to-find, economical, but also delicious pasta. And I’ve tried a lot of brands,” says Megan Keno, food blogger and the author of Cast Iron Gourmet. She confirms Al Bronzo is “ideal for holding on to every delectable morsel of sauce. It may be less readily available, but it still beats out other higher cost pastas in my book.”
Amazon
It’s no surprise that most of the best pastas come from Italy. Adriana Urbina, a chef and integrative nutritionist, says her favorite is Mancini. “What makes it special is that they actually grow their own durum wheat in Le Marche, giving them control over the quality of the grain from farm to pasta.”
She adds that as a chef, she appreciates the brand’s attention to the detail, like the quality of the semolina, slow drying, and yes, its use of bronze dies. “The result is pasta with a beautiful rough texture, a rich wheat flavor and an incredible al dente bite,” she says.
More bronze-cut spaghetti options
Of course, if these brands are available in your area, take White’s advice. “I don’t have one brand of pasta I reach for — I have things I look for: made in Italy and extruded through a brass die,” he says. And with that in mind, happy shopping!
Dining and Cooking