Barilla Pronto Pasta

[Alex Wallace]

Has anyone tried Barilla's new Pronto pasta? Sounds like it would work well on the trail. Is it just cooked and dehydrated?

Barilla® Pronto™
PREPARE PASTA IN ONE PAN.
NO BOILING. NO DRAINING.

Change the way you think about cooking pasta! Introducing Barilla® Pronto™, the easy-to-prepare pasta that is ready in minutes. Barilla® Pronto™ is prepared in one pot or pan – no need to wait for water to boil, and no draining required! Available in five delicious shapes (Spaghetti, Penne, Elbows, Linguine and Rotini), Barilla Pronto will help make your pasta mealtime prep faster and easier – all in one pan!

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

I have used this at home to make lasagna, you just lay it out like cooked meals and bake it in the sauce. I am not sure why you would need to cook and dehydrate it, use it like cooked pasta but make sure that you can immerse it in a sauce and simmer for a while.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

You can cold cook pasta in its liquid easily. It isn't precooked, just made thinner and shorter for a quick cook.
I used the same method for many recipes – in one pot meals –
http://www.trailcooking.com/one-pot-meals/one-pot-pasta-chicken/

You can of course cook and dehydrate most pastas for instant pasta :-)

[Alex Wallace]

"You can of course cook and dehydrate most pastas for instant pasta :-)"

Yes, and that's what I thought Barilla had done with their "Pronto" pastas, but I guess not. Thanks for the insight.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

I was excited too when I first saw it and then was "oh, what! I have been doing this all along!!" My favorite pasta dishes at home I cook a pound of pasta in about 5 cups liquid in a pot. It is easy and quick!

[chris smead]

Sorry if something went over my head here….but does barrilla pronto rehydrate much quicker? Does it work in a freezer bag?

I've tried freezer bagging regular pasta with very crunchy results….

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

It doesn't – wish it did!

Btw, for truly instant FBC friendly pasta, that is easy:
Cook pasta, but cut time by 2 minutes. Drain, rinse and drain. Spread out and dyhydrate, till well, hard. Store tightly sealed, for up to a year.
To "cook", just pour boiling (or heck even warm) water over the pasta, let sit for 5 to 15 minutes, drain and proceed.

[Alex Wallace]

Thank you, Sarah. Can you recommend a commercially available instant pasta (already cooked and dehydrated)? Bonus points for availability at chain grocery stores.

[Gary Dunckel]

Isn't generic ramen cooked then dehydrated? A week ago I experimented with some. I put a full block of ramen in a pot, added cool tap water to cover it, placed the lid, and I let it sit for maybe 1.5 hours. It was perfectly al dente. This gave me some ideas for on-trail options without using much fuel.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Yep, ramen is fried and dried. Which is why you can rehydrate it with cold water BTW, and make pasta salads with it.

[Bill Giles]

According to Wikipedia, ramen instant noodles in North America may be fried or air dried. Does anyone know of brands of ramen noodles that are air dried?

[Bill Giles]

Myojo Chukazanmai Instant Ramen appear to be air dried. An article on them can be found here:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/09/taste-test-fancy-pants-instant-ramen-from-myo.html

Edit: Spelling

[Michael Gunderloy]

A search on Amazon for 'air dried ramen' turns up a bunch of choices.

http://www.amazon.com/GreeNoodle-Variety-Pack-25-count/dp/B00K96APHS looks interesting. Though a lot pricier than the ten-for-a-buck variety.

[Bill Giles]

The air dried noodles are pretty pricey and the seasoning packets are still loaded with MSG. It only matters if you absolutely must have ramen. Par cooking and dehydrating noodles seems to be the most economical way to go. Defrydrated ramen isn't necessarily bad trail food, as long as you know what kind of oil was used to fry it.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Baked ramen used to be easier to find – but it was never popular. It was OK overall, but honestly, the fried type has a much different texture.

Now then….. Chuka Soba noodles, sold in the Asian section of many grocery stores is basically baked ramen. It isn't exactly instant. But can be soaked for 5 to 10 minutes and eaten just fine. Pricey though.

And as always, toss the ramen "flavor" packets. You can do a lot better ;-)

[Alex Wallace]

Yeah, of course ramen, but what about others. Something like angel hair, penne, macaroni, etc.? Does this mean that I'm going to actually have to (gasp) cook and dehydrate?! For pasta, will the super low oven as a dehydrator work?

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Yes, oven will work just fine!

Pasta needs movement in lots of water to cook right – and also to avoid a starch out, unless the recipe is using said starch to provide a thick sauce ;-)

[Cody Hallenbeck]

So I saw this thread, and today I saw some Barilla Pronto Pasta in the store–on sale! I had to give it a try. I used 4oz (by weight) of the penne with 9oz(by weight) water, which was just enough to cover it, and set it up over my trifold esbit stove with a simple homemade windscreen in a 550ml Toaks titanium mug with an ambient of about 65f and room temp water. It started boiling over at about 5 minutes. I removed it, insulated it in a down hood for about 6 minutes, and then checked on it. There was still some water at the bottom of the pot and it was slightly overdone. I drained the pasta, and am eating it as I write this with stir fried veggies, vegetarian sausage, and marinera sauce. Its pretty good–a touch overcooked, but not at all starchy like pasta usually is when cooked in low volumes of water. My remaining esbit fuel weighs 6g, but i could have used less. Overall, I'm impressed how at how good of a trail food this can be, and will bring it on future trips. Would be good for single pot or bag meals. Now all i have to do is reverse engineer the backpackers country "lasagna" that I weirdly love.

[Alex Wallace]

@Cody, Thanks for posting your experience!

[Don A.]

As a slight aside to this thread, if anyone is interested in further info about Ramen this site is kind of fun: The Ramen Rater

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