With so any “bleached flour” food products on grocers’ shelves today, discovering this DeCecco Whole Wheat Penne Rigate Pasta was a delicious and healthful experience. I truly enjoy just about all pastas, refined or less so, but have kept clear of it in recent decades because of the high content of refined carbs. However, this DeCecco Pasta in all is less refined; it contains mostly whole wheat. So it’s probably more nutritious. DeCecco whole wheat pasta also provides an appetizing and pleasant, mild taste besides.
Benefits, Pros, Advantages, and Features
- Penne pasta texture can be crunchy, chewy, or very soft, depending on how long you cook it. So DeCecco penne rigate pasta behaves during cooking, and afterwards during the eating, almost just like other more highly refined pastas. Yet its whole-grain content makes it better for you.
- A whole 16 Oz. box of DeCecco Whole Wheat Penne Rigate Pasta cooks up in about twenty-five minutes on my stove. Smaller portions are done more quickly; the box says 12 minutes cooking time.
- During cooking, the pleasant-but-not-overpowering whole-grain smell fills my first floor.
- You sacrifice no taste when you switch to DeCecco Whole Wheat Penne Pasta. Yet you gain some naturally-occurring nutrition for your “trouble.” Try mixing this pasta with steamed carrots and broccoli for an even more filling supper meal.
- This penne pasta is a good source of protein (8 grams per 2 Oz. serving), and it has low per-serving fat and sugar (1.5 grams and 2 grams respectively).
- Not only are DeCecco whole wheat penne rigate pasta noodles a decent source of protein, but the whole-wheat flour used within makes them a great fiber source as well (7 grams of fiber per 2 Oz. serving).
- Just look at the ingredients (from the box): Whole semolina from wheat, and a few added vitamins. What a nutritious yet short list of healthy ingredients!
- DeCecco whole wheat penne rigate pasta has a mild flavor which resembles more traditional pastas. So, this pasta readily compliments cheeses and sauces as flavor enhancers.
- DeCecco pasta products are easy to find in most bigger food grocery chains and health food outlets. I bought my boxes at Walmart.
- During cooking, the boiling water remains pretty clear; not much of this pasta product dissolves into the water, which means more nutrition on your plate, and less product poured down the drain when you strain this penne pasta product.
Disadvantages, Cons, Problems, and Concerns
- Penne pasta required more time to soften and cook than do pasta elbows or spirals, as each noodle is somewhat more massive. No problem though. I just wash a few more dishes until the penne cylinder-shaped noodles finish cooking.
Our Rating
To sum up: I’d definitely recommend DeCecco Whole Wheat Penne Rigate Pasta to those who love pasta, but who, like me, wish to find healthier pasta alternatives to white flour. I’d rate this whole grain pasta product at 99 out of 100.
Where To Buy DeCecco Whole Wheat Penne Rigate Pasta
Look for this healthful product in the graduated amber and blue box with the white letters at your favorite bigger grocers. The box includes a little window on the front to allow you to actually see the noodles. Nice.
References
Revision History
- 2015-01-20: Added whitespace, fixed typos, adjusted ad placement, and rearranged category and tag assignments.
- 2012-03-15: Originally published.