Don't Buy This New Trader Joe's Product—You Already Have It At Home

I am not immune to Trader Joe’s shiny new product displays on most trips to the grocery store, but on a recent trip, one product in particular made me said, “No way—I have that at home already!,” and walk away. 

The Organic Pasta Quintet had a very cute hand-illustrated sign, touting it as “five fun and festive pasta shapes...in a single bag,” but it didn’t sway me. Why? Because I know better than to pay for pasta "orphans", a.k.a. the small amounts of pasta leftover in a box after cooking a few meals (or one hearty dish).

Instead, I collect my pasta "orphans" in containers or resealable bags when I don’t boil an entire pound of pasta at once—I am a single woman, living alone, after all—and mix them together for pasta roulette nights. Sometimes it’s for mac ‘n’ cheese, other times with red sauce or pesto, and even in pasta salad. It delights me to mix-and-match pasta shapes for a variance of textures, and helps me feel less wasteful. 

I understand that I don’t have this exact combination of small pastas—mini versions of fusilli, wheels, shells, cavatappi, and spirals—on hand right now, so I don’t technically have it at home already. But the concept is something that I think we should all embrace, opting to mismatch and use up what we have rather than buy something new.

The only thing you have to consider when combining pasta orphans is their cook times. I try to use pastas that are within a minute or two of each other in the suggested cook time, but even if some are a little more toothsome or slightly soggy, it won’t ruin your pasta jumble experience. 

There is one potential benefit to buying the $2 Organic Pasta Quintet bag, which is the high quality of all of the mixed pastas. Trader Joe’s says on its website that it is of the highest quality from an Italian pasta maker sourcing “locally-grown, Organic durum wheat semolina, then going the extra mile to mill the flour themselves.” The shapes are then bronze-cut to “cook up delightfully al dente.” I admittedly don’t always buy the finest, highest quality pasta, so my mixture may not be as high-end, but I think it’s worth it to save myself a trip to the store—and further hone my impulse control at TJ's. Pasta la vista, baby!