Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Does dried pasta ever 'expire'?

Long PastaImage via Wikipedia




I returned today to Gourmet Marketplace in Little Ferry, where I found products from Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood on my first visit Dec. 15. 


I wanted to get a few bottles of a great-tasting balsamic vinegar of Modena called Ponti, 99 cents for a 16.9 ounces (look for the word "primus" on the label).


Imported Lensi-brand Italian pasta was on sale for only 50 cents a pound, but when I got home, I saw "Jan. 17, 2010" on one of the packages and wondered if that was an expiration date. 


Does dried pasta "expire"? Do you remember the TV commercial that said dried pasta outlasts most marriages?


I bought a 16-ounce package of spaghetti and another of fettuccine. I also saw ziti, but you have to buy four, one-pound packages for $2.


Gourmet Marketplace is in the former Valley Fair 
on Bergen Turnpike, near the Little Ferry Circle,
now called Value Fair. Credit-card minimum.




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3 comments:

  1. I don't know if it necessarily expires but the expiration dates are usually 2-3 years down the road so that pasta might of been around a while. I seem to remember my mother's aunt keeping pasta in the fridge, don't know if that helps preserve the life. Either way, great deal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. I'll let you know when I cook some, maybe later this week.

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  3. I did cook both types of pasta, and they tasted fine -- indistinguishable from dried pasta that had not expired. So I'm not sure how much use the dates are.

    ReplyDelete

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Hackensack, NJ, United States
Starting in 1979, I was a reporter, copy editor and food writer at The Record of Hackensack, N.J. A downsizing forced me to retire in May 2008. I had nearly 40 years' experience at daily newspapers in the Northeast, 29 of them at The Record. I now write two blogs, Do You Really Know What You're Eating? (which focuses on food shopping and finding pure ingredients for home-cooked meals) and Eye on The Record (a critical look at a once-great suburban daily newspaper in northern New Jersey). I feel newspapers such as The Record abandoned their readers long before they stopped reading the papers. Follow me at www.twitter/vsasson