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See why.Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles
When last year’s whole wheat spaghetti tasting turned up more than one pasta that offered pleasantly nutty flavor and tender-firm chew, we wondered if the trend extended to noodle shapes like lasagna.
Published Sept. 1, 2011. Appears in Cook's Illustrated September/October 2011, America's Test Kitchen TV Season 12: Vegetarian Pasta Night
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When last year’s whole wheat spaghetti tasting turned up more than one pasta that offered pleasantly nutty flavor and tender-firm chew, we wondered if the trend extended to noodle shapes like lasagna. We sampled four national brands—three made from 100 percent whole wheat flour and one a whole wheat/white flour blend—plain and baked in our Vegetable Lasagna.
We thought the most important factor driving our preferences would be the type of lasagna noodle: Three of the samples were traditional noodles that must be cooked before layering into the casserole, while the fourth was a no-boil product. Our recipes typically call for no-boil noodles (which are precooked and dehydrated before packaging) because we find their thinner, more delicate texture closer to that of fresh pasta. They’re also a cinch to work with.
As it turned out, we thought wrong: Tasters’ likes and dislikes were mainly grouped around wheat flavor. As they had during the spaghetti tasting, tasters panned noodles that were too gritty and cardboard-y. But pasta that too closely resembled the white kind—including the no-boil lasagna—wasn’t their top pick either. Our champ turned out to be none other than our whole wheat spaghetti winner. Tasters appreciated this brand’s complex flavor and substantial chew so much that they were willing to put up with the extra step of boiling the traditional noodles.
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Like their spaghetti sibling, these 100 percent whole wheat lasagna sheets won us over with their “nutty,” “rich” wheat flavor and a texture that was pleasantly “chewy” without being gritty.
Thin and wafer-like, these no-boil noodles won fans for their delicate texture, which “rivals that of traditional pasta.” Flavorwise, tasters were on the fence. Some liked that these sheets could “pass for white flour noodles”; others wished they packed more of a wheaty punch.
The only blended pasta of the bunch, these noodles had “good structure that holds up well to sauce and cheese.” But as they had with the DeLallo lasagna, tasters criticized the noodles for a flavor that wasn’t white—but wasn’t whole wheat either.
Recommended with reservations
Their dark tan color was the first indication that these last-place noodles were seriously wheaty. A few tasters praised their “nutty” flavor, but most found the whole grain flavor overwhelming. As one taster summed it up: “This is like eating burlap.”
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