welcome to pasta quest 2025! i decided on a whim that one of my new year's resolutions would be to sample and review a bunch of pasta shapes.
I reserve the right to retroactively change ratings based on a changing scale.
whole wheat penne
decimated tomatoes
decimated tomatoes
two
whole wheat penne + decimated tomatoes
1/6/25
I bought whole wheat penne during my first grocery trip of the year, since my usual grocery store doesn't always have it. I've been disappointed by it in the past, but I figured I should give it a chance (and a proper review for the Quest).
The dish was inspired by esteeayen's decimated tomatoes recipe - I added steamed broccoli and some frozen chicken to beef it up, and kind of freestyled the spices since I don't have garden vegetable grill seasoning. I added a lot of basil. It was VERY tasty - the sweet acidity of the tomatoes combined with the spices was really good. I don't think I added enough salt or cheese, but that's a note for next time. My oven seems to run a little cold - I couldn't get the tomatoes to blacken until I turned up the temp to 375. But overall quite successful - definitely making this again.
I made a whole wheat pasta dish in the fall and didn't love the texture, but combined with the squishy tomatoes it was actually really nice. The whole wheat gets a little gritty when you chew it down, but since I was expecting it I didn't mind it this time.