Barilla Pronto Review

My latest culinary mission from Smiley 360 was to test out and try Barilla Pronto Pasta (for free!). Below, I've recapped my experience and opinions.

I'm always trying to make cooking dinner both easy and tasty. I've been making a lot of pasta dishes lately and mostly end up with a lot of pots and pans. One pot for boiling the noodles, a strainer to rinse the noodles, a bowl to mix the noodles/sauce/meat/veggies and a serving piece. From using the Barilla Pronto, I've been able to eliminate the strainer and the pot for boiling. I was skeptical at first and even checked the pasta halfway through cooking, but if you follow the directions, the pasta comes out just as if you would boil it. It was actually easier to achieve an al dente texture rather than the soft sometimes gooey texture I achieve while boiling. I think its very important to make sure when adding the water to the pasta in the skillet to cover the pasta entirely or there will be some noodles that don't cook as thoroughly as the others. I found that the boxes were adequate in terms of portions and that I had enough in each box for at least 4-5 people once the recipe was complete.


Since Target is my favorite store, when I ran out of the two boxes of noodles that I received in my kit, I headed to Target to pick up more. There are 5 varieties of noodle shape available in Barilla Pronto! So far, I've tried the elbow, penne, and spaghetti noodles and have had success with each. Also, I was amazed that the pricing is virtually the same for the *regular* noodles and also the Pronto noodles. For some reason, I assumed that for the added convenience, there would be an upcharge. Nope!


The first box of pasta that I tried was the Barilla Pronto Spaghetti noodles that came with my Smiley 360 kit.

If looking for recipes, the Barilla website has a lot of tasty ones---with pictures! I haven't branched out too far. I did use the recipe for the elbows mac 'n' cheese. This was tasty and easy to make! I also followed and tweaked a little bit the recipe for the Barilla spaghetti with Barilla spicy marinara. I used regular marinara and chicken, but the recipe still turned out.

I've shared baked ziti that I made with the Barilla Pronto Penne with family and neighbors (I really like baked ziti...) and most everyone said they could not tell the difference. One person said the noodles weren't as soft/gooey.

I have to admit, I was skeptical at first about not boiling the noodles first, but after trying different recipes and the fact that the price is reasonable/not much more than *regular* noodles, I think I will stick with Barilla Pronto.