What's the point of colored pasta if it has no flavor?

[stratford]

Is it just for looks that spinach or tomato is added to the raw pasta to make it green or red, that's sold in specialty stores or boxed pastas? You can't even taste the spinach or tomato in it! Seems so pointless.

[aces551]

As "Cheese Boy" stated, above, it's an easy way to get a serving of vegetables into everyone's diet. That reason's good enough for me. Especially when feeding kids, etc.

And it is also visually appealing.

Here's a quote from Ronzoni's site:
"Ronzoni® Garden Delight™, the pasta that provides a full serving of vegetables in every 4 ounce portion. Without compromising the great taste your family loves, you can now give them the goodness of vegetables in each serving of Ronzoni Garden Delight."

I personally wish it did have more flavor, taste like tomato or spinach, etc. but maybe flavor varies with quality or from brand to brand.

[Sharuf]

The best pasta al pesto I ever had was made with fresh green fettuccine. So, ever since, whenever I make pesto I use green pasta. The aesthetics seem so right.

[shaogo]

Most brands we've tried are colored just for aesthetics.

We have made roasted red pepper pasta, parsley pasta and spinach pasta that was not only colorful but very delicious.

The best-tasting "flavored" pasta I ever bought was at the now-closed Balducci's: artichoke. Boy, was that good.

[Whats_For_Dinner]

I've had some brands of dried multicoloured pasta where the flavours have been noticeably different -- not necessarily in a good way, though. I want my pasta to taste like pasta (maybe I'm crazy.)

What I definitely agree about is the loss of texture. With some brands of shaped pasta I've had (I tend to get a ton as gifts, for some reason) the carrot or spinach ones, or whatever, will literally be falling apart when the plain pasta (which it's inconveniently mixed with) isn't even nearing al dente.
Even when it is perfectly done, it tends to be mushy, and yeah, reheats badly.

I have yet to try making fresh flavoured pasta -- I have a fair amount of spinach right now and I've been meaning to do it just to see if it's worth doing.

[hungrybunnie]

I actually do taste the difference. It's just a faint hint, but it's definitely there.

[Jeanne]

I taste the difference too. The only "colored" I use is spinach pasta - I get a good Italian brand and it doesn't lose texture. I've also made it.

[enbell]

do you recall the brand?

[enbell]

(Albeit slightly) different nutritional benefits?

[boagman]

Because there's always going to be some nitwit out there who thinks that they can "improve" something by making it more disgusting? Is that the point?

[Cheese Boy]

Fresh out of the Ronzoni test lab. And don't they look pretty?
Ronzoni's claim is that the consumer is provided with a full serving of vegetables in every 4 ounce portion. Now that's an "improvement" for somebody out there, isn't it?

Ronzoni --> http://ronzonigardendelight.newworldp...

[RGC1982]

The color, I think, is just for esthetics. My biggest complaint is that the texture is mushier, and it is impossible to reheat. Things like tortellini and penne should make decent leftovers, but the colored pasta seems to disintegrate.

I like the reds, greens and yellows, but I grew up in a family that considered squid ink to be "waste" (worse description was used in Italian), so I can't bring myself to want to eat pasta colored with squid ink.

[The Dairy Queen]

But, unlike the tomato and spinach pastas, in the case of squid ink, I do think it imparts a flavor, a faint fishy flavor...

~TDQ

[almansa]

What's the point of striped wrapping paper when solid colors work just fine?