We Bought 7 Kinds Of Pasta From Dollar Tree And This Was The Best

Finding out that Dollar Tree stocks a full selection of pasta is a home cook's dream come true. While full-fledged grocery stores may list boxes of name-brand penne and spaghetti at $1.99 and up, this low-priced emporium keeps its noodle business squarely at the $1.25 mark. At a price like that, you can afford to stock your pantry for future meals without feeling like you just spent a ton of money on food that might not get eaten. You can also indulge in a little guilt-free experimenting with new pasta shapes.

If you're looking for Dollar Tree hacks to make dinners on a budget, you're going to want to know which of these pastas suits you best, and that calls for an old-fashioned taste test that puts every box of noodles in a head-to-head competition. To make a fair estimation of how Dollar Tree pastas stack up against one another, I bought a box of every style I could find and headed to the kitchen to boil some water and make some noodles. An easy sampling with a little olive oil and a little salt gave me just enough data to compile the comparison that follows. You can learn more about my methodology at the end. It was tasty work, but somebody had to do it — and I'm glad it was me.

Sometimes referred to as spaghettini, thin spaghetti is just a more delicate version of its sturdier cousin, so I watched carefully for breakage with these skinny noodles. If the easiest spaghetti recipes you'll ever try call for delicate strands that stay in one piece, you need noodles that hold up until they hit the hot water. Otherwise, you might as well cook regular spaghetti and call it dinner.

Speaking of which, the noodles in this box aren't really much thinner than the regular spaghetti. That's a huge letdown if you're planning on more elegant pasta for the dish you have in mind, though it still tastes and cooks as well as standard spaghetti. But I was pretty surprised when I opened the box and saw the similarities. It turns out Dollar Tree seems to sell just one cut of spaghetti in two different boxes. That's the definition of a pasta bummer.

For the similarities in width, texture, and taste, thin spaghetti shares the bottom spot with plain old spaghetti. I got duped, so you won't have to. Either way, you get some workable noodles.

If you're thinking "spaghetti is spaghetti" and that Columbia spaghetti couldn't be wildly different from any other brand, you're correct. As with the thin spaghetti, I was looking for a texture that holds up. Sometimes, spaghetti can be a bit delicate and break before you get it in the pot. If Dollar Tree spaghetti passed the breakage test, I reasoned it was bound to pass the cooking and tasting tests with flying colors.

What I learned from trying this spaghetti is that it's not better or worse than any other spaghetti you've ever tried. It's definitely sturdy, and it cooks into strands that don't turn to mush or fall apart when you move them out of the pot. On the other hand, it's just spaghetti, which is about as unimpressive as pasta can get. So while you're not getting anything less out of Dollar Tree's version, you're not getting anything more, either. Prepared right, at least it's enough to let you eat spaghetti like a true Italian, and that's worth the price of admission.

Grandma's classic pasta salad and your favorite one-pot mac and cheese recipe depend on proper elbow macaroni that doesn't split apart or turn mushy when cooked. There's no sense in risking your dish over cheap pasta that doesn't keep its shape, and a box from Dollar Tree is a prime suspect for having mish-mash potential. The noodles in the box give the appearance of every other elbow macaroni I've ever seen, but looks can be deceiving. The ingredients that hold it all together only show their true colors when the heat is on.

The little curved pasta does exactly what it's supposed to, which is neither great nor disappointing. It didn't turn mushy and break apart like I've seen boxed mac and cheese noodles do, but it also didn't stand out as a pasta to use in place of better noodles. Maybe I just don't have a great sense of the potential here, but it feels like macaroni is somewhat separated from the more enticing world of shaped pasta. You won't be wasting your money if you pick up a box, but you could be getting something far more exciting for the same price.

You'd never use lasagna noodles for anything other than lasagna — or would you? I've been itching to experiment with a homemade plant-based lasagna, so I thought I could test the noodles outside of the pan, boiling them like any other pasta to get a preview of what they'd do when worked into their intended recipe. But instead of attempting a full-fledged lasagna, I gave the noodles a little cook-up and tried them on their own.

I'm glad I did it this way. Sure, it's a lot of pasta all in one strip, so you wouldn't just eat a bowlful and call it a meal. But I discovered that this is the perfect form for creating gourmet dishes like lasagna wraps, where a meatball or a slice of sausage is wrapped in a noodle, drizzled with sauce and cheese, and heated in an oven to be served as an appetizer. You may already know several different ways to make lasagna, in which this box can be a power player, so what's one more? Without seeing this noodle in its floppy form, I never would have thought a deconstructed lasagna bar bite was possible. Accidental discoveries are the best.

Tube pasta is perfect for holding heavy sauces and thick meat-based toppings, and penne is a smooth operator that's just right for the job. But when the tubes break and lay flat due to poor construction or subpar formulation of the noodle components, you end up with sad slabs of flour-based dough that ruin the party. I was on the lookout for penne that kept its perk, properly cooked to its al dente doneness. Anyone can overcook penne until it falls apart, but if it can't even hold up to a firmer finish, you're cooked before your dish is served.

Columbia penne performed admirably, softening up just enough to be toothy without resisting. The angled ends were on point, and even though I only doctored them up with olive oil and sea salt, I could tell these tubes would be willing participants in some of my best-loved recipes. I'm already planning a penne bake with the remaining noodles, and there will be plenty left for whatever inspiration strikes next. And all for $1.25.

My favorite pasta shape (let's be honest, we all have one) is rotini, the perky corkscrew slide on the pasta playground. Something about the way sauce and toppings cling to the spirals gives me maximum pleasure in my pasta pursuits, no matter what dish I cook. More than any of the other selections on the list, I was hopeful for this one to perform admirably and provide a new alternative to higher-priced swirly noodles. Would they keep their screwball shape when cooked, or would they split into strange pieces that no fork could pick up? The suspense was practically unbearable.

Luckily, my rotini wishes turned into a tasty reality. These curls were nice and tight, holding my olive oil and salt toppings with ease. The mouthfeel was as advertised, with a firm chew that adds to the texture of bigger dishes while giving everything from marinara to Alfredo something substantial to stick to. Maybe it's unwise to be so excited about a pasta that didn't make the top spot, but that's because there's another that's just a tiny bit better.

This flavorful pasta is sometimes a forgotten option in the noodle universe. The inclusion of eggs in the recipe ramps up the flavor and lets you play fast and loose with your favorite dishes. Its expansive shape means you can enjoy it as part of stroganoff or a simple vegetable primavera-style toss. Since Dollar Tree offers a bag from a brand called Founders Street that provides delightfully wiggly twists of pasta for your dining pleasure, I thought it was worth adding to the test kitchen. It's important to have options in the pasta game, and this bag expands the possibilities.

I was delighted to find these egg noodles were a bit longer than expected, with the telltale frilled edges that make them fun to look at and to dig into. The slightly eggy flavor may have tested my usual no meat, no eggs, no dairy rules, but it's a necessary aspect that elevates the notion of noodles. This is the go-to pasta to take you beyond the realm of your usual Italian pasta dishes and explore other culinary avenues. For versatility, presentation, and all-around enjoyment, Founders Street egg noodles are a list-topper. It's time to haul out those simple egg noodle recipes and get cooking.

I was surprised to learn that Dollar Tree had such a wide selection of different pastas. While I expected the basics — macaroni, spaghetti, and maybe ziti — the range was substantial. I gathered up a box of every option I could find. Rating the price was easy, since every selection boasts the same price tag of $1.25. Comparing that to the prices of chain grocers, you could save $0.75 per box or more, which can add up quickly if pasta is a big part of your dining life. 

Once I had my pastas, I boiled a handful of each in separate pots (yes, it took a while, but not as long as I expected) and sampled them with a simple olive oil and salt combination as my toppings. I wanted to make sure the base flavor of each type was as indistinct as possible. This may sound strange, but plain pasta isn't really meant to be tasted. If it has a flavor that could rise above your additional ingredients, you should know about it ahead of time.

Fortunately, all I tasted was flour, oil, and salt, and in the case of the egg noodles, a little eggy richness. I also attended to the texture of each, since pasta that falls apart and pasta that doesn't chew are both problems you should avoid when buying bargain pasta. Aside from the strangeness of the spaghetti versus thin spaghetti situation, all pastas played nicely in the pot, with egg noodles ultimately coming out on top.