The world is waiting for a nutritional improvement on pasta. No one is buying it any more because everyone is terrified of carbs, and the pasta world has been scrambling to innovate ever since zoodles started coming for its home and children. People also don’t even really want to cook pasta because it can take a whole 8 to 10 minutes, and Barilla has, no joke, moved straight past microwavable pasta to pre-cooked packaged pasta. Enter alternative protein pastas, and specifically, POW! Sharp Cheddar Shells.
POW! boasts 16 grams of protein per serving; normal boxed mac and cheese has but 10. The noodles, made of red lentils and quinoa, are also orange, almost red, which is not clear from the box pictures at all, but tricks your brain into thinking you’re eating that burnt crusty cheese from real oven-baked cheesy pasta. I’ve never had a mac and cheese where the noodles tasted like vegetable chips (the kind that are basically extruded vegetable mash). There are few things in the world like vegetable chips, which you keep eating because you are not sure if you like the taste or not. Eventually you get so used to the taste that you like it by virtue of it being familiar, which is a trick I can appreciate. That is how I would describe this mac and cheese.
The cheese powder smells like feet, like all cheese powders. But the way the noodles bond with the sauce is actually superior to that of regular semolina-based noodles; the lentil noodles give off a lot of starch that bonds with the cheese powder and milk and butter extremely well, creating a very cohesive sauce (using too much butter actually makes it kind of oily, which is about the only thing that will stop me from using excessive butter). I’ve seen gluten-free noodles fall apart before, and these stayed in consistent shell pieces very well in about four minutes of cooking.
Is it better than regular boxed mac and cheese: As a textural/flavor/nutritional experience, actually yes, I think it is.
Does it replace boxed mac and cheese?: It’s only 50 cents more than Annie’s boxed mac, which has no redeeming qualities, so, possibly.
