Sep 23, 2012 By The Editors Of Consumer Reports 3 min read

Standard-issue semolina pasta, low in fat and sodium, isn’t exactly an evil food, but that doesn’t stop manufacturers from trying to make it better, according to Consumer Reports. One way: Boost pasta’s fiber, either by using whole grains or by adding fiber sources such as oats, inulin or legume flour blend. Another way: Add nutrients such as calcium, folic acid, iron, thiamine or omega-3s.

A recent survey by the Food Marketing Institute found that the proportion of consumers who reported they were buying more foods with “plus” claims was up 32 percent compared with a year earlier. Consumer Reports’ trained tasters sampled 13 such good-for-you spaghettis, sans sauce.

Taste. Among whole-grain pastas, the two Very Good choices are store brands. Whole Foods’ 365 Everyday Value Organic Whole Wheat and Trader Joe’s Organic Whole Wheat are sweet and nutty, with a chewy texture. (That’s a good thing.) Other choices lost points for, among other issues, crumbly texture and cardboardy flavor. Lowest-rated Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Whole Grain is not only crumbly but pasty and very bitter.

Two of the Very Good added-nutrient spaghettis, Dreamfields Healthy Carb Living and Ronzoni Smart Taste Thin, are much like regular pasta, but the third, Ronzoni Garden Delight, has a carrot flavor, despite a website claim that its carrot, tomato and spinach ingredients “cleverly hide” in the pasta.

Consumer Reports’ trained tasters tried the lower-rated brands with tomato sauce to see whether it masked their faults. It didn’t.

Nutrition. Most of the spaghettis earned a nutrition score of Very Good or Good, based on calories per gram, fats, sodium, sugars, iron, calcium and fiber. Almost all have more fiber than regular spaghetti — 5 or 6 grams per 1-cup serving (cooked) vs. about 2 grams. (The recommended daily value for fiber is about 25 grams for a person eating 2,000 calories per day.) Just keep in mind that 1 cup of pasta isn’t much. Scarf down the contents of a big bowl, and you’ll consume far more calories than advertised.

Bottom line. The five recommended spaghettis — 365 Everyday Value Organic Whole Wheat (Whole Foods), Trader Joe’s Organic Whole Wheat, Dreamfields Healthy Carb Living, Ronzoni Smart Taste Thin and Ronzoni Garden Delight — taste very good, and most provide 5 grams of fiber. No pasta is pricey, but whole-wheat and added-nutrient types tend to cost a bit more than the regular type. Among the recommended products, Trader Joe’s is the least expensive, at 17 cents per serving — less than half the cost of Dreamfields. Try any pasta with Consumer Reports’ top-rated tomato sauce, Giada De Laurentiis (Target). And if you’re cooking for a crowd, note that many products no longer come in a 1-pound package. Sizes ranged from 12 ounces to 17.5 ounces.

THUMBS-UP FOR CHICKEN FINGERS

Call them strips, nuggets, fingers or tenders, those boneless pieces of fried chicken are an American staple. To see whose chicken would make you cross the road, Consumer Reports sent two trained tasters to three different locations of five big restaurant chains: Country Kitchen, Cracker Barrel, Denny’s, IHOP and Perkins. Chicken-finger meals usually include two side dishes: Tasters ordered mashed potatoes and broccoli (carrots at Cracker Barrel).

Bottom line. Perkins wins. Its fingers were the only ones whose chicken flavor stood up to the crust. Its broccoli tasted freshly steamed, and its potatoes were fully flavored. Cracker Barrel’s sides were also tasty, but those from Country Kitchen, IHOP and Denny’s were less successful: The broccoli was flavorful but waterlogged; the potatoes had that fake-butter flavor found in some microwaved popcorn.