Ronzoni Smart Taste is the first white pasta to be enriched with fiber and calcium. This pasta has three times the fiber of regular pasta, and calcium equal to an eight-ounce glass of milk. It’s also lower in calories and fat than traditional pasta.
Ronzoni Smart Taste comes in five varieties: elbows, rotini, spaghetti, thin spaghetti and penne rigati. We tried the spaghetti.
Ingredients
I was a little concerned that to get the added fiber, they’d have to add all kinds of weird stuff to the pasta. The ingredients are semolina (wheat), durum flour (wheat), modified wheat starch, calcium phosphate, niacin, iron (ferrous sulfate), thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid. So lots of wheat and some vitamins, but what the heck is “modified wheat starch?
According to Food Product Design, modified wheat starch, “adds much-needed fiber to a wide variety of foods, while also partially replacing fat and lowering caloric content. This type IV resistant starch contains 75% or greater dietary fiber on a dry basis…It also contributes a smooth, creamy texture to help replace fat.”
According to About.com, a resistant starch, “actually goes all the way through the small intestine without being digested at all. In this way, it is more like fiber, and in some cases is classified and labeled as fiber.”
It’s not something your grandma would cook with for sure, so if that’s your “not to be crossed line of too processed to eat” then Ronzoni Smart Taste is not for you.
Nutritional comparison
I wanted to compare Ronzoni Smart Taste to the Garofalo organic wheat spaghetti we usually eat, and the more traditional Ronzoni pasta. Percentages are of the recommended daily allowance. Each serving is 2 oz of pasta.
| Ronzoni Smart Taste | Garofalo organic whole wheat | Traditional Ronzoni pasta | |
| Calories | 180 | 180 | 210 |
| Total Fat | 1g | 1g | 1g |
| Saturated Fat | 0g | 0g | 0g |
| Trans Fat | 0g | 0g | 0g |
| Cholesterol | 0mg | 0mg | 0g |
| Sodium | 5mg | 20mg | 0g |
| Total Carbs | 43g | 33g | 42g |
| Dietary Fiber | 6g | 4g | 2g |
| Sugars | 1g | 2g | 2g |
| Protein | 6g | 8g | 7g |
| Vitamin A | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Vitamin C | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Calcium | 30% | 0% | 0% |
| Iron | 10% | 0% | 10% |
| Thiamin | 35% | 0% | 30% |
| Riboflavin | 15% | 0% | 10% |
| Niacin | 15% | 0% | 15% |
| Folic Acid | 35% | 0% | 25% |
Where Ronzoni Smart Taste wins over both traditional and whole wheat fiber is with folic acid, calcium and fiber. The only category it loses in is protein. Impressive.
Taste test
As soon as the Ronzoni Smart Taste box showed up in the mail, the kids asked me to cook it up. Did I mention they’re “pasta-terians”? Anyway, the pasta cooked up al dente rather nicely. The pasta was especially delicious, probably because we’re so used to whole wheat pasta, which has a nutty taste.
If you’re looking for more fiber, calcium or folic acid in your diet – and we all should be – Ronzoni Smart Taste may be the pasta for you. On those nights when my family wants "regular pasta" (and not the whole wheat stuff we normally have) I'll be using Ronzoni Smart Taste instead.
_________________________
Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Ronzoni Pasta and received a sample of Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta to facilitate my review and a $20 thank-you gift certificate.
