I’ve heard of this ‘hack’ before, but never delved too deeply into it. Until now. Because Sister Erin insisted. In light of a recent news on shrinkflation in the snacks sector, I agreed with her, it was time to suggest a salty snack alternative…
PepsiCo and other major snack makers have been nickel-and-diming us for teas, now. Shaving a little here and there over the past decade in what economists call shrinkflation. Reducing the volume of product in their ‘standard-sized bags just enough to offset increases in their costs and keep profits up. Hoping fans wouldn’t notice.
Folks rebelled
But they got greedy, and folks did notice. And social media made sure the whole world knew.
Now the industry has reached a breaking point. Over the past year, consumers rebelled, buying less, spending less on snacks. In spite of humanity’s built-in addiction to salt, fat and sugar.
And Pepsi decided to come clean, offering ’20 percent more’ Bonus bags of your fave Lays, Tostitos and Doritos brands as a mea culpa.
But that’s not going to bring down costs at all…
A little elbow grease…
Now I’ve come across a not-so-new solution to the problem. And I can’t wait to try it! The ‘recipe’ is called homemade Pasta Crisps, and it’s about as easy – and inexpensive – as you could ever imagine!
What we’re talking about is repurposing every-day pasta as a crunchy snack you can customize to the hilt to suit your preferences – or tweak to make your wildest snack dreams a reality.
What you do
As with so many great ideas, it’s not so much a recipe as a technique. In a big pot of rapidly boiling water cook up a whole package of your favourite spiral pasta according to label instructions. I’m thinking Rotini as a default. But in general, big, loose spirals work best. (See: photo, top of page.)
Drain, but don’t rinse and place in a large mixing bowl. Now is the time to add salt, spices or herbs, or whatever other dried flavours you might fancy. Toss well to distribute evenly. The the residual starch on the pasta will help the flavours stick. Spread on a large raised-edged baking sheet in a single payer.
Bake in an oven pre-heated for to 365 F for about 15 minutes – until the ‘Crisps’ are puffed, light and crispy.
Pour immediately onto a broad plate or into a shallow bow, and serve warm, like popcorn. Bag up any leftovers in sup-closure bags and store in the cupboard for up to a week. But I guarantee, unless you put them up on the highest shelf, they probably won’t last anywhere near that long.
My take
These should remind you of Cheetos or similar puffed snacks. But with a firmer bite. And you get to have whatever flavour you want!
Among the obvious advantages is, you control the salt. The sugar, if you want it sweet instead of savoury.
And it’s baked, not fried, so there’s no added aft involved.
It’s so easy the kids can help, once the cooked pasta is cool enough to handle safely, at least – at the seasoning stage.
The big hidden advantage to Pasta Crisps is… A $2 pack of dry pasta will make huge batch of Crisps, 3 to 4 times its original volume. And with commercial brand chips up at $6 or more per bag, that’s like saving of $10 to $15 dollars!
It’s so easy the kids can help, once the cooked pasta is cool enough to handle safely, at least at the seasoning stage.
What’s not to love?
~ Maggie J.