"Nancy Young" > wrote in message
...
> On 6/20/2015 5:22 PM, l not -l wrote:
>> On 20-Jun-2015, Nancy Young > wrote:
>
>>> Have you noticed that there are only a few shapes in the dried
>>> pasta section any more? Maybe just where I live.
>
>> I have 9 supermarkets less than 2 miles from my home, including an
>> international market; three of them are of the same regional chain, two
>> of
>> the others are from the secondary regional chain and their pasta
>> selction,
>> brand and shapes, vary significantly. Two of the stores are in a wealthy
>> suburb and have the fewest dried pasta shapes; but, more "fresh" and
>> frozen
>> pasta. Two other stores are in a part of town with an older demographic,
>> they have the best selection, brands and shape, of the chain stores.
>> With
>> today's data warehouse/mining software, if something doesn't move well,
>> it's
>> not going to be in a given store.
>
> I feel like dried pasta takes up about the same amount of room that
> is used to, but now there are more brands plus gluten free, whole wheat,
> etc.
>
> I really only noticed it once when I wanted to make pasta fagioli and
> what the heck ... no ditalini? No other little shapes, either.

Yep. Only a few places here sell the Ditalini.
>
>> The international market has a huge variety of pastas; but, they are
>> scattered all over the store, which is organized by universal staples and
>> cuisines. I can find just about any pasta shape; but, I might have to
>> hunt
>> for it. 8-)
>
> I guess if I'm in the mood to look around, it would be okay. If not,
> please just put all the dried pasta in one place?
>
>> I found fideo in the Mexican aisle, next to the sardines in
>> spicy tomato sauce, rather than with the short shapes in the pasta aisle.
>
> There are two gourmet Italian stores nearby, I know one of them had
> different shaped pastas. I haven't been to either in some time, I
> think I'll check them out this week to see what they've got in pasta
> shapes. I'm pretty sure I'll wind up with some nice food and a
> cannoli or such, too.

I try to stock up on the harder to find shapes when I see them and/or I find
them for a good price. But most of the time I will just use something else
if I don't have what I want. I screwed up the last time I made Easter pie.
Had it in my head that it was Ditalini that I wanted. No. Acini De Pepe.
Did not realize the mistake until time to cook it but... I used the
Ditalini anyway and nobody noticed the difference.