If you’ve browsed the pasta aisle lately, you’ve probably noticed that manufacturers have been noodling around with the ingredients. Wheat- and white flour-based varieties have been joined on the shelves by pastas made from chickpeas, lentils, edamame, corn, rice and even kelp. The latest in the lineup: Wasted pasta, which is made from unused bread.
In the Good Housekeeping Kitchen & Cooking Lab, we have been testing store-bought pastas for years, including gluten-free brands and boxed mac-and-cheese, so we were intrigued by Wasted. I’ve also made pasta from scratch and sampled regional varieties during 20 years of travel to Italy, so I was curious to taste this bread-based pasta and see if it could pass for the real deal.
What is Wasted pasta?
Wasted makes rotini, shells and penne using surplus artisanal bread sourced from Europe. The bread is shredded into crumbs, dried, then milled into flour. Wasted claims that this proprietary process keeps the texture, elasticity and bite that you'd expect from traditional pasta flour. The brand says the bread gives the pasta a naturally nutty flavor.
The pasta is sold in eight-ounce boxes and takes between 8 to 10 minutes to cook.
What is rescued bread?
The bread comes from European artisanal bakeries that bake for local shops and restaurants. Loaves are taken straight from their production lines when they're misshapen or overproduced—never spoiled or moldy—and may include sourdough, buns and white bread.
Wasted says that most of this unused bread had previously been sent to biogas plants, used as animal feed or thrown in the garbage. By upcycling the bread, the brand is reducing waste and supporting sustainability.
Wasted pasta nutrition facts
Each box of Wasted contains four two-ounce servings. The ingredients include durum wheat semolina, bread waste flour (wheat flour, yeast, salt), and vital wheat gluten (aka wheat protein), which are rich in protein. Though the packaging claims the pasta is made without eggs, it also says that it may contain egg, soy, milk, and sesame. Wasted says this is because the bread is produced in a facility that handles those ingredients, so traces may be present in the pasta.
Nutritionally, both Wasted rotini and Barilla rotini are 200 calories for one dry serving. But there are some key differences between the two. Wasted packs more protein than Barilla (12g vs. 7g), but it also has more sodium (65g vs. 0g) and sugar (3g vs. 1g). Barilla, however, is higher in carbohydrates (45g vs. 37g) potassium (118g vs. 100g) and fiber (3g vs. 2g).
Although the sourced bread is made using fixed recipes, Wasted runs regular lab testing to ensure that nutritional claims remain consistent. Here’s a breakdown of the nutritional facts for one two-ounce serving of dry Wasted pasta.
- Calories: 200
- Total Fat: 1.5g
- Sodium: 65mg
- Total carbohydrate: 37g
- Dietary fiber: 2g
- Total sugars: 3g
- Added sugars: 0g
- Protein: 12g
How does Wasted pasta taste?
I made a full box of rotini pasta according to the package instructions, boiling it in salted water until al dente. It had a little too much bite at the eight-minute mark for my taste, but after two more minutes, it was perfect. The rotini held its shape, was a little firm and had a satisfying chew. Wasted claims its pasta has a nutty flavor but I didn’t really pick up a distinctive taste from the plain rotini.
After draining the pasta, I tossed it with tomato sauce, which clung nicely to its spirals. I ate several forkfuls, and I can honestly say that other than the fact that Wasted’s shapes are smaller in size, I didn’t detect a difference between this bread pasta and traditional pasta. Good Housekeeping Kitchen & Cooking Lab senior director Nicole Papantoniou also sampled Wasted and agreed that the rotini had a nice bite and could pass for noodles made with regular pasta flour.
Ultimately, Wasted’s bread pasta is a wonderful option for anyone looking to incorporate more protein into their diet and support sustainability while doing so. Eat good, do good—I’ll toast to that!
Why trust Good Housekeeping?
Mark Marino is a writer, food editor, and product tester with more than seven years of experience in digital food media. Besides hand-making gnocchi and farfalle, he has sampled range of regional pastas during annual trips to Italy before testing Wasted as a contributing analyst in the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen & Cooking Lab.
