Does pasta get old...urgent please!

[Constance]

I have some penne pasta in an airtight plastic container thats at least 3 years old. I'd like to use it up, but I have a very special homemade sauce tonight, and I don't want to ruin it by using inferior pasta.
I do have newer pasta I can use. What do you think?

[Katie E]

We go through pasta so fast in this house, I don't know. What I would do, though, is to test-cook some and see how it cooks/tastes. If it comes out okay, you're good to go.

[Constance]

Thanks, Katie.

When we had our teenage grandson here, we went through so much food that I stocked up on all kinds of foods...so much so that, even though he's been gone for 2 years, I still have some left.

[Andy M.]

I think it will be fine but Katie's idea to test it is a good one.

[DramaQueen]

Pasta, being a flour product, does become stale and can produce an off flavor. You won't get sick, but why would you waste what you're calling a special sauce on pasta that isn't fresh? I don't keep anything but honey for 3 years.

[Smylietron]

Honey or twinkies are the only food products that should stay in your cabinet three years.

[Constance]

I went ahead and cooked the pasta, and it tasted fine, so I used it in my dish. It had been stored in a hard plastic jar in a cool place, though.

DramaQueen, "what I call a special sauce" was made by roasting cut-up, seeded and drained beefsteak tomatoes from our own garden, along with olive oil, garlic, onions and seasonings. My husband ran it through a chinoise, adjusted the seasoning, and then we simmered it with a rind of Parmegiana Reggiano. My husband and I spent a couple of hours the night before preparing the tomatoes, then, the next morning, it took them about 3 hours in a 250 oven for them to roast. He probably spent 30 minutes running it through the chinois, and it simmered about an hour after that.

To us, that's a "special sauce".

There are, by the way, lots of things that are still good after three years in a cool dark place.

[DramaQueen]

Homegrown beefsteak tomatoes - and roasted yet. You bet that's a special sauce. The simple sauces made with fresh, homegrown tomatoes are about the best sauces you can put on pasta. And beefsteaks are non existant in grocery stores. Good for you for putting the parmesan rind in along with it. Too often we throw the rind away. I use it in soups for a terrific finish. But three year old pasta...........That sauce deserved better.

[YT2095]

the simple test it to open the bag and smell it, if it`s a little "Sour" smelling throw it away, if it smells "Normal" use it up and enjoy :)

[Green Lady]

Pasta products can get small white specks on them if left sitting too long. That isn't good. However, when cooked in boiling water you can add 1 T. of powdered vitamin C to remedy that. It needs to be rinsed off in hot water after drained because then the Vit. C will leave a residue on the pasta.