Elbow Macaroni

So, what's the difference between "cooks in 9 minutes" Elbow Macaroni and "cooks in 3 minutes" Annie's instant macaroni? We're about to find out.

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Elbow Macaroni
1/2 Cup Water

So I'm going to put the ingredients in my trusty pyrex bowl and microwave uncovered for 3 minutes and see what happens.

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OK, as it turns out, "cooks in 9 minutes" Elbow Macaroni is like, mega al dente after 3 minutes in the microwave. Who knew? I think maybe if one pre-soaks the macaroni, or uses less power in the microwave, things will be OK. Because my microwave has no functional display, it makes changing the power difficult. Right now, I'm going to keep adding minutes until the macaroni is soft enough to not make crunching sounds when I eat it. Mmmm.

--

One more minute was enough for there to be no more water, and it is no longer crunchy. Just really, really tough. Next time, I'm going to use 2/3 cup water. Microwave for 2, let sit for 1, and then microwave for 2, and maybe we'll be getting there.

Even so, it's edible, and super cheap!

1/2 cup elbow macaroni: $0.125
(1 can tuna: $0.85)
1 serving pasta sauce/1 serving Parmesan: $0.25

Total cost: $0.375 ($1.225)
Equivalent cost for Annie's: $0.50

So Annie's is slightly more expensive, but really pretty tasty. Mine, well, I think there was more of it because the pasta wasn't so thin that it could cook in 3 minutes, but it was never quite the right pasta feel. Even so, I now have an entire box of pasta with which to experiment, and I'm sure I'll stumble onto something delicious sooner or later.