Tesco should stick to What They Know

So you know the deal. A shop like... Oh I don't know.... Tesco, let's say, decides to sell its own version of something branded. Usually, that works - it's normally quite tasty and probably a good bit cheaper than the brand. (Notable exceptions include Hellmans.) It also decides to sell its own version of everyday things - pasta, milk, bread - well, that's what a shop does. Obviously. It works. Mostly. But when they decide to sell things that aren't branded especially, but are a bit highbrow, it goes a bit haywire. A perfect example is... Hmmm.. Oh! How about this pasta?

It looks pretty, doesn't it?  (Riccioli means curls, which seems a bit unimaginative. Orecchiette means 'little ears'. That's imagination for you.) Now for supermarket pasta, Tesco is usually pretty good. Better than Morrisons or Asda, though obviously not up to the standards of M&S or Waitrose. And I was tempted by this because it was just so cute! And it looked like it might be nicer than the bog-standard Tesco pasta twirls. (Also it was only £1.09.) Here's a close-up - you can see it has a hole through the middle, like bucatini:

Well, maybe you can't. But it did.

I boiled it like you're meant to boil pasta - or if I've been doing it wrong, it was still how I cook the my pasta normally and that has always turned out fine - but it just didn't cook. The outsides were soggy while the inside was still white and hard. I ate it mixed with some butter and parsley and with a small tub of puttanesca sauce I found at the back of the freezer. I'd made these when I got to uni and was feeling all sensible and housewifely. It looked pretty, certainly.

The sauce was good.

I mean, it wasn't awful. I certainly polished it off. But it wasn't as nice as normal Tesco pasta. I was a bit suspicious of the price - it seemed awfully cheap for 'fancy' pasta - but I assume it's an introductory price. I definitely wouldn't pay any more for it. And I won't buy it again. I think it would do better in pasta bakes, so it has a bit more chance to cook through. I'll stick the bag at the back of my cupboard for emergencies...

So on a scale of one to yummy, Tesco, only about a three. Sorry. I'll stick to your industrial sized bags of twirls.