Buy It And Try It: Pasta Express

The commercial for the Pasta Express says that it's a better way to cook pasta. They say that the thermal design helps you get perfect pasta every time.

Perfect every time? We'll see about that.

We went to the place that probably makes more pasta in a week than I do in a year.

Spaghetti, fettucine, ravioli, tortellini, lasagna, didolini, linguine . I have to stop there. It's pasta served up at The Old Spaghetti Factory.

Kurtis: We're testing the pasta express. Have you heard of it?

Brian Sullivan: Is that a train? Ha ha ha.

"Don't know that it would be that much easier than just putting it there on the stove," said Brian Sullivan, Senior. Kitchen Manager, The Old Spaghetti Factory.

Every day The Old Spaghetti Factory cooks up to a thousand pounds of pasta. We'll take a 10 pound bag of spaghetti and slide it in there like that.

We asked senior kitchen manager Brian Sullivan to help us see if pasta express might make pasta as perfect as his.

"We cook all our pasta al dente, to the tooth," said Sullivan.

So like the instructions say, we add already boiling water to the pasta and set the timer to 8 1/2 minutes, and right away, our kitchen manager is skeptical.

"I would question the fact that there's no heat under the water," said Sullivan.

So we kill eight minutes while the pasta express cooks.

Just strain, and pour, no mess, right? After eight and a half minutes, it's still not cooked. Even The Old Spaghetti Factory's owner thought the pasta express sounded too good to be true.

"I think once that hot water hits the pasta, it instantly cools off, and with us, the water's gotta keep boiling rapidly to make sure the cooking process is complete," aid George Dariotis, The Old Spaghetti Factory part-owner.

After we took the pasta out of the pasta express it didn't stick to the wall. No stick means it's not done, so this pasta's just not up to Factory specs.