Whole wheat pasta is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 12 recipes to get you started.

What is whole wheat pasta?

Whole wheat pasta is dried pasta made from the whole durum grain, with the bran and germ left in instead of milled out. That single change is why it looks tan rather than pale gold, and why it tastes nutty and faintly earthy with a firmer bite.

It also brings fiber. A serving has roughly three times the fiber of refined pasta, which is the main reason cooks reach for it.

Treat it as a flavor and texture swap, not a different food. It cooks like whatever plain shape it copies, from spaghetti to penne to elbows.

Cooking Whole Wheat Pasta

Cook it in plenty of well salted water, the same as any pasta, but give it a minute or two longer. The bran slows water from reaching the starch, so a box that lists 9 minutes for regular pasta often wants 10 or 11 here.

Taste early and often. Whole wheat goes from firm to soft over a narrower window, and there is no slack core to warn you, so pull it the moment the bite is right.

Reserve a cup of the cooking water before draining. That starchy water loosens a sauce and helps it cling, which matters more here because the rougher surface can otherwise leave a sauce looking dry.

Sauces That Stand Up to It

The nutty, assertive flavor wants a sauce with its own backbone. Garlic, chili, and good olive oil are the classic match, as in Wholewheat Spaghetti with Garlic, Hot Pepper & Broccoli, where the pasta is the point rather than a blank carrier.

Earthy, rich partners flatter it too. Walnuts and ricotta play straight to the grain, as in Whole Wheat Pasta with Ricotta & Walnuts, and a hearty roasted vegetable sauce like Creamy Sweet Potato & Red Pepper Pasta holds its ground against the bran.

Skip the delicate cream and light butter sauces. The wheat flavor runs right over them, and the dish ends up muddy rather than clean.

Substitutes

The obvious swap is regular pasta in the same shape. It cooks a touch faster and tastes milder.

White whole wheat or part-whole-wheat blends sit in between, with less bran flavor and a softer chew, a good bridge if the full version tastes too strong.

For more fiber without wheat, legume pastas made from chickpeas or lentils work, though they cook softer and break more easily, so undercook them slightly. Farro or spelt pasta gives a similar nutty character if you want to stay in the whole-grain camp.

Buying and Storing

Read the first ingredient. It should say "whole wheat" or "whole durum"; a label that leads with "wheat flour" or just "multigrain" often means mostly refined flour with a little bran for color.

Dried whole wheat pasta keeps slightly less long than refined pasta because the germ contains oil that can eventually go rancid. Plan on about a year in a sealed container somewhere cool and dry.

If a box smells faintly of old nuts or paint, the oil has turned and it is past its best. Cooked whole wheat pasta keeps three or four days in the fridge, and reheats best with a splash of the reserved cooking water.

Quick facts

Where to find whole wheat pasta: Whole wheat pasta is usually found in the asian section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

In Chinese

面食，全麦

British (UK) term

Pasta, whole wheat

en français

pâtes, blé entier

en español

pasta, pan integral

Recipes using whole wheat pasta

There are 12 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 12 whole wheat pasta recipes