Does It Really Do That?: Pasta 'N More

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- With four children to watch, Sue Caputo of Wexford has a lot of mouths to feed; so any products promising to help make mealtime faster and easier are certainly welcome in her kitchen.

According to the infomercial, Pasta 'N More "uses the microwave to instantly heat and keep the water at the perfect cooking temperature."

But Does It Really Do That?

Caputo helped us put Pasta 'N More to the test to find out – starting with spaghetti. We decided to make one-pound or eight servings.

"These yellow handles are supposed to be a serving for two", said Caputo. "Okay, so that's the measuring. That's pretty cool."

The directions say to put the pasta in the plastic pot, fill the water level to number eight, then just pop your pasta in the microwave.

The required cooking time for spaghetti is 22- to 24-minutes, so we set the timer for 20 minutes.

To compare cooking time, we start to boil a pot of water.

Twenty minutes later, our water is just now boiling, but our spaghetti cooked in Pasta 'N More looks done.

Caputo says the best part for her is the draining. You just snap on the draining lid.

"I love that," exclaimed Caputo, "because trying to do it with the lid on or dumping it in a strainer is hard. This is nice."

But how does it taste.

"Bueno!" said Gina, our 11-year-old taste-tester.

Caputo says she's surprised at how well Pasta "N More cooked the spaghetti. The spaghetti cooked about ten minutes faster than if we'd cooked it in the pot.

Now we move on to cheese ravioli, but here we run into a problem.

Pasta 'N More holds just 15 ravioli at a time – which isn't enough to feed a big family. We put our ravioli in the microwave and 18 minutes later, they are done and perfect.

So again, the Pasta 'N More does a good job, but it's called "Pasta 'N More." What does the "More" in the name mean?

It means lots of different dishes and recipes. We try chicken breasts and steamed vegetables.

Although directions don't make it clear, we decide the vegetables go in the small container in the bottom of the pot, the chicken goes in the top container. Directions say to cook for four minutes, then flip the chicken and cook for four to eight minutes more.

The results?

Again, this dish gets great reviews, as does our Pasta 'N More.

Caputo sums it up. "I love to cook but I am not a big cleaner upper, so I have one pot to clean and the kids seem to like it so I would definitely use it."

Pasta 'N More really did live up to the hype. It was faster than making pasta in a pot and easier.

One potential problem with it is that you are putting plastic in the microwave; but that didn't bother our tester at all.

Pasta 'N More sells for $19.99. We give it a thumbs up!