Wajos Mini Butterfly Pasta. Small colorful farfalle made from durum wheat semolina, colored with vegetables – the pasta that children pick out and adults enjoy eating too.
Wajos Mini Butterfly Pasta are small farfalle made from durum wheat semolina and water, colored with black carrot, beetroot powder, spinach powder, chili powder, and turmeric, 250 g. No egg noodles, no pasta with artificial colors, not a children's dish with flavorings, but simple Italian pasta colored by vegetables. Vegan.
Mini Butterfly Pasta by Wajos is the pack that moves from the bottom shelf to the top in the store. A child sees the colorful butterflies on the shelf, picks them up, and the parents buy them. It is our best-selling pasta – and one of the most ordered Wajos packs overall. The trick is that they offer more than just looks. It is egg-free durum wheat pasta, colored with carrot, beetroot, spinach, and turmeric – the colors come from vegetables instead of a lab. What lands on the plate is a normal, high-quality farfalle in miniature.
Colorful thanks to vegetables, tastes like normal durum wheat pasta
Red, green, yellow, orange, dark – every color has a reason. Beetroot colors it red, spinach green, turmeric yellow, black carrot dark, and a little chili powder creates orange. The quantities are so small that you can barely taste them. The butterflies are not suitable for anyone expecting a spinach-flavored pasta – the color is there, but the taste remains neutral. The chili, in this quantity, is also purely for color. What remains is the taste of durum wheat semolina, slightly nutty, as with any good Italian pasta.
The butterflies are significantly smaller than classic farfalle, with the typical thicker center and thinner wings. That is the character of this shape: the wings become soft, the core remains a bit firmer. Anyone wanting a consistently uniform pasta is better off with tagliatelle – in that case, the Rainbow Tagliatelle from the same series is the choice. The pasta contains gluten and may contain traces of egg, fish, mollusks, soy, and mustard – this is stated on the packaging. With 12 grams of protein per 100 grams, they are right where durum wheat pasta should be.
With butter and cheese, in pasta salad, in soup, and with sugo
The simplest dish is the most popular among children: boil the pasta, drain, add a knob of butter, sprinkle with grated cheese, and done. The colors remain, the butterflies lie colorfully on the plate, and there's no arguing over dinner. With a spoonful of tomato sugo or pesto, it becomes a quick family meal – a mild sugo like the Sugo ai Pomodori Secchi works well because it lets the colors shine through.
As a pasta salad, they are the first thing to disappear at children's birthday parties and barbecues: with cucumber, corn, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, and a yogurt dressing. The little butterflies are easy to eat with a spoon, even for the little ones. In a clear vegetable or chicken soup, they are the garnish that makes the plate look friendly – colorful butterflies in the broth instead of letters.
Cooking time and salt as with any pasta: in plenty of boiling salted water, according to the package instructions, then drain and serve immediately if eating warm. For pasta salad, rinse briefly with cold water so they remain loose. The little butterflies are not suitable for heavy, chunky sauces like Bolognese or ragout – they are too small, and the sauce would fall through. Wide ribbon pasta is also a better fit as a side dish for a roast with lots of gravy. And in a casserole, they should only be pre-cooked al dente, otherwise the thin wings will become too soft.
Our tip: Boil the butterflies, mix with peas, butter, a little cream, and Parmesan – the five-minute meal we have during the week when no one wants to cook anymore.
Pasta in the assortment of a manufacturer from the Moselle
Wajos is a culinary manufacturer in Dohr near Cochem on the Moselle, with over 80 employees and around 900 items. The name stands for Walter Josef Oster, the founder of a winemaking family in Ediger-Eller that has been making wine for 15 generations. What Walter Oster began in the 1980s as a liqueur manufactory became the Wajos brand in the 2000s under his son Peter Oster and Ulf Schwichtenberg – with its own stores since 2008, the first one in Trier.
The pasta is the part of the assortment that has made Wajos stores a place for the whole kitchen: vinegar and oil for dressings, pesto and sugo for sauces, colorful pasta for the plate. At Wajos, the butterflies stand alongside heart-shaped pasta and confetti linguine – shapes you rarely see elsewhere. Every product at Wajos undergoes testing in their own lab, and the family describes their way of working as "controlled small" – an assortment that remains manageable.
The pasta for families, birthdays, and the spring table
The mini butterflies are the pack for everyone with children at the table – or adults who enjoy colorful pasta. In spring and summer, they are the go-to pasta for salads and picnics; at Easter, they are the choice for the pasta salad at the family table. As a gift, they belong in a package with a sugo or the Basil Pesto, and as a small gift for a child's birthday, they are something parents will actually use. You can find all pasta shapes and sauces on our Wajos page.
The 250-gram pack is enough for three to four portions as a side dish or two as a main course. Stored in a dry, dark, and tightly sealed place, the pasta will keep for a long time. For anyone looking for an egg noodle with bite and yellow color from egg yolk, this is the wrong pack – the yellow here comes from turmeric instead of egg yolk.
Small colorful butterflies made from durum wheat, colored with vegetables – the pasta that children grab from the shelf, but which still tastes like good pasta.
