I bought these some time ago when they were half price and have been waiting for them to be on sale again. What sold it for me was not the Jamie Oliver brand but upon close inspection of contents of the packet, the pasta has a slightly rough surface (allows sauces to adhere better), made in Italy from durum wheat semolina. In fact Jamie's pasta looked very similar to De Cecco Italian pasta which is $3-4 for 500g from Italian deli's.
Yes, it is better than Barilla. Better than San Remo or any other common supermarket brand. And it's cheap now. Try it for yourself.
Update: I've just learnt about bronze die pasta, which is how this pasta is produced. That explains the different texture :) Check the link for photos.
If you haven’t noticed bronze die pasta the simplest way to explain the difference is looking at the surface of it. If you look up close it has a rough speckled pale colour different from the cheaper more common pasta which has a brighter yellow shiny surface. This very rough texture made from the traditional bronze die allows the maximum amount of sauce cling on to the pasta making it taste all the better for it. The cheaper brighter yellow smooth shiny variety produced by using nylon dies has a better surface to repel the sauce.
Traditionally all pasta was made with bronze dies (stamps) where the dough is pressed through to make various shapes. As the dough is pressed through the roughness of the holes, the ‘all bronze dies’ create a porous surface that will help cook the pasta evenly giving you a good ‘al dente’ as well as absorbing more sauce. Over time manufacturers wanting to speed up the whole process for maximum profitability replaced the bronze dies with ones lined with Teflon.
Hmmm…. 269% more expensive than my local pasta. I may try it.