Well, the wait is over. The Pasta Express I ordered by phone on Valentine's Day arrived the first week of March.

The commercial makes it sound like it's far better than cooking pasta on the stove. The question is: Does it work?

The commercial says all you have to do is "place the pasta in the Pasta Express, pour boiling water covering the pasta, press the strainer into place, pop on the thermal lid, the pasta cooks before your eyes, in minutes!"

Kathy Dinwiddie of Kent saw that commercial and wondered, will the Pasta Express really save that much time? We set up in her kitchen.

"Well, I think we should test it with a pot of water and cook the spaghetti like I always do, and then the way it says to cook with the Past Express," she said.

We were ready with two packs of pasta, one large pot of water, and one kettle of water for the Pasta Express.

We turned the water on for both at the same time: 2:41pm.

Four minutes later the water in the tea kettle is ready. The water in the pot... not quite there.

At 2:45 p.m., Kathy puts the first pack of spaghetti in the Pasta Express. She dumps pasta from the package to the cylinder, adds the boiling water, snaps on the strainer and thermal lid, and lets it cook.

"Now the water is boiling for my other spaghetti," Kathy noted, about two minutes after starting the Pasta Express pasta.

Remember, Kathy wants to know if Pasta Express will save time. In her e-mail, she told me she'll buy one if it does. But while the stovetop pasta took longer to get started, it was done sooner.

After 18 minutes, the Pasta Express pasta was still a little hard.

Then Kathy discovered she used way more pasta than called for in the instructions. She'd purchased 22-ounce packages instead of 16 ounces.

Determined to get it right, Kathy got out a 16-ounce pack and started over. She had perfect pasta within 15 minutes of adding the boiling water to the Pasta Express.

Kathy was so enthusiastic, she also tried it with hot dogs and frozen vegetable like in the commercial.

"Way more convenient," she said. "I don't have to clean my stove. I don't have to clean my pan. I don't have to clean a strainer. I don't have to clean a spoon. The one step cooking is very nice. I like that!"

Kathy's already placed her order.

With our test, even when using the proper amount of pasta, Pasta Express was not a huge time-saver. Still, Kathy gives it high marks for convenience.

$19.95 by mail order gets you two containers, a large one for pasta and a smaller one for other foods. The total price comes closer to $30 with shipping and handling.

Consumers also report buying them separately for $10 at local home furnishing stores like Bed Bath and Beyond.

As for the "cooking before your eyes," think about it -- everything cooks before your eyes when you stand and watch it!