• USA Today, Tuesday, March 25, 2008 11:30 AM

Pizza Hut will announce today that it plans to start delivering pasta on April 6--something no pizza chain does nationally. Its new Tuscani Pastas will come as Creamy Chicken Alfredo and Meaty Marinara. The price for the pasta is $11.95, the same as a large pizza with one topping. A serving feeds a family of six.

Chief marketing officer Brian Niccol says that pasta could become as big a business as pies for the country's largest pizza chain and projects it could be 15% of business within a year. Pizza Hut pasta will be baked, not boiled, Niccol says, and the ingredients--from noodles to sauce to cheese--will be supplied to locations frozen, and be thawed for use.

Industry experts say Pizza Hut's most daunting task will be to keep the pasta hot. Pizza Hut executives say the delivery pouches that keep pizza hot will keep pasta hot. They also note that since the pasta comes in the aluminum pan in which it's baked, the food is easy to reheat.

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