Trader Joe's Spinach & Chive Linguine Pasta

I bought this even though the second ingredient, after wheat flour, is onions--which I hate. And you can definitely taste them. I could not specifically identify by taste either of the titular ingredients, spinach and chives. But after adding Sausage-less Sausage and Autumnal Harvest Creamy Pasta Sauce, any flavor from the pasta itself basically faded into the background.

It seemed to cook up faster than regular pasta, though not nearly as fast as the package predicts (2-4 minutes).


Will I buy it again? 

No. I see no advantage over plain pasta.

Trader Joe's Cheese Tortellini

I served these topped with the wonderful Autumnal Harvest Creamy Pasta Sauce, and was thinking how good they were, when it dawned on me that maybe the only thing I was tasting and/or liking was the sauce. So I ate a couple of the pasta pieces with no sauce--and nothing. They're just totally bland and lifeless. I could barely even taste any cheese inside. So my fears were confirmed. These are exactly as good or bad as what you put with them, because by themselves they're practically tasteless.


Will I buy it again? 

via GIPHY

Trader Joe's Linguine With Pesto & Tomatoes

I used the microwave heating method: 7 minutes, with a stir in the middle. Super easy, and came out just right. I separately browned some fake Italian sausage and added it just before serving. I recommend this embellishment.

It was much, much skimpier on tomatoes than the package depicts, and would be improved if the product actually matched the photo.

It was perfectly fine. I'm just not a big fan of pesto for pasta. I want my sauce.

Nina liked it more than I did, calling it "very tasty." She said it's something she might keep in the freezer for those occasions when one is feeling both hungry and lazy.


Will I buy it again? 

No. But if I see it on my plate at a dinner at Nina's, I will be neither surprised nor disappointed.

Trader Joe's Lemon Basil Pasta Salad

I found this to be perfectly pleasant, though it didn't spark joy. The bow-tie pasta was perfectly done. I liked the lemon slice to be squeezed on for an extra, final burst of lemon flavor. The green stuff is spinach, which was on the wilty side. There's Asiago cheese, which looks plentiful but is so mild in flavor that it's hard to notice. Finally, there's a few ingredients that are so sparse that one wonders why they're there at all. I'm looking at you, peas and zucchini.

As you can see, in the salad's native state, everything is segregated. You have to dump it all out into a larger bowl and stir, lest you end up with a clump of pasta here and a wad of spinach there.

I did like it as a side dish, but it boiled down to just lemon-flavored pasta with small bits of cheese, dressing, and spinach--not an ensemble in which the components had equal roles.

Nina was thoroughly unimpressed.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Organic Italian Artisan Pasta--Striped Garganelli

Look! They're cute little barber-pole pastas! But this site says that "garganelli" means "small esophagus." I can't imagine why Trader Joe's doesn't slap that right on the label.

Wikipedia says that garganelli are "a type of egg-based pasta formed by rolling a flat, square noodle into a cylindrical shape." If that's so, then these don't qualify, as they are not egg noodles, but just ordinary wheat-based pasta. (See Trader Joe's introduction to the product, including list of ingredients, here.) I checked a few other sites, and they all agreed that garganelli are supposed to be egg pasta.

The red striping is made from beet powder and beet juice. It's very attractive and eye-catching in the package, but it quickly disappears into the water upon cooking. Here's what you're left with when the cooked pasta is served:

So if you are thinking of buying this because it would be extra-pretty on your dinner table--don't. You're in for a disappointment. It seems pretty pointless to me to add to a food product a coloring that leaches out the minute you start cooking it.

You're also in for a long cooking time. The first reason is that these little cylinders are actually quite thick-walled. The second reason is that overlap where a corner is folded over, which creates an area of two layers of pasta. I found that when the main part of the garganelli were cooked, that area wasn't nearly done, so I had to leave them in the boiling water longer. When the double-thick section was finally done, the rest was over-cooked.

Just now I discovered that TJ's acknowledges this, but tries (deceptively, IMHO) to spin it as a virtue rather than a vice: "Part of what makes Garganelli such an appreciated pasta is the way the shape affects the cooking. When boiled for 14-15 minutes, the ends of the pasta will be soft, while the folded-over center will be perfectly al dente." I'm calling BS on that account of things, TJ's. Replace "soft" with "mushy and overdone," and you're closer to the truth. 

And the taste? Just like any other pasta, neither better nor worse. 


Will I buy it again? 

No. 

Trader Joe's Outside-In Stuffed Gnocchi

Nina found this and cooked it up for our dinner last night. Sorry for the dodgy pictures; she forgot to give me a chance to photograph the package before ripping it open.

This is a new product. TJ's introduction to it is here.

The basic idea is gnocchi filled with the two things that you might most commonly put on top of them: pasta sauce and cheese. It's a great idea. As soon as I saw the wrapper, I thought I was going to love them. Nope. I found them disappointingly bland. Unremarkable gnocchi shells with a vague smear of tomato and cheese inside. Dull as all get-out. I think they should make the sauce zestier, like TJ's own arrabiata sauce. Anything with a little more zing to it. And more cheese.

So: Excellent concept, poor execution.

Nina, conversely, didn't have a lot of hope for them, but felt pleasantly surprised. Go figure.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's 3 Cheese Vegetable Ravioli

Trader Joe's just keeps churning out new variations on a familiar theme. This time, they've stuck mushrooms, Swiss chard, kale, and three Italian cheeses inside the ravioli.

There were 12 pieces in the plastic container. One of them tore open partially during cooking, as I tried to separate two that were stuck together, but it didn't spill out all of its contents as I've seen happen before.

The texture was fine, as always. The contents left something to be desired, though. I tasted almost nothing but cheese. Now, for me this is kind of a good thing, because I tolerate but do not love mushrooms. For Nina, though, it was a letdown. She wondered what's the point of featuring mushrooms if they're not going to be prominent and really wonderful. And, she added, kale does not belong in ravioli. This is a scientific fact.


Will I buy it again? 

No. I'd stick with this one, or this one, or this one.

Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice Penne Pasta

This is the latest in a long line of Trader Joe's gluten-free dry pasta varieties. (For a list of the others, see here.) It is closest to the TJ's Organic Brown Rice Pasta Fusilli, apparently differing only in shape.

Like most of the others, it's less satisfying than traditional wheat-based pasta (Nina called it "gloppy"), but if one needs to live a gluten-free life, it makes an adequate substitute.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti

Apologies for the blurry picture. I didn't realize until much too late that my camera had inexplicably decided that a random point in the foreground was where it should focus.

I'm not very picky about pasta. Basically, it's either normal, or it's weird. This is normal. I don't care about it being organic. I don't mind it being whole wheat instead of otherwise; I don't find the taste noticeably different, and if it gets me a few extra vitamins or more fiber, okey-dokey.

The surprising reaction came from Nina. She has previously been down on whole-wheat pasta, on the grounds that they never get the texture right--but she gave this one a strong thumbs-up. She even said that she would be content to use this as her default pasta.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. I'm mostly indifferent to which particular variety of "normal" spaghetti I use, but if this stuff makes my bae happy, then I'll keep it on hand.

Trader Joe's Organic Yellow Lentil & Brown Rice Pasta--Spaghetti

This is Trader Joe's latest attempt at a gluten-free pasta; see the company's introduction to the product here. The others have included Organic Brown Rice Pasta Fusilli, Organic Brown Rice & Quinoa Pasta, Organic Black Bean Rotini, Gluten Free Egg Fettuccine Pasta, and Organic Red Lentil Sedanini. I thought the last two of that list were the most successful. This one joins them in being a passable substitute for real pasta.

The color isn't a giveaway, as it resembles whole-wheat pasta. The texture was a little stiffer than regular spaghetti, but not a dealbreaker. (Nina would beg to differ. She found it both gummy and gritty.) I thought it had just a faint lentil flavor, but it's basically a bland, neutral canvas on which to place your favorite protein and sauce.


Will I buy it again? 

No. But it's another decent option for those who need or want to live gluten-free.

Trader Joe's Ricotta & Spinach Tortelloni With Red Pesto

Unlike most such boasts, the "ready in 5 minutes" here is pretty close to true. Just peel back a corner of the lid and zap it for five minutes.

However, the result is a pretty uninteresting mess of filled pasta and diced veggies. It has been terribly thrashed by the Trader Joe's Blandification Committee.

I fixed this, and simultaneously added a lot of protein to the meal, by separately cooking some thin-sliced fake sausage (this one, which is one of the best you can buy) and adding it to the dish. That made it about 10 times better than it was on its own.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. I think it's one that Nina would like, so I'll get it at least once more for a dinner with her--appropriately improved by the sausage, of course.

Trader Joe's Pesto Tortelloni

Disappointingly bland and uninteresting. It required some of TJ's Arrabiata Sauce to make it worth eating.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Organic Italian Artisan Pasta--Capunti

I had never heard of capunti before seeing this in the new-products section of Trader Joe's. The shape is supposed to be like an open pea pod. (See here for a guide to all the different pasta shapes.)

This stuff is slow to cook, and because it's not an even thickness, it leaves spots that are a bit tough and underdone, much like TJ's Trofie Colore.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Italian Mini Ravioli With Cheese Filling

Nina served this for dinner at her house last night. I had never noticed it on the TJ's shelves. Is it new? She says it was in the pasta section, not the new-products shelf. But I don't know how I could have missed it if it had been there long.

Anyway, I wasn't missing much. Even when the pasta was cooked just right, the dried cheese filling remained tough, an unpleasant lump of not-very-authentic-tasting cheese, approximately the texture of an old wad of chewing gum discovered under a school desk.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Organic Italian Artisan Pasta--Orecchiette

In flavor, this is like any other semolina pasta. What makes it unusual is the shape: "little ears."

I thought I would like this, first, because I like chunky, forkable pastas more than spaghetti, and, second, because it looked like it would hold a lot of sauce easily. I was right on both counts.

However, it had two drawbacks that I had not anticipated. First, it's unusually slow to cook. I guess it takes a while for the water to penetrate the thickish pasta nuggets. Second, once cooked, they tend to nestle inside each other and form clumps. This is unlike my current favorite snowflake pasta (I've stocked up on it for the long year ahead), which does not clump.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Authentic Italian Penne Arrabbiata

This is very ordinary frozen pasta. Arrabbiata (i.e., "angry") sauce is supposed to be extra spicy. This was not. It doesn't deserve the label. It's just regular ol' pasta sauce.


Will I buy it again? 

No. I don't think it's any easier to warm this up than to cook some pasta, and I like the results better when I do it myself.

Trader Joe's Winter Snowflake Pasta

In flavor, this is, predictably, just like any other dried wheat pasta. It takes a little longer to cook than thin strands, but that's a minor inconvenience. Somewhat surprisingly, there wasn't much damage to the shapes from being agitated and stirred in the pot of boiling water. I thought they might fall apart, but no.

It's unusually pretty on the plate, for not being a multi-colored beauty like this one or this one. The snowflakes also make convenient bite sizes.

But its greatest advantage over standard pasta shapes is that all the little holes and ridges are supremely good at holding on to pasta sauce. I like that. In fact, I usually go out of my way to buy "rigate" forms of pasta specifically because I like having more sauce cling to my pasta. This is absolutely the best pasta form I've ever encountered for this quality.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. In fact, I liked it so much that I'm going to stock up on it while I can, then mourn the day that I use the last of it and have to wait until next winter to get more.

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Egg Fettuccine Pasta

Nina took one look at this package and said, "Oh dear." She thought it had no chance of being successful. Was she right?

Well, yes and no. It's not great--but it's OK. And being just acceptable is a significant win for a gluten-free pasta. (Rice flour is its primary ingredient.)

With a bold, spicy sauce (Mario Batali's Arrabbiata) and some fake ground beef sprinkled on top for protein, I really didn't notice anything out of the ordinary about it. I don't think I would have noticed that it was a gluten-free product in this configuration, though perhaps I would have if it were served in a way that required the pasta to stand up for itself more. Nina, though, insisted that she still noticed that it was a little off, even as well-disguised as it was. But she conceded that just being mediocre among the ranks of all pastas, instead of really awful, makes it among the best of the gluten-free pastas we've tried.


Will I buy it again? 

Not for myself. But I'd eagerly recommend it to those who need gluten-free products, and I'd buy it if I were going to have dinner guests who needed gluten-free alternatives.

Trader Joe's Ricotta & Spinach Filled Ravioli With Tomato Basil Sauce

Unlike most of the many refrigerated variations on the ravioli theme we've tried from Trader Joe's, this one is frozen. That means that it's not suitable for the familiar boiling-water method of preparation. Instead, TJ's offers you either microwave or stove-top directions. I chose the latter, which involves adding water and olive oil.

It came out great, in terms of texture and temperature. I liked the flavor of the ravioli itself--cheese and spinach both discernible, without either one dominating too much.

But the tomato sauce in which they're bathed is a disappointment. Nina characterized it as "Literally no flavor."


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Four Cheese Jumbo Ravioli

Trader Joe's has produced a whole lot of different raviolis. This one isn't as interesting as some of the more oddball varieties, but it's high-quality and tastes great. And unlike virtually every other ravioli variant I've had from TJ's, none of them broke open while tumbling about in the boiling water.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. There are some of the more unconventional kinds that I've liked better, but if I wanted a straightforward cheese ravioli, this would be my first choice.