Thursday, February 11, 2010

Review: Giada's Farfalle and Vegetable Marinara Sauce


As I blogged about several weeks ago, cooking personality Giada de Laurentiis has launched a new line of bakeware, cookware, kitchen accessories and food specialties at Target. Last night, we tried two of her pantry basics: her Farfalle (or bowtie) pasta and her Vegetable Marinara sauce (in a similar jar to the one shown).

Now I hate to say it, but I wasn't impressed. The sauce was pretty bland and tasteless, and the pasta cooked up uneven. The middle of the bowtie is "pinched" and therefore thicker, so despite boiling the pasta for the full 10 minutes, the middle was still hard/chewy whereas the sides were almost overdone.

To that end: I'll be sticking with my favorite Archer Farm's Arrabbiata Sauce and Imported Italian Pasta instead.

6 comments:

Phyllis Bourne said...

I'd looked forward to her line too, but found it blah.

Christine said...

We tried Archer Farms Arrabbiata sauce per your prior suggestion, and loved it, too! Haven't tried Giada's yet, but I probably won't now. Thanks for keeping us posted!

Anonymous said...

My husband and I liked the sauce! He is from an Italian family too!

Johndiaries said...

I thought her Tomato Basil sauce was good! All natural, not "too much"..seems really versatile and could even be great as a salsa (great "uncanned" tomato flavor).I have been somewhat dissapointed with A.Farms products, so I am hesitant to try...but will now.

nancijin said...

we tried the farfalle with sauce and loved it, cook pasta a little longer than cheap pasta

Unknown said...

I cooked up her Target Creamy Tomato Sauce and Target Spaghetti and it was amazing. The creamy tomato sauce has mascapone cheese which really added a lot of flavor and the spaghetti has a rough texture which seems to help the sauce really stick to it.

I blogged about it at http://ilovetargetstores.blogspot.com/2010/08/giada-de-laurentiis-interview-and.html