While many types of frozen food can be pretty hit or miss, frozen pasta dishes seem to be pretty consistently good. Even the worst frozen pastas are usually only mediocre rather than downright terrible (there are exceptions, of course). So when we sit down to write a frozen food review involving pasta, we’re usually pretty confident we’re about to eat something pretty good.
And Trader Joe’s Organic Pesto Tortellini doesn’t disappoint, though it doesn’t exactly blow us out of the water either.
Now, this is a part of the Trader Giotto’s line of frozen foods, which really just means this is an Italian-inspired dish by the folks at Trader Joe’s. (They also have some other riffs on this naming formula, such as Trader Jose’s for Mexican-inspired meals.) We’re assuming this is just an attempt at making this sound a little fancier.
We really can’t fault Trader Joe’s for trying a little marketing magic here, because by all means, this is a pretty simple dish.
Simple isn’t always bad, though, and here it seems to work alright. This is really just some tortellini noodles with some pesto sauce and a teensy tiny bit of ricotta cheese.
Most of the noodles are pretty decent, though we found a few around the edges to be a little harder than the rest. They weren’t hard enough to be off-putting, but there was a noticeable shift in consistency as we ate at the edges of the dish as opposed to the center.
The basil pesto doesn’t have a ton of flavor. We can tell it was designed to underscore the meal rather than to overload it with flavor. It’s a choice that pays off here, though if you’re expecting something super rich or super creamy you’re likely to be disappointed.
This is a fairly lightweight meal, weighing in at 360 calories (180 from fat), though it does have 520 mg of sodium. While that’s far less than many other frozen foods, it’s still a considerable amount of sodium.
Trader Giotto’s Organic Pesto Tortellini is by no means a rich, savory pasta. It’s a subtle, lightweight meal that won’t drown you in calories, and sometimes that’s just the thing you need. This is the sort of meal that tastes great with a glass of wine on a summer night.
To learn more about the nutrition info and ingredients in this frozen pasta dish, check out our package scan below.
