Smart Ones Three Cheese Ziti with Meatballs Review

Smart Ones Three Cheese Ziti with Meatballs

The go-to pasta dish for meatball lovers is spaghetti, but that doesn’t mean other pastas can’t benefit from a little extra meat content. That seems to be the concept behind the Smart Ones Three Cheese Ziti with Meatballs.

While this meal is a Weight Watchers product, it’s not as low in calories as many of Smart Ones’ other meals, at 340 calories per serving (this meal has a SmartPoints value of 11). Of course, it’s nothing compared to Devour’s calorie-loaded White Cheddar Mac and Cheese with Bacon, but it’s not as lightweight as, say, the Creamy Rigatoni with Broccoli and Chicken, also by Smart Ones.

But that’s enough calorie talk. Let’s dive into the flavor of this frozen food.

While the picture on the box doesn’t promise gigantic meatballs, we were still surprised to see just how small these meatballs actually are. Each meatball is smaller than an olive. In fact, this is more of the size of a piece of sausage on a pizza than what we’d comfortably refer to as a meatball.

Smart Ones Three Cheese Ziti with Meatballs

The taste of these meatballs isn’t anything special either. After comparing these to sausage bits, we realized how good a real spicy sausage-like meatball would have been in this dish. Alas, these are pretty boring, as far as meatballs go. They don’t taste bad, but they’re not very memorable either.

The sauce has two issues that play off each other. First, it tastes pretty bland, and second, there’s just not enough of it. That makes this double-bland. With those spicy meatballs we mentioned earlier, this might have been less noticeable, but as is, it’s really a problem.

The ziti noodles are smooth instead of ribbed, so they lack texture. We made this same observation in regards to Smart Ones’ Three Cheese Ziti Marinara, but it applies here as well.

The Smart Ones Three Cheese Ziti with Meatballs is an underwhelming take on a dish that we usually enjoy quite a bit. Evol’s take on the dish, while definitely not perfect, is far better than this bland meal, so give that one a try if Smart Ones’ ziti leaves you feeling blue.

If you’re interested in more details about the nutrition content or ingredients in this frozen pasta, check out our package scans below.

Smart Ones Three Cheese Ziti with Meatballs

Smart Ones Three Cheese Ziti with Meatballs

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x