Stouffer’s Spicy Pomodoro Penne Review

Stouffer's Spicy Pomodoro Penne

We love a good spicy penne here at Freezer Meal Frenzy (which is why Lean Cuisine’s Spicy Penne Arrabiata is one of our favorite frozen foods). We recently discovered the Stouffer’s Spicy Pomodoro Penne, so we wanted to give it a try as soon as we possibly could. It looks great.

Now, we couldn’t find this in a single-serving size (we’re not sure one exists for this particular meal), so we ended up splurging on the family-sized option. That’s fine — the larger serving size means we can share the meal, and also keep some leftovers in the fridge for the next day!

Of course, the larger size means this has a pretty long cook time. If you go with the microwave instructions, you’ll spend about 17 minutes cooking this. We went with the oven instructions, which say to preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit, then cook this on a baking tray for 50 minutes. After that, you’ll have to give it a good stir and stick it back in the oven for 15 more minutes. Whew, that’s over an hour of cook time!

Stouffer's Spicy Pomodoro Penne

You’ll also want to let it cool for a bit afterward, adding even more to that prep time. Unlike your typical frozen food, which tends to be a pretty fast affair, this is one of those meals you’ll want to start prepping about an hour before you think you’re going to be hungry so it can be ready just in the nick of time.

When all of that is done, the sauce comes out still just a tad soupier than we’d like. It’s not really bad or anything, it just would be better if it were slightly thicker. It tastes great, however. This is one of the sweeter red sauces we’ve tried, and we really do enjoy a sweet sauce. it does have a little bit of a SpaghettiOs flavor to it as well, which we weren’t as thrilled about, but at least that part of the flavor is fairly subtle.

This has parmesan cheese mixed into it, though it’s probably not going to be enough for true lovers of parmesan. If you’re the type who just can’t get enough parmesan in your pasta, you’ll definitely want to add some more.

Stouffer's Spicy Pomodoro Penne

We’d rate the spice level at a medium. It won’t burn your mouth, but you’ll feel it in the back of your throat and you’ll probably find your sinuses to be clearing out a bit. For a pasta dish, we’d say that’s a pretty good spice level. Of course, if you can’t get enough of that spice, you could always add some sriracha sauce. We think that would actually be a good fit here for those who want to kick the spice level up even further.

According to the packaging, there are four servings per box, though we think you could easily polish off half a box if you’re really hungry. We definitely don’t think you’ll be eating a full box, as that’s just way too much food for a single person.

In a suggested serving, which is a quarter of the contents of the box, there are only 260 calories (50 from fat). There’s also about 640 mg of sodium. So if you eat half the box at once, you’re bumping that up to 520 (100 from fat) and 1,280 mg of sodium. That’s pretty high on both counts, so you’re probably better off pairing this with a salad rather than eating two servings at once.

The Stouffer’s Spicy Pomodoro Penne is a tasty family-sized meal. We like the flavor and the spice level is perfect. Just don’t try to chomp down a full box at once — this is designed to be shared with the whole family.

To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this spicy penne dish, check out our package scans below.

Stouffer's Spicy Pomodoro Penne

Stouffer's Spicy Pomodoro Penne

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