Pasta in a hurry
Despite pasta sauces being easy, quick to make and great value for money sometimes you just need a quick break from cooking. There are a lot of pre-made pasta sauces out there that are rather bland and definitely not worth the money, most of the big brands are guilty on both counts.
Lucia's, a local operation with quite a reputation, hasn't tickled my fancy at all despite all the hype. I found the pasta sauce to be quite bland and the service to be rather indifferent although I should try their much praised eatery sometime. In amongst a mass of bland pasta sauces I was pleasantly surprised to find two that actually tasted better than most fresh made sauces, although the explosion of very ordinary cafes doesn't set the bar that high. Both were arrabbiata sauces, a rustic tomato sauces with spiciness from chillies.
Whilst arrabbiata isn't that common here in Australia I did also try the chilli and capsicum sauce from Bertolli recently as well. The Bertolli Five Brothers sauce was actually quite a nice consistency and tasted as fresh as any pre-made sauce can be. However it just didn't have that moreness and depth of flavour that the other two had.
Barilla is one of the leading pasta makers in Italy and command a premium over their competitors. Their arrabbiata sauce demonstrates why this is so, with perfect consistency and depth of flavour that is right up there with the best of freshly made sauces. Sacla add whole cherry tomatoes to their arrabbiata sauce for that extra burst of freshness and plumpness. Whilst the sauce itself is not quite up there with Barilla's the addition of whole cherry tomatoes make up for that.
From a greedy guts like me these sauces with al dente pasta make for quite a meal on their own. Team them up with some flakes of tuna perhaps and some salad made up in the time it would have taken to make the sauce and you have a nice wholesome meal. The price premium for these sauces is more than made up with by the extra level of flavour these sauces give you. After all food that you don't enjoy is bad value regardless of price.
Lucia's, a local operation with quite a reputation, hasn't tickled my fancy at all despite all the hype. I found the pasta sauce to be quite bland and the service to be rather indifferent although I should try their much praised eatery sometime. In amongst a mass of bland pasta sauces I was pleasantly surprised to find two that actually tasted better than most fresh made sauces, although the explosion of very ordinary cafes doesn't set the bar that high. Both were arrabbiata sauces, a rustic tomato sauces with spiciness from chillies.
Whilst arrabbiata isn't that common here in Australia I did also try the chilli and capsicum sauce from Bertolli recently as well. The Bertolli Five Brothers sauce was actually quite a nice consistency and tasted as fresh as any pre-made sauce can be. However it just didn't have that moreness and depth of flavour that the other two had.
Barilla is one of the leading pasta makers in Italy and command a premium over their competitors. Their arrabbiata sauce demonstrates why this is so, with perfect consistency and depth of flavour that is right up there with the best of freshly made sauces. Sacla add whole cherry tomatoes to their arrabbiata sauce for that extra burst of freshness and plumpness. Whilst the sauce itself is not quite up there with Barilla's the addition of whole cherry tomatoes make up for that.
From a greedy guts like me these sauces with al dente pasta make for quite a meal on their own. Team them up with some flakes of tuna perhaps and some salad made up in the time it would have taken to make the sauce and you have a nice wholesome meal. The price premium for these sauces is more than made up with by the extra level of flavour these sauces give you. After all food that you don't enjoy is bad value regardless of price.
posted by Forrest Rivers at 21:08
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