Pasta Bar

I always say that fresh is best, but sometimes I just don’t have the time, or the inclination… especially around the holidays.  So when I was contacted about sampling some of the products in the Giada De Laurentis for Target line, I was really intrigued. I may not always want to make things from scratch, but I never want to skimp on ingredients and I was thrilled by the very short list of ingredients on each of the bottles I received.  I had a couple of ideas as to what to do with the product, but in the end I decided that a pasta bar would be a neat idea.

Now, you could, if you wanted to, transfer your sauces to other containers if you wanted people to think this was home made and after sampling them all, I believe you could get away with that.  I wanted my “guests” to know what they were trying, so I left them in the jars.

Pictured are:

• Black Olive Tapenade
• Marinated Sun Dried Tomatoes
• Marinated Roasted Red Peppers
• Marinated Mushrooms
• Genovese Basil Pesto
• Eggplant & Pepper Pesto

I put them all out on the table, with a spoon for each one, boiled some pasta (linguine) and included fresh Locatelli on the table for grating.  I also reserved about two cups of pasta water in case the sauces needed thinning.

I gave everyone a bowl of pasta and let them build their own masterpieces

Here’s mine:

I just couldn’t decided, so I had tomato eggplant, basil pesto, black olive tapenade, mushrooms, sun dried tomato and roasted peppers. I mixed it all together and added some Locatelli

It was really good!

I have to admit, I was surprised by how tasty and fresh testing the products were. The tomato eggplant was my favorite, but everything was really good and I would absolutely buy them. The prices are really quite affordable and again, there are no chemicals or HFCS in sight.

If you’re planning a holiday meal and are stressed about it, there are alternatives. This is a great idea for a no stress, budget conscious, fun, tasty, party dinner.

I also received some kitchen tools and all in all I’m pretty impressed.  The mixing bowls are nice and sturdy and a good weight, with pour spouts(!), the tools are sturdy and thoughtfully designed and the stoneware is also quite nice.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Giada De Laurentis for Target and received product samples to facilitate my review

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