Product: Lucini Italia Rustic Tomato Basil Sauce – $4.50+
This was a new one for me.
Sauce…in a pouch. Yes…a pouch.
Lucini Italia Rustic Tomato Basil Sauce…packaged for three servings…in a microwavable pouch.
I’ve warmed up pouches of Indian food in the microwave, but never a pasta sauce. But, it had worked well for previous products, who was I to judge. Besides, this little pouch of gluten-free, vegan pasta sauce came as a part of a “Don’t Be A Gluten” gift basket that was full of gluten-free products for me to try. My roommate gifted it to me awhile back and I was working my way through other sauces at the time.
Then, the perfect opportunity to try this one out arose when I had to travel to St. Louis, Missouri, for a concert. I was going to be cooking dinner for myself, my roommate, and her aunt, who we were staying with while in town. Her aunt is hard at work on another degree, so she was in study and final project mode. I figured we could make her life easier if I brought some gluten-free foods that we all could eat and I could cook them up and she could just keep plugging along on her studies.
With the travel, this pouch was perfectly portioned. It had three servings of sauce in it and that meant…the three of us would all benefit from it. Now, I have never had Lucini Italia brand, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. But, let me tell you, I’m digging the whole pouch concept. For real.
It was so easy. As the pasta was being drained, I vented the pouch, tossed it in the microwave for 90 seconds, and viola!! The sauce was ready. I only had to pour it over the pasta, give it a toss, and it was ready to serve!
Lucini Italia’s Rustic Tomato and Basil Sauce was a fantastic treat for the palate. Seriously. The sauce is simply made with fresh plum tomatoes and summer basil. It seems simple enough, and it was. But the flavors were the star of the show here. The tomatoes lent a delicious, fresh taste to the sauce and the basil wasn’t overpowering, but rather complimentary to the rest of the sauce. Nothing overpowered. And in the end, the sauce was a delicious, pre-packaged for your microwave treat. I felt it paired very well with the brown rice pasta and asparagus that we cooked up for the meal.
And, despite being microwaved, this sauce wasn’t watery at all. It was thick and seasoned to perfection. Nothing felt watered down. Nor did we need bread to sop up the runny bits of the sauce. There wasn’t any of that.
I was impressed.
So, if you need an easy sauce to travel with, or just want to save some time and pans, I highly recommend Lucini’s Italia Rustic Tomato and Basil Sauce. It comes in a jar…but the smaller-portioned, microwavable pouch is even more convenient. Go ahead…try it. You’ll be surprised too.
The Celiathlete 