Loyd Grossman’s Pasta Italia Sundried Tomato & Basil (Morrison’s) By @SpectreUK

I usually have a pot noodle once a week or so when Cinabar and her mom have a pizza night. I'm not fussed with pizza. I used to like it, but went off it some years back after Pizza Hut stopped making my favourite, Carne Amanti… sad times. Pizza to me is very filling and often a bit too greasy for my diet. Tonight I fancy pasta, so this Loyd Grossman Pasta Italia Sundried Tomato & Basil seems like a quick low calorie and low fat healthy pot. It also saves time spent on lengthy preparation or messing with a TV dinner in our new fangled microwave oven.

The pot has a photograph with Loyd Grossman looking strangely younger than I remember him on TV. He states that this Pasta Italia is a "quick and easy way to enjoy great tasting Italian inspired pasta and sauce". I'll hold him to that, as it's supposed to be ready in 5 minutes after adding the freshly boiled water and replacing the lid for a while before stirring. This pot contains penne pasta in a tomato and basil sauce mix. I do like tomato and basil soup, so I'm expecting to like this Pasta Italia.

While the kettle boiled I popped a piece of bread into the toaster, and prepared myself a simple diced tomato, apple and baby beetroot salad (beetroot… "bluurgh" said Cinabar)… As you can see from the photograph on opening the pot there was some dried pasta and powdered sauce mixed together at the bottom of the pot. The mark to add the freshly boiled water was on the outside of the pot, which I haven't seen before, and that confused me a little as there was also an indent at the top of the inside of the pot.

Even adding in the correct amount of water and leaving the pot to stand before stirring, this Pasta Italia seemed to be missing something… oh, yes… flavour! Even with the correct amount of water in the pot it felt like the flavour was watered down considerably. It tasted like pasta in tomato and basil sauce in a bucket, so excuse me if I felt a little robbed. I reckon it needed a whole lot more powdered sauce to make this Pasta Italia Sundried Tomato & Basil a proper flavoursome meal.

Information on the cardboard pot;
each 283g pot contains 218 calories, with 0.8g of fat, 14.4g of sugar, and 1.64g of salt. With no artificial colours or preservatives, the ingredients included; penne pasta (51%)(durum, wheat, semolina), tomato powder, sugar, garlic powder (5%), sundried tomatoes (3%), sea salt, yeast extract powder, dried basil (0.5%), and (more) salt.