Day 150 - Lemon Pepper Pappardelle Pasta

I have said it before and I will say it again – the best thing Trader Joe’s does to promote sales in my opinion are their SAMPLES.  They always have a good sample area open and are giving away tastes of REAL food – not just cut up granola bars that other stores sometimes hire women with hairnets to dole out.  At Trader Joe’s, REAL TJ’s employees cook in the store and do the tastings.  And they totally get into it!!  And the OTHER TJ’s employees also get into it and stop by the sample area to see what’s (literally) cooking.  I can’t tell you how many times we have purchased an item after tasting a free sample, and I know loads of other shoppers are the same.  And do you know what?  Trader Joe’s is probably the only store I shop at where I DO buy what I sample!  I mean, think about BJ’s (or maybe your version of that warehouse-like membership only store is Costco or Sam’s Club).  They often have sample people at the ends of aisles.   We have even joked that you could go to BJ’s on a Saturday afternoon and get enough samples to call it LUNCH.  But we NEVER buy the stuff we sample there.  We just eat it, then buy what we came to the store to get.  But at Trader Joe’s, the samples are prepared and served with what feels like CARE, and they actually introduce us to new products that we might like and add to our regular purchases!  TWO THUMBS UP FOR TRADER JOE’S SAMPLE PROGRAM!

So, all that being said, this Lemon Pepper Papparedelle Pasta is an item that we probably would have never thought to put in our cart had I not tasted it when they were sampling it one day.  I was in the store one early evening and they were sampling this pasta.  There was no sauce, but they had added tuna to it and I think I remember it being served cold.  It was good and I bought some!

Here it is on the shelf in the pasta department

 Last night we made it for dinner.  It is not a type of pasta we normally cook – I don’t think we have ever made a flavored pasta at home.  We served it like the package encouraged – with just a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.  Near the end of our servings we also tried some with tuna on it.  Both ways were good.

Here it is on a dinner plate!  See how it is THICK pasta?  It's tasty

I would say this is a SUMMER DISH.  I can imagine eating it out on a patio or deck while sipping chilled white wine.  It is quite lemon tasting, but it doesn’t taste “fake” like most lemon flavored items do, it tastes (and smells) like real lemon.  It might also be a good side dish for chicken or fish.

Overall, nice pasta. 

Price - $2.29 (which seems really cheap for the amount of “fancy” that this pasta brings to the table)

Rating – 4