Tuscani Pastas from Pizza Hut

[Dommy]

Someone at work ordered this in today and so I decided to give it a shot since I was kinda bored of my standard lunch and I saw that there was no post here yet and it's my turn to take one for the team...

I’d seen ads for these pastas driving by my local Pizza Huts and was surprised to see it packaged like a Pizza, which for some odd reason really appealed to me. It just seamed like a neater smarter way to carry them instead of the standard tin pasta tray usually used for these types of dishes. Also, the serving size is pretty darn big, I think the ads says feeds 4… well I admit we are in the TeeVee biz so we might eat a little less than ‘average’ but it fed like 6 of us (With Salad)

He ordered the Meaty Marinara and the standard pasta is Rotini. The first thing that surprised me was the Pasta, I was SURE it was going to be overcooked… but it wasn’t, it held on to the fork nicely. The second was the sauce, I thought it was be too sweet, but again, it was a nice mild tomato sauce. Nothing poked out, but it was a nice balance of tomato flavor (Not to acidic at all either). I would put it in the league of the better tomato bottled tomato sauces out there… The meat was also nicely flavored and studded through out. Not huge chunks, but not that tiny meaty paste that are in so many processed pasta dishes either… Being of prime baby shower invitee age, I've my fair share of these types of carry out pasta tubs... I must admit, this was one of the better ones...

The cheese was standard (What little I got after the guys attacked it first) and the salt level on par with what you’d expect from Fast Food, not terrible, but I’m a bit sensitive and I had whole glass of water with my serving (A little more than a cup). It’s not a bad option for those wanting something different a quick from Pizza Hut for a party or something (If you order it without cheese you probably could dress it up and pass it off as something else…) And it’s most definitely a better option than any of their pizzas…

As for me, I tried to redeem myself at dinner... Hmmm... TVP...

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/536866

--Dommy!

[mdepsmom]

We've had the meat sauce version a couple times and like it quite a bit. I like the breadsticks that come w/ it, too. We'll have to give the chicken alfredo version a try sometime.

[why_itsme]

I found it freezes well too. Since only one person in the family wanted pasta and everyone else wanted pizza, there was leftover pasta. Froze it in small containers. Added a dollop of spaghetti sauce that's always in the fridge and nuked it. Still good.

[lvanleer]

We actually like them in our house also...I prefer the alfredo one and DH prefers the meat one plus there's enough for lunch the next day.

[danhole]

Dommy,

Supertaster did a video about these pasta dishes, and also liked them.

http://www.chow.com/stories/11097

[Dommy]

Yeah, I saw it when I did my quick search... I dunno how many people here see the column (I go on it occassionally) and most of the commentary there was about the format of the column, not the actual product... So I went ahead in hopes to getting some actual good discussion on it...

--Dommy!

[danhole]

Well, thanks for taking one for the team and trying it. I would listen to you before I would listen to some others. In other words, from what I know about you, I trust your judgment.

I hadn't even read all the comments on the column, but now that I have I agree that it should focus on product!

[Mommy2Bryce]

We ordered the alfredo one and were very surprised on how good it was. It was perfectly cooked and not too saucy! There seemed to be a lot of very tasty, not dried out, tender chicken. We'll definity try it again.