Trader Joe's Chiles Rellenos con Queso

It's been quite a while since I've had any chile relleno, but the biggest problem I've had with it in the past is sub-par chiles used for the base. I've had ones that contained odd, tough regions that were very hard to chew. This product did not suffer from that malady at all. My poblano pepper was pristine, flavorful, and uniformly soft all throughout.

The other problem I've had with chile relleno, in general, is that the fluffy breading is somewhat crispy to start, but then it quickly gets soggified by the melted cheese and sauce surrounding it. This product did have a bit of that going on, which resulted in another very tasty but overall mushy dish.

The spice level was great. The mild to moderate amount of heat came from the poblano pepper as well as the tomato-based sauce. The asadero cheese, though nearly liquid and difficult to wrangle with a fork, was absolutely scrumptious and complemented the batter, pepper, and sauce elements nicely.

Supposedly, chile relleno used to be one of my mother-in-law's specialty dishes, but alas, I have not been able to try it yet <hint, hint, suegra.> As it stands, I think this is among the best specimens of the entree that I've ever had. 

Eight out of ten stars from me for Trader Joe's Chiles Rellenos con Queso.

Sonia's entire family, in fact, either makes some form of chile relleno themselves or is a chile relleno connoisseur. 

Because it's a dish that's relatively easy to mess up, the convenience factor, and reasonable price ($5.99 for two) Sonia gives this product of Mexico 9 out of 10 stars.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Giotto's Penne Arrabbiata

I feel like there are more Italian folks in the northeast than anywhere else in the country, and thus the northeast is absolutely brimming with authentic Italian restaurants. Every town with a thousand people or more has at least one decent sit-down Italian place run by a family that's passed down recipes from father to son or mother to daughter for many generations.

The midwest has some Italian restaurants, for sure, but they're a bit farther and fewer between, and the real gems might be a little harder to find. Maybe it's the lack of a single Italian restaurant in our current neighborhood, but you might have noticed we've been picking up a good many Italian dishes from TJ's these past few months. I'm not sure how I've missed so many "Trader Giotto" products over the years, but better late than never, I suppose.

All that to say I've never tried arrabbiata pasta prior to this dish, so I have no idea what I'm talking about. If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you'll know that's never stopped me in the past and it certain won't stop me today. First thoughts? It's good but not great, IMO.

The spice blend that's there is nice, namely garlic, chili pepper, and white pepper, but it's pretty tame by our standards. Sonia and I both felt the Calabrian Chili Pasta Sauce had more tongue-tingling heat and a more interesting overall flavor profile than the sauce on this pasta. How authentic this arrabbiata sauce is, we can't say, but while it's nothing to write home about, it's nothing to complain about either.

The pasta was pretty run-of-the-mill penne. It was just a tad more al dente than either of us would have wanted but it was still pretty decent for having been so recently frozen. We found parmesan cheese added a nice creamy tang that was very welcome, and we also added some red pepper flakes to give it more of a kick.

In the end, it's a thumbs up overall, but we'd still gravitate towards boiling our own pasta and adding our own sauce. $3.49 for the 3 serving bag. Imported from Italy. We would possibly buy Trader Giotto's Penne Arrabbiata again.

Bottom line: 7 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Meatless Breakfast Sausage Patties

I've never really been a fan of traditional sausage. I just don't like the taste of most pork products in general and there's something off-putting about the texture to me. Interestingly enough, this product found a way to emulate that off-putting texture fairly accurately. There are like little bumps of...something here and there that feel just like the weird bumps of animal meat in real sausage.

The spice blend is nice and hits pretty close to the spices you'd taste in pork sausage without the actual taste of meat. I'm not thrilled that the base is soy protein and wheat gluten. I'd rather have some other type of bean base, but I guess most fake meats are still made with some amount of soy or soy byproduct.

If you dress these puppies up with cheese, bread, and condiments, they're quite edible and unoffensive. I'd easily pick out that this was fake meat even in a blind taste test. Sonia agrees, but neither of us would prefer traditional sausage over this option in terms of taste or texture. 

We'd both gravitate towards turkey or chicken sausage as our first choice. But if you do Meatless Mondays or just mix things up for the heck of it, this vegan sausage is a passable breakfast option.

There were seven patties in our bag despite the packaging specifying there should be six. About four bucks for the whole thing. The patties are oddly small and don't really fit inside a bun or bagel or even an English muffin. There's excess bread on all sides. 

Sonia would probably buy Trader Joe's Meatless Breakfast Sausage Patties again while I probably would not.

Nathan's score: 6 out of 10.

Sonia's score: 8 out of 10.