We all need meals in minutes, don’t we? It’s nice to think we can stand at the stove, wine in hand, idly stirring a homemade sauce but it only really happens on cookery TV shows where the host has little else to do all day.
But shop bought sauces can vary in quality. We’ve been pretty impressed by WORLDFOOD’s range of Asian and now we’ve been having a go with G’Nosh.
Available exclusively at Waitrose (quelle surprise), the piquant Prawn & Chorizo in a Spicy Tomato Sauce uses Ecuadorian prawns and paprika spiced pork from Northern Spain, Mussels & Prawns in a Garlic Butter Sauce has Galician mussels, while the slow-cooked Italian Sausage Ragu uses Northern Italian sausage with fennel seeds.
They come in plastic sachets which have been designed to stand upright in the microwave (yes we know) for the ninety seconds it takes to heat them through. You could of course warm them in a pan but why add more washing up?
There’s enough in a pack for two people and we used them, predictably enough with pasta.
The trick with pasta of course is to cook it almost al dente and then to add the sauce for the last minute or so, this allows the pasta to actually absorb some of the sauce aided by a splash of the water it was cooking in. Tubular ridged pasta (rigatoni) works best with sauces like these, although a ribbon pasta like fettucine or spirals (fusilli) are good too.
So we tried them all
Italian Sausage Ragu was very good, the sausage meat generous and granular in the sauce with good bite. The fennel hit I liked but it could be a bit strong for some.
Mussels & Prawns in a Garlic Butter Sauce was also good, plenty of plump mussels and prawns in this one and possibly our favourite
Prawn & Chorizo in a Spicy Tomato Sauce was our least favourite, the chorizo was in small equally sized dice which made it seem rather industrial and they were a bit too small. The prawns were too big, more and smaller would have been better. Quite fiery with spice too.
Overall these are great value, add in the pasta cost and it’s around £2.00 a person, so perfect for weekday suppers.
G’NOSH Meals in Minutes (RRP: £3.49)