Reviews Hollywood Foods/More than pasta

Gigi and I arrived at More Than Just Pasta to pick up our ‘gift certificate’ to get our review samples. We’d written ahead, asking to do it this way to obtain some anonymity and help ensure the samples we got were exactly what the regular consumer would receive. We were greeted by Roderick, the chef, who, upon learning that we’d first heard of the store through the CHFA show, was certain that we must have met him there when we dropped by the booth...but I'm single and he's handsome...I'd have remembered meeting him.

After he charmed us out of the secret of our mission (neither of us is destined to be Master Spies), we found ourselves with two more packages than we had originally selected, as we had apparently completely missed the signature product, their low-carb, high-protein pasta and we had in that delay, the time to notice a product we’d missed originally in the freezer.

We left with several pastas and two sauces: Spelt Gnocchi, Grilled Tomato and Asiago Ravioli, Beet with Venison and Chianti Wine Bouletti, Gluten Free Fettucini, Hi Protein, Low Carb Linguini, Artichoke and Field Mushroom Tomato Sauce and Turkey Bolognese.

First, we combined the ravioli and the bouletti with the mushroom artichoke sauce. They were absolutely superb. The sauce was fragrant with garlic and infused with the flavour of pickled artichoke hearts, it was rich and satisfying.

The bouletti lost some of the beet colouring in the cooking, so lost some of the visual intensity we had been attracted to in the store, but the flavour was subtle and delicious, I felt the flavour of the venison was not very venison-y, but delicious nonetheless. The ravioli was slightly sharp from the asiago and tangy from the sun-dried tomatoes. The two pastas paired beautifully, perfectly complemented by the sauce.

Both of them bubbled up while cooking, which neither of us had ever seen a pasta do before, but it didn't seem to have affected the flavour in any adverse way.

At one point while eating, Gigi and I looked at each other with a single thought. She said: "I can't think of anything this pasta needs." I had to agree. In fact, we had originally held back a small amount of each pasta, in order to have that satisfying experience of being able to have 'more'...and when we each took that extra helping, neither of us put any cheese on it at all, which we had reflexively done the first time out.

Gigi: I was consciously trying to find a point on which to critique the dinner, but both the pairing Gayle had selected and the individual components were top-notch. In fact, if I hadn’t known that the pasta was frozen before cooking, I would not have guessed it was anything other than fresh. The combination of the venison and asiago was inspired. I would highly recommend this pairing for a romantic dinner where you want to impress your guest without actually having to slave over the stove all day.

The second installment was not nearly as exciting. We had the shop specialty, a unique pasta that was especially developed with diabetics and athletes in mind and is both very high in protein and low carb. The sauce, a turkey bolognese was tasty (although Gigi disagrees with me on this), but not as delicious as the artichoke and mushroom from a couple of days earlier and the pasta was okay, but only okay. From the perspective of someone who misses pasta, but needs a carb restricted diet, this provides a means to satisfy that urge. This particular pasta would have benefited from having a bolder sauce, and perhaps a slightly larger amount of salt than usual (although Gigi points out that this would diminish it’s usefulness for diabetics).

The third sample, a gluten-free fettuccine, brought the tone right back up. It was very delicate, both in texture and flavour, a perfect complement to a simple alfredo sauce, which is how I had the first portion, and also worked very well with the carbonara we had as a second test. I’m looking forward to the gnocchi.

Finally, we had the Spelt Gnocchi, which we served in an Alfredo sauce with wild shrimp. The gnocchi had a nice light taste, a delicate texture and paired perfectly with the simplicity of the Alfredo and the taste of the shrimp.

Gigi: The spelt pasta was surprisingly tasty. I say “surprisingly” not because of the quality obf the other products in their line, rather my experience with spelt pastas in the past. It didn’t have the chewy or grainy texture that I sometimes find in non-durum wheat pastas, and would be a great way for parents who want to up the nutrition content of meals to get their kids to eat healthier foods without complaining.

Overall, a very nice experience, excellent products, highly recommended for busy and discerning foodies. We like the pastas and sauces a great deal and know that most will agree.