Qwick n Eazy Schnacking (Dolmio Stir-in Spicy Pepperoni & Tomato)

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Dolmio Stir-in Spicy Pepperoni & Tomato
Date:	18/02/03 (916 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, tasty

Disadvantages: Small tubs

This is one of Dolmio's 'stir-in' range of Pasta Sauces, which are absolutely perfect for a creating a tasty meal on the cheap without the slightest bit of hassle. I'm pretty damn useless in the kitchen it has to be said (although I do make a mean chilli and my spaghetti bolognese rocks big time) so when forced to actually 'cook' for myself I tend to turn to something like this or reach for my beloved microwave. At the moment, I'm tending to turn to these tubs more often because they are rather cheaper and more tasty than microwave trash.

The sauce comes in a 150g foil covered tub which contains enough of the sauce to throw on pasta enough for two people to eat reasonably well and the tubs are small and easily stackable which is great for me because space here is of a premium as well. Cooking guidelines are incredibly simple as it's just a case of cooking 150g of pasta, drain it and stir in the sauce and you've got a tasty lunchtime snack. Well, I use it as a snack, but Dolmio suggests it makes a full meal at dinner time if served with a green salad and crusty bread. Each to their own, I'm more of a pig at meal times and that simply wouldn't cut it for a main dinner. ;) Once opened, the tub can be stored for upto 3 days in the fridge so there's no need to use it all at once if you don't want to. You can just use half in 75g of pasta and save the rest for another day - two cheap and very tasty lunches.

Personally I like the Spicy Pepperoni and Tomato version of these best, but the range also includes:

Sun dried tomato
Roasted vegetable
Sweet pepper
Smoky bacon & tomato
Tomato & roasted garlic
Carbonara

...should you like the sound of those better. I think the "Sweet Pepper" one was a trial idea which was quite nice, but nothing too exciting and I'm not too sure whether they went ahead and added it to the range or not in the end, but the Baco
n one and the Roasted Vegetable variety are rather nice as well - I'm yet to try the others. The Pepperoni variety on review here is very tasty indeed, with lots of pepperoni chunks and a nice thick spicy tomato and red pepper sauce. It might be a little too spicy for some and it should be noted that although the tub does look quite small, half of it is certainly enough for once reasonable sized portion of pasta, adding the whole lot is quite over-powering in flavour, so don't be tempted. A good thing is that the flavours here are all natural, Dolmio claiming there are no artificial colours or flavours so none of that artificial crap either. I'd definitely recommend it, oh and if you take a mooch around the net there are some rather wonderful sounding recipe ideas involving these as well, but I'm no cook so I've not tried them!

I'd definitely recommend at least trying them out, although it's a shame they do not come in larger size tubs or jars if Dolmio are trying to market them as a main course meal. As a snack, they are brilliant though and definitely recommended.


Oh and here's some tiresome completist rubbish for those who care:

Ingredients: Tomatoes(42%), Red Pepper(16%), Tomato Puree(11%), Pepperoni(10%), Olive Oil, Onion, Salt, Modified Starch, Sugar, Parsley, Basil, Garlic, Chilli paste, Spices, Milk Protein, Stabiliser(Xanthan gum)

Nutritional mumbo jumbo for those who can make sense of it (per 100g): Energy 608kJ/147kcal, Protein 3.4g, Carbohydrate 7.9g, Fat 11.5g

Webshite: www.dolmio.com - although there is bugger all information there about anything. You can sign up to do product trials if you want to though which might involve free food but probably involves junkmail. ;)

Summary: