The Trader Joe's Frozen Pasta You Should Always Have In Your Cart

Pasta is one of those rare ingredients you can have hidden in the corner of your kitchen for months (even years) and still use to whip out an impressively tasty dish in minutes. The market leader of snack satiation, Trader Joe's, is known for its frozen food offerings, so it's no surprise the grocery store chain has a melange of impressive frozen pasta options. Tasting Table conducted a side-by-side comparison of 14 Trader Joe's frozen pastas and ranked them according to taste, texture, and overall deliciousness. You're welcome. The winner was a surprisingly veggie-forward, simple pasta. 

According to our taste-bud intensive experiment, the best Trader Joe's frozen pasta is Trader Joe's cauliflower gnocchi. For those who haven't had the airy pillows of starchy goodness, gnocchi is an Italian type of pasta that is typically made with only four ingredients; potato, flour, egg, and salt — so even though cauliflower is not a typical pasta ingredient, it makes for a perfect potato replacement in this version of the dish. The Trader Joe's frozen cauliflower gnocchi is quite simple in flavor, however, its versatility is what makes the quick-and-easy dish shine. Plus at around $3 for 2.5 servings, this is a highly budget-friendly meal option.

Trader Joe's frozen cauliflower pasta is a chameleon of a dish, and you can dress it down or dress it up in a few simple steps. If you're looking for a fast and simple snack, we recommend you ditch the package instructions and pan-fry the cauliflower gnocchi with a couple of tablespoons of butter, your favorite aromatics, and salt to get soft, delicate pillows of crispy perfection. If you're trying to make a special, but manageable dinner maybe to impress a date, you can easily invest your time and energy into a homemade sauce and just add the cooked gnocchi in when you're ready to serve.

For inspiration on what kind of sauce to make, we recommend diving into this list of rich and complex Italian sauces. The other Trader Joe's frozen gnocchi flavors we tried, but didn't like as much, featured cacio e pepe, which is really easy to replicate with frozen gnocchi, an alla Sorrentina-style gnocchi with tomato sauce, basil, and bubbly mozzarella, and gnocchi al Gorgonzola — another easy, yet delicious add to your cauliflower gnocchi. So if you're looking to hack your way into an elevated gnocchi dish, just peek down the freezer aisle at Trader Joe's for some homemade pasta sauce pairing inspiration.