Taste Test: Buitoni Shrimp and Lobster Ravioli

I’m just a girl who can’t say no.  At least, to free food.  So when FoodBuzz contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I’d like to try one of Buitoni’s new premium frozen meals for 2…for free, I said yes.  Sure, frozen dinners aren’t something we consume often around here, but I figured one night of processed food wouldn’t kill us.

Brian and I decided to try the Shrimp and Lobster Ravioli with Garlic Butter Sauce, because if you’re going to buy a frozen meal, you may as well get something more interesting than cheese or chicken.  The preparation was incredibly simple (one of the purposes of a frozen meal).  The box contains a package of sauce and a good number of ravioli.  You fill a pot with water, add the pouch of sauce and bring the water to a boil.  Then you add the pasta to the boiling water with the plastic bag of sauce floating in it and cook for 5 minutes.  Remove the sauce packet, drain the pasta, toss the pasta with the sauce and serve.

First, the bad:

• According to the box, the package contains a complete meal.  Maybe it’s just me, but I like to have more than just pasta and sauce as my meals.  Like, a vegetable, perhaps.  We added a side of spinach.
• There was more sauce than I would’ve liked and it was really thick.
• The ravioli wasn’t very flavorful and some of the seafood pieces were a little chewy.
• I wasn’t real happy with the nutrition facts.  That’s a lot of fat, cholesterol and sodium.  Luckily, Brian and I have been subsisting on a lot of salads lately.  You can decide how you feel about them for yourself though (click to enlarge).

Second, the good:

• The garlic butter sauce was yummy and added a lot of flavor to the dish.  And better too much than not enough, right?
• There was definitely the right amount of ravioli for 2 people.  Often, I’ve found that a frozen meal only serves half the number of people its supposed to.  This one actually satisfied.
• Ease of cooking; only one pot required!

The verdict:  Overall, the meal was good.  It tasted good, it was easy to prepare and we were full at the end.  Would I buy a Buitoni frozen meal again?  Probably not.  It’s more sodium, fat and ingredients than I prefer, plus the meals retail for between $7.99 and $9.99, at least where I live.  That’s more than I’d like to spend on one “meal” which needs a vegetable.

Disclosure: Free Buitoni frozen meal coupon was  provided by Buitoni through the FoodBuzz Tastemaker Program.