We love to try new foods. Some are great. Some don’t measure up and some become staples in our kitchen. See what you think.
Victoria Fine Foods has been making quality pasta sauce in Brooklyn for over 85 years. I recently had the opportunity to visit their processing plant. The innovation and cleanliness were amazing. But, the standard product, pasta sauce, has not changed from the simple slow kettle-cooked recipe developed in the 1920s. Victoria has recently taken their well-known pasta recipes and adapted them into organic, gluten free, NonGMO Project Verified, kosher certified pasta sauces. The organic sauce line has 4 varieties. We tasted two: Organic Toasted Garlic and Tomato Herb. Both were excellent.The nutrition information for Toasted Garlic and Tomato Herb is the same: 50 calories in a ½ cup serving, 2 grams of fat, 6 grams of carb (4 grams of natural sugar and 2 grams of fiber) and 450 milligrams of sodium. Victoria pasta sauce is so proud of their simple, tasteful sauce that the ingredients are listed on the front of the label as well as in the standard ingredient list that is required. All you will find in Victoria Organic Pasta Sauces are ingredients you would add to your own homemade sauce.
Banza Pasta Made from Chickpeas! was founded by two brothers in Detroit, in 2014. Their goal was to upgrade pasta to a better-for-you healthier product. Banza pasta comes in four shapes: penne, rotini, elbows and shells. The nutrition information for all 4 shapes is the same. A 2 ounce serving (one quarter of a package) has 190 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 14 grams of protein, 32 grams of carb (5 grams of which is natural sugar from the chickpeas and 8 grams of fiber), and 60 milligrams of sodium. Banza is certified gluten-free, vegan, non-GMO and kosher certified.Each shape has a slightly different cooking time, so pay attention to the package instructions, but all shapes cook in 9 minutes or less. We tasted shells and served them with a fennel-sausage sauce. Not one of our tasters commented on the pasta tasting different from the usual.
