Bremer Supreme Pizza Skillet

Pizza and pasta are both favorite indulgences in my house. We love spaghetti and meatballs, or a good alfredo, or a cheesy pizza loaded with all the toppings. If pizza and pasta are both good on their own, why not combine them? That’s what Aldi did with a skillet meal I recently found in the limited-buy freezer aisle.

The package for the Bremer Supreme Pizza Skillet describes this as “pasta with meatballs, green bell peppers, onions, and tomatoes in a pizza sauce with Romano and parmesan cheeses.”

Bremer Supreme Pizza Skillet is an Aldi Find. That means it’s only in stores for a short time. Each store receives one shipment, and after that sells out, it’s gone unless Aldi decides to bring it back at some later time. You can’t order this online from Aldi if it’s sold out at your local store.

This cost $5.79 for a 21-ounce bag at the time of publication. That’s about 28 cents per ounce. With four 1-cup servings per package, that comes out to about $1.45 per serving.

If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains wheat and milk. As far as the rest of the ingredients list goes, this looks pretty decent in terms of containing mostly whole, easily recognizable ingredients, with the exception of some corn syrup solids.

One 1-cup serving has 150 calories, 5 grams of total fat (7% DV), 2 grams of saturated fat (9% DV), 280 mg of sodium (12% DV), 19 grams of total carbohydrates (7% DV), 3 grams of dietary fiber (11% DV), 4 grams of total sugars, less than 1 gram of added sugars (1% DV), and 6 grams of protein.

The package has directions for cooking this in the microwave or on the stove top. It should be cooked to a temperature of 165 degrees.

To microwave, pour the frozen contents into a microwave-safe dish and cover. (It doesn’t say what to cover it with, so I’m assuming either a glass lid or a paper towel would be suitable, or a plastic splatter-containing cover if you use one of those in your microwave.) Microwave on high for 4 minutes, then stir and cover again. Microwave for an additional 4 minutes. Carefully remove the dish from the microwave. Season to taste and serve.

To cook on the stove top, pour the frozen contents into a 2-quart saucepan. Add 1/4 cup of water and cover. Cook over medium-high heat for approximately 10 minutes or until cooked throughout, stirring occasionally. Serve and enjoy.

I cooked this on the stove top, and it was hot and ready in about 11-12 minutes. My first impression was that the sauce is watery. It does call for you to add 1/4 cup of water when cooking this on the stove top. I cooked it for a couple of extra minutes to help cook off some of the water, but the sauce in this just isn’t all that thick.

This had plenty of sliced bell peppers and onions, with some small bits of tomato. It had exactly six small meatballs, which were more like sausage chunks. The meatballs were the most flavorful part of this meal. Everything else was on the bland side. We also couldn’t taste the cheese that is supposed to be in this.

Overall, this wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t good enough that I’d buy it again.

The Verdict:

Bremer Supreme Pizza Skillet features rotini pasta with bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, cheese, and sausage “meatballs” in pizza sauce. This was okay but not memorable. The sauce was thin and, with the exception of the meatballs, this meal lacks flavor. As much as we like pizza and pasta, we’ll be passing this one up if we see it again at Aldi.