While looking for long-lasting pantry staples to restock my kitchen this winter, for those times when I need easy nonperishable meals, I came upon some boxed pasta bakes that looked interesting. They came in Bolognese, Carbonara, and Four Cheese varieties. I opted to try them all.
The Priano Bolognese Pasta Bake, Priano Four Cheese Pasta Bake, and Priano Carbonara Pasta Bake cost $1.99 each for a 9.8-ounce box. I bought these on clearance for $1.49 per box, and there weren’t that many left at my local store at the time of publication. These are a product of Italy.
These are an Aldi Find, which means they’re only available for a short time. Aldi won’t ship them to you once your store sells out.
While these are shelf stable and will last in your pantry for a while, you do need a few other ingredients to make them, including water, milk, and Parmesan cheese or some other grated hard cheese. You will also need one pound of ground beef to make the Bolognese pasta bake, although if you wanted to omit the meat I think you could do so, but I haven’t tried it that way.
Read on for more information about the different pasta bakes.
Priano Bolognese Pasta Bake
Priano Bolognese Pasta Bake nutrition information, ingredients, and directions. (Click to enlarge.)
To make this, you’ll need 1 pound of ground beef, 2 1/4 cups of milk, and 1 cup of grated hard cheese (Parmesan recommended).
To bake this pasta, in an 8-inch-diameter pot, brown 1 pound of ground beef with 2 tablespoons of oil for about 5 minutes. When meat is well browned, pour 2 1/4 cups of milk, 2 cups of water, and the contents of the sauce pouch into the pot. Bring to a boil and stir well. Cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour the lasagna into the pot and stir well. Coat an ovenproof dish with butter or margarine and pour all the contents of the pot into the dish. (Be careful not to splatter it while pouring.)
Sprinkle the top with grated cheese before putting into the oven. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Once baked, let it stand for 5 minutes before serving.
After baking.
The nutrition information is not as clear as it should be, but I think a one 1-cup prepared serving has 400 calories, 12 grams of total fat (15% DV), 5 grams of saturated fat (25% DV), 60 mg of cholesterol (20% DV), 1,270 mg of sodium (55% DV), 39 grams of total carbohydrates (14% DV), 6 grams of dietary fiber (21% DV), 9 grams of total sugars, no added sugars, and 32 grams of protein.
If you’re watching out for allergens, this contains wheat. It may also contain milk, soy, egg, and crustacean shellfish (shrimp).
Yum!
Bolognese sauce is a meat-based sauce that uses various vegetables, beef, milk, and tomatoes. This particular pasta bake was delicious. It’s the only pasta bake of the three that calls for adding ground beef, and with the little packets for sauce and dried noodles it was like a fancy version of Hamburger Helper. The sauce packet smelled good as soon as I emptied it into the cooking pot, and it thickened nicely while heating on the stove top. The sauce packet combined with the milk turned everything a shade of pink-ish red, but the color mellowed out to a nice red during the baking process. I topped the whole thing with shredded Parmesan instead of grated Parmesan, and it browned a lot during baking, so I think I’ll stick with grated Parmesan next time. Or, if I use shredded Parmesan, I’ll add it halfway through the baking time so it doesn’t overbake. I would definitely buy this pasta bake again.
Priano Four Cheese Pasta Bake
Priano Four Cheese Pasta Bake nutrition information, ingredients, and directions. (Click to enlarge.)
To make this, you’ll need 1 2/3 cups of milk and 1 cup of grated hard cheese (Parmesan recommended).
To bake this, in an 8-inch-diameter pot, our 1 2/3 cups of milk and 1 2/3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Stir in the contents of both pouches and cook over medium heat for about 5-6 minutes. Pour the pot contents into a greased, ovenproof dish. Sprinkle the top with grated cheese and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes in a pre-heated oven. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Priano Four Cheese Pasta Bake after baking.
One serving appears to have 350 calories, 11 grams of total fat (14% DV), 5 grams of saturated fat (25% DV), 20 mg of cholesterol (7% DV), 720 mg of sodium (31% DV), 1 gram of dietary fiber (4% DV), 12 grams of total sugars, no added sugars, and 14 grams of protein.
If you’re watching out for allergens, this contains wheat and milk. It may also contain soy, egg, and crustacean shellfish (shrimp).
Priano Four Cheese Pasta Bake.
I topped this pasta bake with grated Parmesan instead of shredded Parmesan, and the cheese was perfectly browned. This Four Cheese Pasta Bake has a somewhat sweet flavor, and it’s like a fancy macaroni and cheese dish. My family liked it and ate it all. I like the Bolognese Pasta Bake better, but this one is fine.
Priano Carbonara Pasta Bake
Priano Carbonara Pasta Bake nutrition information, ingredients, and directions. (Click to enlarge.)
To make this, you’ll need 1 2/3 cups of milk and 1 cup of grated hard cheese (Parmesan recommended).
To bake this, in an 8-inch-diameter pot, pour 1 2/3 cups of milk and 1 2/3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, stir in the contents of both pouches and cook over medium heat for 5-6 minutes. Pour the pot contents into a greased ovenproof dish. Sprinkle the top with grated cheese and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes in a preheated oven. Once baked, let it stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Priano Carbonara Pasta Bake after baking.
Again, the nutrition information chart is a bit wonky, but I think a single serving of this has 340 calories, 10 grams of total fat (13% DV), 4 grams of saturated fat (20% DV), 20 mg of cholesterol (7% DV), 760 mg of sodium (33% DV), 48 grams of total carbohydrates (17% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (7% DV), 13 grams of total sugars, no added sugars, and 13 grams of protein.
If you’re watching out for allergens, this contains wheat and milk. It may also contain soy, egg, and crustacean shellfish (shrimp).
Priano Carbonara Pasta Bake after baking.
Carbonara is traditionally made with eggs, cheese, cured pork, and black pepper. While this pasta bake doesn’t contain pork, I could smell the smoke flavor as soon as I opened the sauce packet. It smells a lot like bacon. This bake features a cheesy sauce and small bits of sweet dried tomatoes. I forgot to top this one with grated Parmesan cheese before putting it in the oven. When it was done baking, I sprinkled a small amount on top and set it in my turned-off oven for 3-5 minutes to slightly warm the cheese. This was my family’s second-favorite of the three pasta bakes, with the Bolognese bake being our favorite.
The Verdict:
Priano Bolognese, Four Cheese and Carbonara Pasta Bakes are great for those days when you want pasta but are craving something fancier than traditional boxed macaroni and cheese. These kits contain sauce mix packets and bagged dried noodles. You prep them on the stove top and then transfer them to the baking dish in the oven. They’re all good. Our favorite is the Bolognese pasta bake.
