Pasta is a great comfort food in my household. We’re fans of classic spaghetti and meatballs and lasagna. I also love a good homemade fettucine alfredo, especially if you add shrimp. Serve pasta with some garlic bread or breadsticks and a garden salad, and you’ve got a complete meal.
I found some interesting pasta options in the Aldi Find freezer aisle this week. I decided to serve them as a quick and easy Friday dinner before my family headed out to see a production by a local community theater. I wanted a dinner that could come together fast with a minimum of pots and pans, and these pasta packages fit the bill.
These are sold under the Priano brand, which is not a company. Instead, it’s the private label Aldi uses for various Italian-inspired foods such as lobster and crab ravioli, stuffed shells, and puff pastry.
Priano Shrimp Scampi & Linguine and Priano Chicken Florentine & Farfalle are Aldi Finds, which means they’re only in stores for a short time. Each store receives one shipment, and after that sells out, they’re gone unless Aldi decides to bring them back later. Aldi does not offer online ordering for products that are sold out at your local store.
Priano Shrimp Scampi & Linguine and Priano Chicken Florentine & Farfalle cost $5.99 for a 24-ounce package at the time of publication. Each package contains three 1-cup servings. That comes out to about $2 per serving, or about 25 cents per ounce.
The backs of the packages have directions for heating these in a skillet on the stovetop (preferred method) or in the microwave. Either way, these should be cooked thoroughly to a temperature of 160 degrees.
To heat on the stove, pour the packaged contents into a skillet, cover, and cook over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes, making sure to stir occasionally to blend ingredients. For best taste, serve immediately.
To microwave, pour the packaged contents into a microwave-safe dish. Cover and microwave on high power for 7 minutes. Uncover and stir to blend ingredients. Cover the microwave on high power for an additional 3-4 minutes. For best taste, serve immediately.
I went with the stovetop heating method, using my Aldi Crofton Awesome Pan and my Aldi Crofton Fry Pan. It was as simple as heating the pans and dumping the packages’ contents in. The chicken Florentine meal was heated in the fry pan in about the exact amount of time the package advertised. The shrimp scampi meal took a little longer. The shrimp are raw, so you’ll need to make sure they’re fully cooked before serving.
Keep reading for more information about each pasta meal kit.
Priano Shrimp Scampi & Linguine:
Priano Shrimp Scampi and Linguine ready to serve.
The package describes this as “tender shrimp, linguine pasta and vegetables in a creamy garlic scampi sauce.”
This was our favorite of the two pasta meals. The noodles had a nice al dente texture, and there was plenty of sauce and shrimp. This seemed to have a bit more sauce than the chicken Florentine. It has a generous amount of red and yellow bell peppers, which is good if you like peppers or are trying to up your veggie intake, or not so good if you don’t like peppers. The peppers had a tender-crisp texture and were not mushy, which I liked. This also has some black pepper scattered throughout, and we occasionally got a bite that was mildly spicy due to the black pepper, but this is not a spicy meal by any means.
Priano Shrimp Scamp and Linguine nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains shrimp, wheat, milk, and soy. This also contains a few processed ingredients such as guar gum, dextrose, and xanthan gum.
This does contain its share of fat and sodium, but it’s a frozen pasta dinner, so I’m not surprised there. One 1-cup serving has 250 calories, 11 grams of total fat (16% DV), 3 grams of saturated fat (13% DV), 47 mg of cholesterol (16% DV), 500 mg of sodium (21% DV), 29 grams of total carbohydrates (10% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (5% DV), 3 grams of total sugars, no added sugars, and 11 grams of protein (26% DV).
Priano Chicken Florentine & Farfalle:
Priano Chicken Florentine and Farfalle ready to serve.
The package describes this as “tender white meat chicken, spinach and farfalle pasta in a creamy Florentine sauce.”
This meal was fine, but it was our second favorite. It has plenty of sauce but not as much as the shrimp scampi meal. It’s very generous with diced spinach, and it has a mild flavor overall. I don’t always like large amounts of cooked spinach, but this was okay. The pasta had a good al dente texture similar to the linguine in the shrimp scampi meal. There was also a decent amount of chicken.
Priano Chicken Florentine and Farfalle nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains milk and wheat. The ingredients list contains mostly easily recognizable ingredients, with the exception of “liquid glucose.”
This has some fat and sodium, but again, it’s a ready-to-heat frozen dinner, so it might not be as healthy as what you’d make homemade. One 1-cup serving has 310 calories, 13 grams of total fat (21% DV), 3 grams of saturated fat (15% DV), 40 mg of cholesterol (13% DV), 400 mg of sodium (17% DV), 30 grams of total carbohydrates (10% DV), 1 gram of dietary fiber (4% DV), 3 grams of total sugars, 1 gram of added sugars (0% DV), and 19 grams of protein (38% DV).
The Verdict:
Priano Shrimp Scampi & Linguine and Priano Chicken Florentine & Farfalle are frozen pasta meals that heat quickly and easily in a skillet on the stove or in the microwave. We like the shrimp scampi meal the best, with its long noodles, generous amount of shrimp and sauce, and sliced tender-crisp bell peppers. The chicken Florentine meal with its bow-tie pasta, seasoned meat, and lots of diced spinach is also good.
Thank you for your reviews, I always like reading them. They are easy to understand and like that someone can give me a heads up on the products Aldi carries. My Aldie’s doesn’t always have the things you describe in your articles but I do look out for them.
Glad our reviews are helpful. One thing to keep in mind is that sometimes products sell out fast, and if you don’t shop on the day the new ad cycle goes into effect (usually Wednesdays), you may miss them. It’s pretty rare that an advertised product doesn’t show up at my local stores, but sometimes you have to be quick to find those products.