I think I am deeming this week official food review week because I feel like I have so many reviews to share with you this week!  As you may have seen on other blogs, Buitoni is a part of Foodbuzz’ Tastemakers program and offered bloggers a chance to try their new Riserva line of pastas.  I LOVE PASTA so naturally, I jumped at the opportunity.  However, I wasn’t expecting much.  Buitoni recommended trying the shrimp and lobster ravioli so I decided to go with that one, although I do want to try the chicken and spinach canneloni next!

I have tried other frozen entrees in a bag in the past and usually finished dinner hungry and not satisfied, so I did stop and pick up a baguette from the store this afternoon and served it with two different dipping oils (one olive oil, one garlic infused olive oil) to make sure our dinner was substantial   We also had a green salad, unpictured.

Preparing the raviolis was a cinch!  You just put the sauce packet into a pot of water, bring to a boil, then add the raviolis for 5 minutes, drain, combine the sauce and raviolis, and serve!  You will notice on my plate that there are three smaller, darker raviolis… I had a few whole wheat ravioli’s left so I just added them in.

Here’s the first bite… I LOVED that the ravioli filling was actually chunky, what I mean by that is that there were actually chunks of real lobster and shrimp that you could taste AND see… I had expected the filling to be a mushy, creamy consistency, so this was a nice surprise… The pasta was tender and soft, I guess my only suggestion to make this just a little bit better would be to create a whole wheat variety!

The garlic butter sauce?  Forget the oil!  I used a piece of bread to enjoy the sauce alone – it was SO good… definitely tasted like pure butter, cream, and garlic and it was heaven…

Well, I have to say that I was seriously stuffed and ready for a nap after eating the raviolis…   We definitely did not need the bread that I put out, the Buitoni Riserva Shrimp and Lobster ravioli’s were really filling on their own and the only reason why I had a teeny tiny slice of bread was because the garlic sauce was just so good!  Hubby really enjoyed the raviolis as well – he thought they were awesome, especially when I showed him that they came from a box!

For those of you counting calories, these are a little high in calories – the box provides 2 servings @ 500 calories each, but I think you really could easily split the 2 servings into 3 and still be satisfied… plus you control the amount of garlic butter sauce that you put on so that is another way to easily reduce the calorie count moderately…

In terms of cost, the pasta line typically retails for $8.99 (I couldn’t find them at my local supermarket, but I did find them at Target!) so it is really a GREAT deal if you want a decadent dinner in a flash.  I am curious about the other varieties so when I give them a try, I’ll be sure to stop back and let you know what I think.