Trader Joe's Cacio e Pepe Gnocchi

At the grocery store, you can easily find a shelf-stable bag of gnocchi. In fact, Trader Joe's sells a pretty good one. But let's face it, when something is so basic it calls for a special sauce. Enter Trader Joe's Cacio e Pepe Gnocchi.

Review

Trader Joe's sells a pretty decent frozen gnocchi. Frozen gnocchi will never compete with fresh gnocchi.

I was feeling lazy and there was no preferred method mentioned on the bag, so I opted for the microwave this time. After 5 minutes at half power and covered, it was still ice cold. I added the extra minute on high to finish these out. Once again, directions were a bit off here in terms of microwave time.

In terms of appearance, these look like nice little pillows of gnocchi minus the indentation from the gnocchi board (or fork) which would give it those classic ridges and likely absorb more of the sauce.

There is a good amount of flecks of pepper as there is in taste as well without it being overwhelming. The sauce seemed a little thin and extra milky. Usually, cacio e pepe tends to be much thicker.

But from the microwave, the gnocchi themselves came out pretty light and airy after cooking. These are larger in size than the sweet potato gnocchi that you might buy.

Otherwise, this bag mentions 3 servings. I think it is closer to 2 in real life. Because of the amount of cheese used in this type of sauce the sodium is high. But as a quick dinner. It wasn't bad. It's on par with the quality of the other varieties available.

Packaging

The only packaging here is the exterior bag. Each gnocchi is covered in the sauce as there is no extra bags of sauce packaged here.

Other Gnocchi

Trader Joe's offers several frozen varieties of gnocchi in addition to one option the pasta aisle.

• Gnocchi alla Sorrentina (year-round)
• Chocolate Lava Gnocchi (winter seasonal)
• Outside In Stuffed Gnocchi (year-round)
• Gnocchi al Gorgonzola (year-round)
• Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Butter and Sage (year-round)
• Kale Gnocchi (year-round)
• Cauliflower Gnocchi (year-round)
• Truffle Cream Filled Gnocchi (winter seasonal)

Other Cacio e Pepe products

And yes, there is also an entire line of cacio e pepe-inspired items. Here is a list of the ones I've tried.

• Trader Joe's Cacio E Pepe Ravioli
• Trader Joe's Spaghetti Cacio E Pepe
• Trader Joe's Cacio E Pepe Sauce (it's on my shelf waiting to be reviewed)

Where to buy

Since this is a frozen item, this item is only available at Trader Joe's.

Overall

Would I buy this again? Trader Joe's Cacio e Pepe Gnocchi is pretty good and a nice addition to the options available in the frozen gnocchi aisle.

Did you try it?  Let me know what you think in the comments section!