It's time to revisit a Fall Seasonal item that likes to appear on store shelves in the Fall. And yes, this is one of several seasonal kinds of pasta that like to show up on store shelves. In a typical year you'll see the appearance of the colorful Trofie Colore and the Winter Snowflake Pasta. But at the end of the day, while they may look different, but the taste is similar.
Taste
I had passed this item several times but didn't pick it up when I saw it. In typical shopping at Trader Joe's style, the next time I went in, it wasn't there and did not reappear until this year. While this does make its annual appearance in time for fall, this is something that made my inner child get excited (like being an adult and finding the stuffed animal in the store excited).
Excitement aside, these are some really cute pasta. I've seen a number of pasta shapes, but actual little pumpkins are a new one. They're closed on one side almost like someone had hollowed out a pumpkin for carving. If I had kids, I would totally pick these up just on the shape alone.
Problems cooking
As an adult with no kids, I'll buy this once for a few reasons. I'm pretty sure they need to go back and revisit the cooking directions. While this said it takes 7-9 minutes, I was starting to approach 15 minutes to get to al dente.
So you might want to test your pasta before draining it. And test and re-test. Otherwise, they cooked up fine but did not quite hold on to their shape as much as I had hoped. With the small pinhole at the bottom of each pumpkin, some of the mine opened right up and created some flattened pasta.
While that's no deal-breaker, the butternut squash flavor wasn't very strong or assertive in any way beyond color. So, you are basically getting average pasta that takes a very long time to cook. It's also double the price.
Overall
Now, to be fair if this helped a kid eat their dinner then the $1.99 price tag is worth it. I don't feel like I need an excuse to eat pasta, but I could have put dinner on the table in half the time. For me, this is a buy once product. If I had kids, my answer might be different.
Until then, this seems to reappear year after year but be prepared for it to disappear as well.
Would I buy this again? While Trader Joe's Fall Zucchette Pasta was fun and whimsical, the taste was ok, it took too long to cook and it did not really taste like butternut squash. It just tasted like, well, pasta. This is a one-and-done from me.
Product photos
The bag of Trader Joe's Fall Zucchette Pasta:
Calories, ingredients, and directions
(however, I would absolutely recommend testing the pasta rather than relying on the directions. Mine needed about 4 more minutes beyond the recommended cook time on this):
After being cooked you get:
Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.
The Bottom Line
Don’t forget to share your thoughts by going to the “user review” at the bottom of the box (click on the number of stars you believe this product deserves) and leave a comment below.
You can also FOLLOW ME on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest to see what I’m up to.
Trader Joe's Fall Zucchette Pasta
Product Name: Trader Joe's Fall Zucchette Pasta
Product Description: Pumpkin shaped pasta that is seasonal.
Price: $1.99
Summary
A fun, seasonal pasta that is shaped like pumpkins and even has the natural coloring of butternut squash.
Pros
- Trader Joe's Fall Zucchette Pasta is whimsical and seasonal pasta.
- My inner kid couldn't wait to get these home.
Cons
- I think they need to check the cooking directions. I needed an addition 5 minute to reach al dente.
- So if you make this, please test before draining.
- It still just tastes like pasta.
Well.. I'm actually cooking these this very moment and searched Google for this exact info haha. I'm about 15mins now and they're not exactly where we like it. Teaste I agree doesn't taste to much like squash but super excited to eat them for lunch on the Yule afternoon
Thanks for sharing Serah!
Agree, I cooked between 7-9 as directed and they were incredibly hard. An extra 5 would have been the way to go.