Amy’s Kitchen Pesto Tortellini

May 25, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

Amy's Kitchen Pesto Tortellini Price: $2.50 (reg. $3.99)
Serving: 1 bowl, 9.5 oz.
Calories: 430
Fat: 29%, 19g
Cholesterol: 14%, 40mg
Sodium: 27%, 640mg
Protein: 20g
Carbs: 15%, 45g
Fiber: 11%, 3g
WW Points: 10 Points

Amy’s Kitchen says: The ultimate in comfort foods -tender organic tortellini pasta and ricotta in a rich creamy pesto sauce.

Abi says: Last weekend I attended a birthday barbecue. I’d promised the birthday girl (Carolyn) a fruit salad and I intended to deliver. While shopping at my local Giant last Saturday morning I decided to venture out of the produce section and into the frozen foods. That was a huge mistake.

Begin saga

There, sitting in the freezer section were 4 Amy’s Pesto Tortellini Bowls. Four! I yanked open the door and scooped the boxes into my loving arms. Then I realized that I should really buy six items, so I threw in an Enchilada Pie and a Stuffed Shells bowl.

Why such enthusiasm? Well, when I first started to review meals for this site, Amy (friend) told me about the wonders of this bowl and informed me that the pesto was so good that she had once reserved some of it to use on another pasta dish. While this may sound disgusting to many of you, I took it as a sign of the superior quality of this meal.

Two weeks later, there was a sale on Amy’s bowls — 2 for $5.00. But there was no Pesto Tortellini to be had, so I got a raincheck. For the last two months I’ve been checking for those bowls. I’m sure the guy who stocks the frozen food thought I was crazy. I’m not crazy, but the raincheck was burning a hole in my pocket.

Which takes us back to Saturday and my warm embrace of six boxes of frozen food (George is going to freak out when he sees that our freezer is completely full). On Saturday I walked up to a checkstand, placed my items on the belt, and said a fond farewell to my raincheck. That is until the raincheck function on the cash register didn’t work and the coupon function didn’t work and I got to get all of my meals for the sale price and keep my raincheck! Yes!

Later in the day, I arrive at the barbecue, set my fruit salad on the table and proceed to stand around a bowl of fruit salad with my friends, chat and eat straight from the bowl (we had forks). I did not talk about frozen food at that time. I chatted about frozen food later when Amy got to the party and we both were ecstatic about our Pesto Tortellini purchases. We cleaned out Giant. Sorry folks in Columbia Heights.

End of Saga

If not for the 40% RDA of saturated fat provided by this meal, I would probably have these twice a week. In fact, it is several days after I had this meal and I’m wishing that I could eat one right now, even if it is only 10:30 a.m. The pesto isn’t quite as garlicky as I like and a couple of the tortellini were hard. Instructions tell you to just cut a slit and let the baby go for five minutes in the microwave (turn once if you don’t have a rotating tray). Unfortunately, this makes for uneven cooking. I am still trying to figure out a way to adequately stir this meal without disrupting the steam-bag environment. Well, I have three more pesto bowls for this experiment.

comments

12 Responses to “Amy’s Kitchen Pesto Tortellini”

Amy on May 25th, 2006

2 for $5 is a great price for Amy’s!
Abi on May 25th, 2006

Yeah, the meal is usually $3.99, so I was ecstatic over getting to keep my raincheck.

Target has an awesome raincheck policy if you’re after clothes or a tv.
Ted on May 26th, 2006

Folding the pasta through the slit with some chopsticks might work.
Abi on May 26th, 2006

Hmmm. I will try that. It sounds like it will have a better rate of success than trying to gently shake around a paper bowl of tortellini.
tg on May 26th, 2006

i do love a good saga. and the timing on ths is nothing less than cosmic. last nite i ate at a foodie joint and they had this appetizer w/ a disc of polenta and some pesto which my pal ordered. my attitude towards pesto lately has been “oh that’s so 1995” but the pesto was so A+ that i am now officially obsessed w/ having more pesto. and along comes this blog item. thank you oh H.E.R., thank you
Rachel Berliner on June 4th, 2006

I am glad you like our food! Your story was very entertaining. . .
Rachel Berliner
Co Founder, Amy’s Kitchen
Mother to Amy who just graduated high school!
Travis on June 28th, 2006

Sounds and looks delicious! I want to try this ASAP! This is an awesome site btw! I went directly to your five star categories, and started browsing through your selected best.
Colleen on August 15th, 2006

Best. Frozen. Meal. Ever. I love how that there’s plenty of pesto. Mmmm, basil.
amy on October 12th, 2006

this was actually kind of greasy to me. But I ate it and I would probably buy it again.
Stephanie on October 27th, 2006

Hey –
I’m not sure if you guys are going to catch onto this comment so late in the month, but I’ve been reading you for about three months now and I just have to say that the site is AWESOME! Let me tell you.. I live in a hellhole studio apartment without any means of cooking with the exception of my microwave, so I’ve been experimenting a lot with steaming foods in the microwave, cooking pasta, and, of course, demystifying those vague instructions on the back of many a frozen meal box. For future refrence, I suggest keeping the box that this bowl comes in, prick the film all over with a fork as opposed to cutting a slit into it, and halfway through heating, remove the bowl from the microwave, hold the empty box against the film while gripping the bottom firmly, and shake, shimmy, dosey-do to your heart’s content. Viola! Steam action, shake action, no mess.
I don’t know whether to be proud of this idea or ashamed. Especially of the super-scientific directions.

- S
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