Francesco Rinaldi ToBe Healthy Pasta Sauce

I may be late to the party with this one, but I'd seen it on the shelf for a while and always kind of skimmed past it, ready to grab my usual Classico Spicy Pepper pasta sauce.  But the last time I went shopping, there was a price-cut on Francesco Rinald's ToBe Healthy pasta sauces and the word "healthy" jumped out at me, so I decided to check it out.

When we flipped over the Garlic and Onion flavor jar to read the ingredients, we were pleasantly surprised to find a minimal list that included things I could actually pronounce: diced tomatoes, tomato puree, onions, carrots, red peppers, extra virgin olive oil... all things I recognized.  We also noted it is gluten free and recommended by the AHA, as well as includes extra Omega 3 and all at 60 calories and 2 grams of fat for a half cup serving.  Not too shabby!

So, naturally, I stuck it in my cabinet and forgot about it.

Last night, I needed something easy for dinner, so I pulled out some protein-packed whole grain farfalle (the bowties!) and while that boiled, I simmered the whole jar of ToBe Healthy sauce, adding nothing except a tablespoon of freshly grated romano.  Pasta done, sauce warm, I just tossed it all together, plated and topped with a dusting of parmesan.

It. Was. Awesome.  Seriously, I'm not a huge "jar sauce" person -- i find them to be too sugary or too heavy or too loaded with unnecessary weird preservatives. Or they're really bland and I need to doctor them up to make them interesting.  In this case, I really didn't do much.  Heat n' serve and off you go.

The size of the jar seems to be smaller than other pasta sauces on the market at 16oz compared to 22-24oz of other brands, even Rinaldi's other lines. But I think if it's priced right at your store and for me, if health is important, even if it's not on sale, it's a good purchase. It actually tastes good.

I'll be buying this sauce again -- I really want to try the Spicy Marinara.  But I definitely liked it -- enough that I actually updated this blog, so that's saying something. ;-)

Weight Watchers PointsPlus:  2, per half-cup serving.

I give this 4.5 donuts.