This is the other Knorr® - Lipton® Sides Made With Whole Grains package that I got in the mail. They call it Alfredo, but we all know it’s just creamy instant pasta.

Our earlier review of Knorr Sesame Chicken Rice Sides was fairly positive, whole grains and all, so I was expecting this to be at least decent for this type of side dish. Actually, I was hoping to belt out their glorious tagline “Life just got more delicious!” right after tasting it. Or something.

I haven’t had such a good experience from Pasta Alfredo in general, even those dishes that are homemade or restaurant quality. I think one of my first introductions to Alfredo was at Olive Garden. A decidedly unauspicious place to first get a plate of Alfredo Pasta… I don’t know if they’ve improved but I remember that pasta being pretty lifeless. And salty.

But the heart of the problem seems to be my low tolerance for an excess of cream and cheese in pasta. I’m not THAT lactose intolerant, but I just can’t seem to stomach the joyful slatherings that occur in every so-called Alfredo Pasta that I’ve eaten. In fact, the boil-in-a box ones seem to be less disturbing to my system at times.

Another issue with pasta of this type is the “Clumping Factor” which occurs when the creamy, buttery sauce starts to solidify with the excess starch from the pasta. They aren’t messing around when they say “serve immediately”. You’ve got to be a quick eater to fully enjoy it, although I suspect handmade noodles might fare better in a time test. I think you’ve got about 30 minutes to gulp the mess down usually, though it’s been awhile since I’ve had any Alfredo besides this package.

Anyhow, here’s the review.

Packaging:

These Knorr-Lipton Rice and Pasta sides come in a foil bag that you just rip open and dump straight into the mix. As I said earlier, the design is OK. Boy, the alfredo on the package picture sure looks delicious. It’s almost like they’ve coated every single noodle by hand with the sauce… I have no idea how they got it to look like that. I see they have some salad in the picture background for color… it definitely needs it because the noodles look a bit lonely. But hey, that’s why it’s a SIDE dish.

I put the required additions into a pot: 1-1/2 cups water, 1/2 cup milk, and 1 tbsp butter. Then I boiled it and dumped in the bag. They said to cook it uncovered for 10 minutes over medium heat until it was tender, stirring occasionally. Try stirring near constantly instead! At about 3 minutes I had to turn the fire down to low, and keep stirring it for fear of it burning. I actually went 7 minutes total instead of 10, but that’s OK because I like the noodles al dente.

Also, they say to let it sit for 3 minutes but I’d basically put it in your serving dish right away due to the coagulation issues. The sooner it gets eaten, the better.

Appearance and Texture:

The biggest issue is of course the glue-like consistency of the dish, but I had other problems with the sauce as well. I couldn’t get it to coat the noodles anywhere near like the picture. Maybe that’s dumb of me to expect it to look like it but I did try. Mixing it well seemed to help, though that broke up the noodles a bit.

Those fettucini noodles are extremely flat, although they are the right shape for alfredo. They are so flat they’re almost like paper or something. Also they are quite a bit shorter, though that wasn’t a big issue.

The texture of the noodles is a bit gritty as was to be expected of whole grain pasta. The ingredients say “Enriched Whole Wheat and Semolina Pasta”. The same observations are in effect as for the Rice Sides Sesame Chicken… this is whole grain pasta and people who aren’t used to it are going to have to get used to the slightly rougher texture. But the pasta isn’t as hard to chew as the brown rice in the previous dish… I think it’ll go over better with those who aren’t used to whole grain pasta.

The noodles themselves are a bit brownish-yellow in color instead of the normal yellow that pasta usually comes in. You can sort of see that in my picture, but not on theirs.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to make a main dish to sit alongside this pasta side to help it look less lonely. I was thinking some sort of baked chicken or something might have gone nicely with it. Maybe next time.

Taste:

The alfredo sauce itself wasn’t anything to write home about. Plain and simple, creamy and a bit buttery. It says it is made with Parmesan and Romano Cheeses which is expected, but interestingly it also listed Cream Cheese solids in it. It is sort of nice that the overall sauce is not as salty as some other similar instant pastas and again I think that is because the powder isn’t separated in these all-in-one bags. They don’t want to go overboard on heavy taste and are probably expecting people to add salt if needed. I did add real butter instead of the margarine they recommend. They actually say that the margarine is completely optional.

The milk added (I used lactaid) definitely helps out the flavor. I have to admit that adding some fresh cracked black pepper and a sprinkle of storebought parm cheese made the dish taste 10 times better.

There is a very distinct “wheaty” taste to the noodles. It’s a bit like eating wheat crackers or cereal. I think this might put off the average eater if you’re not used to it. Those who are super serious about eating healthy, should give it a go though. The alfredo sauce tends to mask a bit of the wheat pasta taste.

Overall, the taste was sort of “weird”. The combination of the wheat taste and the creamy sauce is something I just haven’t gotten used to yet. I’d probably skip getting this myself in the market again.

Price:

At a MSRP of $1.39 for a bag of this Alfredo Pasta Side, it’s not expensive and it’s not cheap. It’s right about inbetween. If you make your own Pasta Alfredo with homemade noodles, it is going to completely blow away this side dish in terms of taste and texture, but you won’t win in terms of healthiness and you’d probably go a tiny bit over in terms of cost.

Conclusions:

I’ve got mixed feelings with Knorr - Lipton Alfredo Pasta Sides. It’s healthy, it’s not super expensive. But it doesn’t taste as good to me as some of the other Sides. The combination of the whole wheat pasta and creamy sauce is a bit strange. I’m also not sure how well it will hold up to adding your own “goodies” to the mix, like vegetables or meat, which is something I like to do. But it’s meant to be a side, so maybe it’s ok to have it plain.

Price: $1.39 retail per bag
Purchased at: Company Samples
Cheap Eats Score: 4/10