Thanks Barilla and Not Quite Nigella!

My prize

I don’t win things very often. It’s not for lack of trying. I am a firm believer in ‘you have to be in it to win it’ but I think there are a lot of people out there who subscribe to this belief. Luck was on my side this time though. Not Quite Nigella, one of my favourite foodie bloggers, recently held a competition where you had to tell her which prize you would choose (from about 20) and why. I went with the Barilla pack because I love any sort of Italian food and I won! I was so excited I nearly did a happy dance and today I nearly busted it out again when my prize pack arrived.

Thank you so much to Not Quite Nigella and to Barilla for my brilliant prize!

My goodies

This was my first sight of my glorious box of goodies. Inside there was:

Pesto alla Genovese con Basilico Fresco (basil pesto sauce with oil)
Olive pasta sauce – there was no Italian on this jar
Polenta preparazione isntantanea (instant polenta)
Casarecce pasta
Pizza all’Italiana (pizza kit)
Tortellini Formaggio (cheese torillini)
A Barilla apron
A Barilla pasta tin

Casarecce

I’ve never even seen or heard of this type of pasta before. Barilla has thought of everything though and provides an extensive recipe collection on their website. I think I’ll be making Casarecce Spinach and Sundried Tomatoes in a Cream Sauce.

I haven’t ever made polenta before either so that will be a nice experiment. I will post about all my Barilla adventures as I use each product.

Tonight we were going to have pita bread pizzas but now we’re going to have fresh Italian pizza! Stay tuned to hear the report. Even the un-opened ingredients in the pizza kit smell good so I imagine it will be a gleaming one.

The packet of tortellini is entirely in Italian (and a few other languages) so it will be an interesting one to make. In fact all the packaging is mostly in Italian – a great test of what I learned before our European adventure. Don’t worry they also have English and the pizza comes with the cutest instructions I’ve ever seen.

Everyone who knows me knows I’m quite a recycling tyrant so it’s easy to see how I was impressed by this fool-proof guide to disposing of the packaging. If only we had such simple to follow recycling labels here.