The Trader Joe's Frozen Dinner That's A Soupy Mess

One of the many perks of Trader Joe's? They have a ton of frozen dinner options for when you need a super quick and easy meal. Of course, some frozen meals are better than others, which is why Daily Meal ranked 17 of Trader Joe's frozen dinners.

Unfortunately, there's one frozen dinner that's a soupy mess: the Cheese Filled Fiocchetti with Pink Sauce. This pasta dish came in second to last (with only the no-longer-sold Vegetarian Meatless Cheeseburger Pizza ranking worse). Our biggest gripe was that there's too much sauce, so much that it overpowers the dish, and it's yellow instead of pink. Thus, the cheese-filled pasta is hard to fully taste. The sauce is made of tomatoes and cream, but the cream flavor is much more prominent than the tomato, so there isn't too much of a balance. Of course, a frozen dinner is never going to be as good as making a pasta dish at home, but we should at least be able to expect a better ratio of sauce to pasta.

Plenty of Trader Joe's shoppers on Reddit agree, although not everyone thinks that too much sauce is a bad thing. One user wrote, "Yes, definitely more sauce than pasta. I personally love it that way." Others found it tasty but too runny, and one shopper simply said, "Sauce tasted watery and had no flavor."

If you still want to try the Cheese Filled Fiocchetti with Pink Sauce but want to avoid the runny quality, you have a few options for improving the sauce. First things first, don't follow the instructions beat for beat — specifically, the instructions tell you to add water to the sauce and pasta. Many Trader Joe's shoppers on Reddit suggest skipping that step. The extra water only makes the consistency runnier and takes away the potency of the flavor. Or, don't use all of the sauce. The sauce comes in frozen cubes, so it's easy to leave some out. One user wrote, "I've actually started setting aside half of the sauce cubes and keeping those frozen and [using] them for other pasta when I want a quick sauce!"

Meanwhile, others add in extra ingredients to help soak up some of the sauce, including extra veggies and chicken sausage. This method is actually a win-win — the dish won't feel as sauce-heavy, and you can get some extra protein or nutrients into the dish. Broccoli, spinach, and onions are all great options for the veggie additions, but feel free to use up what you have in your fridge.