Trader Joe’s new imported Organic BUCATINI has pretty much become my favorite pasta that Trader Joe’s has. This is a high quality organic artisanal pasta in a shape called bucatini, which is a long pasta like spaghetti but with a little hole (buca) in the middle.
The hole really helps this pasta to absorb sauce way more than spaghetti does (twice as much). Bucatini can be really a good match also with hearty sauces such as a Bolognese sauce or ragu. This pasta is excellent obviously for most Italian pasta dishes, and a few even specify this shape, (recipe idea links below).
In the picture is a simple pasta dish I made with this bucatini pasta and just a basic marinara tomato sauce. Even with just marinara and cheese it made a delicious pasta.
Cooking tip: This says cook for 8-10 minutes. I would suggest pulling it from the water under al dente – say around the 7 minute mark THEN FINISHING it in a pan with sauce for a minute or two so it can absorb the sauce and flavor a bit. So pull the slightly undercooked pasta, toss it into a pan with maybe 1/2 the sauce you are serving it with, and finish cooking the pasta with the sauce adding 1-2 tablespoons of the cooking water as needed. (watch Vincenzo do this in the video below) Always save a 1/2 cup of your pasta cooking water. Starchy pasta cooking water is the magic “secret” ingredient to cooking pasta the way Italians do. Finish cooking the pasta for a minute or two until it’s al dente or to your desired degree of done-ness. Plate it up and serve with a bit of extra sauce on top. Garnish with a little grated cheese and chopped parsley. The Bucantini swells up a bit with the sauce giving it a delicious texture and taste. You can even try this Bucantini pasta to make Asian noodle dishes! No really. It works pretty well as an Asian noodle in a pinch.
TJ’s Organic Bucatini pasta is selling for $1.49 for a 1 lb. package. Ingredients: Organic Durum Semolina. PRODUCT OF ITALY. Here’s a few recipe ideas for bucatini too….
These teeny tiny chia seeds truly are a superfood powerhouse. If you aren’t eating chia seeds already perhaps you should be. I eat some every morning.
No doubt you’ve heard about them. How they are a true superfood with lots of health benefits being benificial to heart health, blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and more. Not too mention digestion and keeping you regular as they provide lots of soluble fiber.
These teeny blacks seeds are packed with protein, Omega 3‘s and other goodies, again especially fiber. When soaked in liquid the seeds both swell up and gel up absorbing twenty seven times their weight in water. By the way the chia seed gel smooths things in your digestive tract so can help keep you regular. Another benefit.
They are especially great for adding to smoothies, cereal, pancakes or drinks. They can be used as a natural thickener. The seeds are so tiny they have a tendency to go everywhere and I do mean everywhere, so be very careful when you use these. If you spill these, well they are a real pain to clean up. Get them wet and they stick to everything. So don’t wet them. If you do spill them just try to brush them or vacuum them up and good luck with that…!)
TIP: Careful handling them!! These tiny seeds can go everywhere in an instant if you are not very careful. Rather than using the bag they come in, I pour the seeds into a small glass jar and just use that (and a tiny scoop) as its much easier to handle, than opening and closing this bag all the time. I have spilled seeds many times and they are not easy to clean up as they are so tiny and when wet stick to everything.
I usually mix them into soy milk, oat milk or kefir. Leave them a few minutes to absorb the liquid. They will swell up in 5-10 minutes. Then I add them to my yogurt/kefir/soy milk liquid .( Don’t eat them without soaking them in liquid.)
TJ’s Chia Seeds (12 oz) $4.99. $5.49$5.99, and actually went back down to 5.49 last time I got them)
PRODUCT OF PARAGUAY
Trader Joe’s sells a number of super food seeds including chia seeds, flax seeds, a mix of chia and flax, as well as hemp seeds. All of these are good for you and are things you can easily incorporate into your diet, daily, especially I think at breakfast where you can add 1 or 2 tablespoons into your cereal, yogurt or smoothie. Try CHIA SEED PUDDING; very easy and very good! (another one in link below)
Trader Joe’s carries a lot of “powerhouse seeds” like CHIA, FLAX and HEMP SEEDS. My Trader Joe’s has a “Smoothies Section” featuring all of these plus other products to make smoothies (protein powders, etc)
I wasn’t sure I was going to like this but I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much I did like it when I tasted it and how good this salsa really was. I think the name put me off. Actually it’s quite good and I think if most people try this, they will like it too. Even though pineapple is in the name and is listed as the second ingredient on the list of ingredients, it doesn’t stand out and taste “pineapple-y” or overly sweet; it is completely blended into the other flavors. It does have a hint of sweetness but it tastes like salsa, not pineapples. I have a feeling this is salsa that even people who don’t like salsa will like! You know the “I don’t like salsa; its too spicy for me” type. As you can see from the “heat scale” on the label this is a fairly mild salsa with only a small amount of spiciness. Now as pork and pineapple are a famous match (eg, tacos al pastor) I would try TJ’s Pineapple Salsa on top of some Carnitas tacos. It would be great also on nachos, rice, shrimp, salmon, eggs, or anything you can think of. You could brush this on at the end of grilling / broiling chicken and it would great. A 12 oz jar is $1.99, so at under two dollars this is one of the cheaper salsas on offer at Trader Joe’s. I would gladly buy this again. Ingredients: Tomato, Pineapple, Onion, Green Pepper, Vinegar, Cane Sugar, Salt, Garlic, Jalapeno, Cilantro, Red Pepper
UPDATE (AUG 2025) After a report from a reader about this being discontinued, I investigated with the Trader Joe’s front desk. They looked it up and said it’s “not available”, and looked more and said the Info page for it, said the company who was their supplier went out of business. So their order page for the product says “Not Orderable”. She said the page says Trader Joe’s is looking for a new supplier. Hopefully they will find one. But unfortunately for the time being we can’t buy this anymore at Trader Joe’s. I will update again if more news on this.
Trader Joe’s sells packages of “CARNITAS” (Mexican style oven roasted pork) in the fresh meats section. Frankly you make look at this in the package and it may not look look very appealing to you but trust me, buy this! This is not just good, TJ’s Carnitas are delicious. This is a fantastic product. Its tender, slow roasted pork with a falling apart, melt in your mouth, delicious porky goodness. Carnitas (lit. translations is “little meats”) are a traditional Mexican preparation & cooking method with pork typically cooked in its own fat in enormous copper pots by special Carnitas masters, slowly stirring it for hour with long handle wooden paddles. Cooking carnitas is an art. You can’t even really make carnitas at home. When done the pork is so tender and juicy it is almost falling apart. Typically the cooked carnitas meat is chopped up for tacos or other dishes. “Trader José’s” version of carnitas can be used to make excellent tacos. Now even though it’s fully cooked, it will be far tastier if you brown it and I strongly recommend you do. Its worth the little extra effort and your tacos will be far tastier. Please do not microwave it – despite the fact they say you can on the package. Just toss it in a pan. I cut up the big piece of meat into a few pieces and cooked it on low-med heat for about 10-20 minutes turning the pieces every 5 minutes till all sides are seared, golden brown and delicious. Some interior fat in the meat will melt doing this too. The carnitas may even start to fall apart as you turn it, that’s fine (and an indication of how tender it is). When its all done, take out the meat, rest it a minute or two and then either chop it up into bite size piece or what I like to do is: shred it up using two forks. You can use the carnitas as a filling for tacos or quesadillas with your desired accompaniments. Personally I like traditional Corn Tortillas but use any tortilla you like. Now besides using this for tacos, this tasty roasted pork can be used for other things too of course. So for example this pork is great used for Chinese cooking. No really! I make pork fried rice using the pork cut into bite size pieces instead of Cha Siu and it’s super yummy. How about Ramen? Sure. Cut into slices, grill them a bit and use these as the Ramen topping like the traditional slices of Cha Siu. Italian? Chop up the meat for a super easy tasty meat sauce, which you add to tomato or marinara sauce – voila, an instant “Ragu” or meat sauce for pasta or gnocchi. You can even just serve this delicious pork on its own with some lime or salsa or as a topping for a salad. Or make a Cuban Sandwich with this, ham and some Swiss! Trust me, you will find this TJ Carnitas useful to use for many things. The 12 oz. package of TRADITIONAL CARNITAS goes for $6. I would buy this again
I’ve actually come up with a great hack using the Carnitas to make it into a really tasty easy Chinese Roasted Pork (CHA SIU)
BTW – TJ’s PINEAPPLE SALSA goes very well with this pork carnitas for tacos etc.
This is a Trader Joe’s STAFF PICK favorite and I completely agree. TJ’s New Zealand Grass Fed Cheddar is an excellent cheese, a sharp cheddar aged from 6-12 months. This cheese is one of my favorite cheeses that TJ’s carries, and I buy this almost every time I go to Trader Joe’s as it goes rather quickly in our house. This cheddar has just the right amount of tang if you are a fan of a sharp cheddar, good for both adults and kids. The other standout cheddars at TJ’s are the CABOT VERMONT EXTRA SHARP and of course UNEXPECTED CHEDDAR. You can not go wrong with any of these cheddar cheeses but I do like the fact that this New Zealand cheese is “grass fed” meaning from milk from those contended Kiwi cows munching away on grass if they anything like the ones in this picture! This cheese is great by itself, on a cracker, in a sandwich, with fruit, and it’s superb melted. Grilled cheese sandwich, omelets, in a pizza, tacos… it’s especially fantastic melted. You can just give me a Granny Smith apple, a hunk of this cheese and a knife and I will be almost as contented as one of the Kiwi cows.
Update: It used to be 5.99 / lb but unfortunately the price has gone up 50 cents to $6.49 / lb (April 2022)
What is FARRO ? Farro is an ancient grain, a type of wheat, known for its nutty flavor and chewy texture, and is a versatile ingredient used in various dishes like soups, salads, and risotto
The Italian word farro can mean “ancient grain” and refer to a few older varieties of our modern day wheat such as, emmer, spelt and einkorn wheat, all of which are forerunner grains of our modern wheat. TJ’s Farro is a tasty and healthy whole grain. High fiber, high protein.
FARRO is a good whole grain which is quite nutritious. FARRO a good source of protein, fiber and has lots of nutrients. Its a healthier alternative to some refined grains for example, white rice (and don’t get me wrong I like and eat white rice). Farro has even gotten a bit trendy in the food world. Maybe you’ve seen farro served as a side dish at a fancy Italian or other kind of restaurant. It’s tasty.
It has a nutty taste and slightly chewy texture. It’s delicious on its own with just some butter, salt and pepper. You can cook it in water, with a pinch of salt or cook it in some broth (veg, chicken or beef) which will of course make it even tastier. Farro is a good grain for using as a “bed” to put something on top of, or as a side dish. Just like you might use rice or orzo for example. Trader Joe’s 10 minute Farro cooks quickly. In 10-12ß minutes.
We like to make farro either as a side dish or part of the Main, say mixed with other veggies, sometimes as the base of a protein bowl. Whole grains like this normally take about 45-60 minutes to cook however TJ’s “10 Minute Farro” obviously cooks much faster. I am just guessing that it’s been parboiled to cut down on the cooking time. So it’s really convenient, and healthy and it’s not too expensive either. Trader Joe’s 10 Minute Farro sells for $1.79 1.99 for an 8.8 oz. bag
There is a good sounding recipe written on the Trader Joe’s bag for “Farro with Sausage & Apples” (using chicken sausage).
TJ’s farro is something I buy all the time, along with other grains they have. Farro is good to have in the pantry.
HOW TO COOK FARRO: I suggest the “SIMMER” method described on the bag. Use 1/2 cup Farro and 2/3 cup water or broth or combo. Put that in a pot. You can add a little butter and maybe salt depending if you used water or broth. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer, and cook covered for about 10-12 minutes. Turn it off and let it stand 5 minutes before serving. Pretty easy!
You can mix cooked farro with cooked brown rice to come up with your own version of something like TJ’s famous (or maybe infamous) “Brown Rice Medley” (which TJ’s Discontinued much to the outrage of many people who read this blog!)
Gave this new product addition a try as it sounded a bit interesting. I grilled the chicken in a cast iron pan. Was it really “exceptionally moist and juicy” as advertised? Frankly it was OK however I found the taste and texture really nothing special. My main question was given the premium price ($5/lb) is it worth it – Versus – my just buying bone in chicken at Trader Joe’s (which is around 1/2 the price) then fixing that up myself. Marinating it in buttermilk or yogurt takes minutes to make, though it does need time to marinate). Now TJ’s sells a whole chicken for $1.99 a lb. or about $10-11 for a 5 lb bird which will feed 4 (or you can buy parts for $2-4/lb.)
The 1/2 chicken I got was 1.5 lbs. Clearly from a very small chicken (around 3 lbs) The leg here only had about 3 bites worth of meat on it, though the breast was fairly meaty. It came with the neck too, something that most people might just throw away (me, I gave it to the cats!) So cooked, there was not a ton of meat on this 1/2 chicken. I doubt this 1/2 chicken will “serve two people?” as they suggest. In sum, I didn’t find this a very good value. It would be cost way less to just buy chicken and just marinate it myself. Personally I would more likely marinate it in Greek YOGURT (yogurt makes for very tender chicken). For a better flavor than this bland marinade I would use a lot of spices, for an Indian or Middle Eastern flavor. Tumeric, Cumin, Garlic, Ajika. Now that would be make a way more interesting grilled chicken dish than how this pretty meh chicken turned out. Also, it may not be a fair comparison yet still I could not help thinking for I paid for this 1/2 chicken ($7.50) I could have picked up a whole rotisserie chicken for less (BJs or Costco) and they are very tasty. So personally I probably will not buy this buttermilk brined chicken again. If I wanted “easy and ready to cook” I would rather pick up something right next to this that I know is actually worth it : TJ’s SHAWARMA CHICKEN which sells for a dollar more a pound than this, and as its boneless, has zero waste so more bang for the buck.
Now since writing this review, I have learned a TikTok video recipe about this Trader Joe’s brined half chicken went viral and sparked a lot of interest in this chicken. I watched the video. The cooking techniques she does look sound to me (salting to bring moisture to the surface, wiping off moisture, grilling the skin, and then roasting) however this should produce as good results with any marinated or brined chicken.
“Are you a seeking the secret to sensationally moist and juicy Chicken? Search no further, your quest is complete—it’s Buttermilk! This cultured dairy product makes a magnificent marinade, as the acidity in the Buttermilk will tenderize the chicken, allowing it to retain more of its juices when cooking…”
Great copy-writing however the product didn’t live up to this description in my opinion. Of course try it for yourself if you are interested. However I would suggest if you do, season it up quite a bit. It’s pretty bland as-is.
Trader Joe’s new ice cream, “When Life Gives You Lemons Make ICE CREAM”, Lemon Ice Cream with a Lemon Swirl and Shortbread Cookie Bits is da bomb. This stuff seems to be flying off the shelves at the moment.
This new Trader Joe’s ice cream flavor is very original, unusual, and delicious. Sweet but a little tart. We used to get lemon ices as kids in the summertime which are really good. But this is lemon ICE CREAM, not ices so it tastes that much more amazing – plus it’s not “just lemon ice cream” it’s a kind of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream invention built on a Lemon Theme with yellow swirls in the ice cream which have even more sweet lemon flavors and then to top it all off, they put in these little pieces of buttery shortbread, so it has a bit of texture to it which make it now even more amazing. Now I would not even say I’m a huge fan of lemon ice cream, however when I first tasted this concoction I did a “wow is this good” double take – ‘cuz it is really really good plus it seems very original and unusual, again in one of those really good but simple Ben & Jerry’s ice cream concoctions. I went back to get it again. I go to the ice cream case and was so dissapointed. SOLD OUT! Not just that, only this flavor was sold out, there are a ton of ice creams on both sides of where this should be. So I am assuming word is out on this ice cream and everyone wants to try it, and for good reason, it’s a really terrific TJ’s product. It’s not cheap at $3.49 for a pint. However a pint of Ben & Jerry’s or Hagendaz or the like goes for way more than this. This WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS ice cream invention is a real treat which I think in the summer time it will seem even more heavenly, on a hot day.
I tried Trader Joe’s “ROASTED GARLIC MARINARA” and found it to be quite decent. It has what you might call a slow cooked taste and its very tasty. The flavors in the sauce blend well together, the garlic and the spices well balanced. I don’t like overly homogenized smooth tomato sauces, I prefer a little chunkiness in them. This stuff has some chunkiness, all of which makes this sauce taste a little bit “homemade” against a sauce that was overly blended. I made a pasta dish using TJ’s new (really good) ORGANIC BUCATINI (great!) and the dish turned out quite good, the bucatini perfectly absorbing the sauce. OK I had added ground beef which made this into a meat sauce but even without anything extra, this marinara is flavorful. Of course some fresh basil will really step of the flavor if you have some. It worked well with gnocchi too. TJ’s ROASTED GARLIC MARINARA is $1.99 (24 oz jar) – and its still $1.99 ! (summer 2023)
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