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Taking The Stress Out Of Gluten-Free Grain-Free & Dairy-Free Living
Product Review ~ Grain Free Cookie Dough & Pasta
A few weeks ago I was milling around on Pinterest and out of the gazillion things I looked at, I just happened to stumble upon Capello’s Paleo Pasta and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. I could not believe I had never heard of them. They didn’t pay me, or ask me to do this review so rest assured, nothing is going to sway my opinion.
Now of course, just stumbling on a grain free, fresh pasta that didn’t involve a vegetable and something I had to create myself, made me do a happy dance. And cookie dough for the husband too?
I’m sold.
So I told my husband all about it and the second he heard chocolate chip cookie dough he said, “order it”! And that was even despite the price…which I’m going to tell you right up front, is going to make some of you gasp. Unless you live in an area where you can find it in your local store and then you can probably just purchase one item at a time and not have to pay shipping.
But before we get into the financial nitty-gritty, let me just give you a little of the what’s what on their products. They sell fresh Paleo pasta and cookie dough – fettucine, gnocchi, lasagna noodles, and chocolate chip cookie dough. They ship it straight to your house (for a fee of course) in a neat ice box container to keep everything fresh and safe. They ship all orders on Mondays only, so keep that in mind.
They also enclose a UPS return label so you can get the box back to them.
All of their products are gluten-free, dairy free, grain free, soy free and peanut free, and the cookie dough is all that and vegan. The egg free among us will be happy to hear that.
Here’s the rough part.
The cookie dough is $43.05 for three 12 oz. rolls. Ouch…I know. That’s $14.35 a roll (not including shipping) and works out to about $1.30 a cookie. The package says it makes 13 cookies, but I’ve used two rolls and with each roll I was able to get 11.
The Husband Cookie Dough Vote:
C- for Texture
C for Taste/Flavor
His opinion was that he doesn’t care for the uneven flavors. He said every few bites he bit into a chunk of salt similar to the size of sea salt, the almond flavor is overwhelming, and he didn’t care for the texture. His words were, “they aren’t even close to being as good as yours”. Mine aren’t grain free.
My Cookie Dough Vote:
A+ for Convenience
B- for Texture
C- for Taste/Flavor when they’re warm
B for Taste/Flavor when they’re completely cooled
I do agree with Tony’s salt comment. I ate two leftover cookies last night and had several pieces of salt. But, I don’t know. Maybe I’m just happy to have a cookie that I didn’t have to figure out how to make from scratch. I would probably continue to purchase them if they weren’t so crazy expensive just for the simple fact that I find them to be tasty enough and so incredibly easy. But the price for me…difficult to justify.
I made the fettuccine noodles with sautéed veggies for us for lunch. This is the packaging. They can be refrigerated or frozen upon arrival and of course, need to be thawed in the fridge before cooking.
The fettuccine noodles are $44.00 for four 9 oz. packages. That works out to $11.00 per package…or about $1.22 an ounce (again, without shipping added). The package says they only need to cook for 45 seconds and cooking time begins the second they hit the water.
At 45 seconds, they were VERY aldente. Kind of crisp in the middle in fact, and had a bit of a moosh along with the crunch. So rather than waste $11.00 worth of pasta, we slipped them back in the hot water and let them cook for about 5 minutes tasting along the way to make sure they weren’t getting overcooked. They softened a bit and the “moosh” was no longer evident. But still more aldente than I think a good pasta should be. There’s that fine balance, and we just couldn’t find it.
We topped it with sautéed vegetables and leftover crumbled bacon from breakfast. Then, finished with the remainder of the fantastic goat’s milk mozzarella I told you about and sliced garlic french bread I toasted under the broiler.
The Husband Pasta Vote:
B for Texture
B for Taste/Flavor
He said the 45 second cooking time was, “bogus” and that he really didn’t mind the texture, taste, or flavor. He feels this wasn’t a fair representation for some reason, and would really like to try it with spaghetti to see what it’s like. And we have 3 packages left (or $33 worth), so that won’t be a problem.
My Pasta Vote:
D- for Texture
C for Taste/Flavor
I think the texture was hard to get past. Maybe had the noodles been just a bit thinner? But the thickness combined with the somewhat uncooked texture, really threw me and I didn’t finish my meal. I was happy that they didn’t have an overwhelming flavor of almond flour, but disappointed that they didn’t really have any flavor at all.
When we try the pasta with spaghetti sauce, I’ll do another review and let you know. Sometimes, spaghetti sauce just makes everything better!
4 Comments on “Product Review ~ Grain Free Cookie Dough & Pasta”
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gluten free zen 
what a bummer! i was all ready to add a new brand to try since it is free of everything we have to avoid. bummer deal.
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Well, it’s just our measly opinion. They are still in business, so clearly many people are happy with their products. I urge you to give it a try and see what you think. 🙂
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Very interesting April. I really appreciate your honest evaluation on these things. There are a lot of duds out there! I have pretty much given up on things like cookies and pasta in favour of other things… like using shredded zucchini or eggplant shards as a bed for pasta sauce, and for sweet things… I go to almond cake or sugar free coconut rough chocolate, when I can buy the 100% solid chocolate, which is only once in a while. The almond cake won’t help you if you are egg free, though. 😦 Thanks again.
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I just bought a spiralizer so I’m excited to try some zucchini noodles! I’m not egg free, thank goodness. That would really complicate things! 🙂
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