Italian Creations - Watties Carbonara product reviews

I am a big fan of all the different Watties creations sauces that I have tried to date so I was of course excitedto get the opportunity to try the Watties Carbonara sauce for review. I love a good Carbonara :) and when my package arrived from KIWIreviews, even though I knew what was in it, I got super excited about opening it, I accidentally cut through the Watties sauce mix lol So even though I already had the evening meal decided I had to change our plans due to cutting the packet.

Watties Carbonara sauce is a big 400g sized packet of sauce. It is a very thick and creamy sauce, with easy to follow and simple directions. And as an added bonus it is easy to make and most homes with have some form of pasta on hand in the cupboard to make this up, even if it is unexpected and you are not prepared. As I have already said the sauce is a very thick creamy sauce and doesnt require any real effort; basically heat n eat lol

So once added to the pasta and heated and dished up it was time to try. I'm a fan of good full of flavour sauces. This one is creamy and cheesy but my family and I felt that it was actually quite lacking in the bacon flavour, which to us was a shame. I also felt it was prob slightly thicker than I would have preferred which was fine when first dished up but as the meal progressed and began to cool the sauce thickened even more and caused the pasta to begin to clump together which was an even bigger probldm for my younger children.

All in all not my favourite Carbonara but as it gave a larger serving than any other carbonara sauce we have had before, I would purchase this again.

This is yet another well known type of dish that is available in the Watties creations range and is a classic Italian dish that I'm sure many people have tried before, this time it is Watties take on this favorite.

As with all the other creations type of flavors Watties makes, this comes in the foil type bag which for some reason I seem to prefer over a can, maybe it just seems better when it comes this way,

Once the packet was opened it smelled pretty good, it smelt like other carbonara sauces I had tried in the past and I was looking forward to giving this one a thorough tasting. I was keeping the meal pretty simple and just having it with pasta. A nice simple meal cooking the pasta and stirring through the sauce is all that is needed.

I'm going to have to mark it down in taste for myself, it just seemed not quite right and a bit hard to pin point what it was. It was similar to other sauces I had tried but maybe it was slightly artificial in flavor like maybe it has some type of strange cheese flavoring in it.

All in all it was just let down by the flavor for me, and that really is just personal taste, as it is from Watties and I really liked all their other creations sauces I had tried previously, give this one a go and see what you reckon. I'm sure it would be a hit with the kids in your family out there.

I like me some bacon, when the price is right, so thought this looked like a good sauce to try (since it states that bacon is optional).

I decided to try a small amount on it's own first and I have to say that I was very unimpressed, it was nice and smooth and creamy but other than a slight cheesy taste there wasn't much going on. As we were only feeding the adults for dinner I decided to make up some wedges (and having managed to get some bacon) I fried up the bacon with garlic, mixed about 1/4 cup of this sauce in, spread it on the half cooked wedges, sprinkled with cheese and cooked. This worked really well, making it a nice cheesy dish and stopped the wedges from getting too dry.

Last night we ended up making pasta. For the sauce I cooked up a mushroom pasta sauce, threw in some garlic, onion, bacon and veges. The sauce was running a bit low for the amount of people it needed to feed so I threw in the rest of the Carbonara sauce. Dishing it out, it was a hit, the carbonara added the perfect creamyness to the overall meal and it was eaten up rather quickly by 8 out of 9 people!

Having this on it's own, I don't think I would get it, but to add things to it, I would.

I was excited to try the Watties Carbonara pasta sauce. I really liked the Three Cheeses sauce so was hoping this one was going to be just as nice. Carbonara is a real favourite in our family - I think it was tried in just about every European country we went to.

I thought I would keep it simple and just add frozen peas, corn and cooked pasta to this mix to make an easy Friday night meal. It was very easy to put together and I was thinking of the many things I could put into this sauce to make a real meal out of it in future.

It had a really smoky bacon smell to it, which I did not particularly like, however have had similar sauces with the same smell and they tasted fine. I sat down to dinner after dishing up the plates only to be very disappointed in the taste. It had a very artificial flavour to it.

I suppose the overall taste was summed up by the family in different ways (we all have different tastes buds I suppose). I didn't finish mine and went for the glass of water after a couple of mouthfuls, hubby ate his but did not go for his usual seconds or eat the leftover in the fridge, however Mr 3 loved it and asked for more. This sauce will not be one that I will be stocking in my cupboard.

After trying the Wattie's three cheese's pasta sauce that was available, I was so excited to try this flavour too! As soon as it arrived I knew it was going to be a Friday night special meal (i.e. no vegetables, quick n easy throw together meal instead of opting for the normal takeaways). From previous experience I knew I would not be let down by the quick n easy process to make a Wattie's meal and yet again I was very thankful of this fact!

I got to work, setting the pasta to boil and frying some bacon and onion while I was waiting. Once these were both cooked I drained the water off the pasta and added it to the fry pan (instead of using another dish). I then heated the packet of sauce in the pot I used for the pasta - this way I only ended up using one pot and one fry pan to make dinner. A bonus in itself as it meant less dishes when it came to cleaning up after dinner!

As soon as I opened the packet of sauce I could smell bacon and I thought yum this is going to taste great. When my husband and I sat down to eat however we were both a little disappointed. The sauce tasted quite strongly of fake bacon - that's quite a weird description but I'm pretty confident everyone will know what I mean when I say this. It got to the point where it was just way to overpowering for me and I didn't even finish my dinner. This was a huge disappointment for me as it's the first Wattie's sauce I haven't loved and felt bad for not finishing dinner. My husband finished his meal but agreed that we wouldn't be buying this again as he didn't like the flavour either.

Obviously this comes down to personal taste and others may find this flavour really nice. It just wasn't right for us. The sauce is still of great consistency and could be used for a lot of different meals - your imagination is your only limitation really

My daughters (4 and 5.5 years old) are huge fans of pasta and macaroni cheese. Bacon never lasts long in our house so I knew that they would love Watties Creations carbonara sauce. Their two favourites bacon and pasta. I couldn't go wrong. The sauce in the sachet had some bacon in it but I was pleased that I had added extra bacon as it really added to the flavour and appearance.

The girls were both very excited to see what I was cooking for dinner. I also added two cheese sausages that had been left over from lunch. The dish was so quick and easy. Although the instructions said to heat the sauce in a pot I decided I had already created enough dishes so just stirred it through the hot pasta. This heated it evenly and probably prevented my girls from burning their mouths.

Both of my girls loved their meal and the only complaint was when their mean mother added vegetables to their bowl. They did however eat more vegetables than they normally would as they had sauce on them. As there was only one adult and two young children eating it there was plenty leftover for for my lunch the following day. I discovered that this dish reheated very well and had my home-based care-kids eyeing up my lunch.

Since it was such a hit with my girls I will buy it again to keep in my pantry for a quick and easy meal (either dinner or a weekend lunch) as it would be great with any pasta and cooked meat.

My family likes a good cheesy sauce so I was most keen to get to try this Carbonara sauce, having tried various other brands in the past.

As with all the others in this brand range, I really do like that the packaging has images of some of the items that are in this sauce, so you know you're getting bacon, real bacon in it, and having a read on the back, the amount of bacon in this sauce is far better than other sauces that I have tried. Ripping this open was an ease and I didn't have it half ripping, leaving a mess and an awkward spout to pour from.

Dinner was a nice and easy meal, we went with a favourite that is garlic and onion (lots of garlic) fried in a bit of butter, then fry up some bacon with the onion and garlic and then pop in the sauce. I usually add cheese to my dish, but that night I was feeling rather tired and so couldn't be bothered grating any cheese this time. I have to say, this sauce did not miss the cheese at all, the kids chowed it down and I had them all asking for seconds, sadly of which there was none left.

For convenience and the fact that I didn't need to add cheese to this, I will be buying it again.

I was in a bind the other night when I was going to have another Watties Creation meal for dinner but I forgot to get the mince out. As I shifted from foot to foot in the kitchen I realised that the bacon was not frozen and decided to switch to Carbonara instead. Into a pot, I boiled some pasta with a little oil and some salt. Then in a frying pan, I heated the bacon through. Once the bacon was cooked, I simmered the sauce with the bacon. I then combined my sauce with my cooked pasta and dished this up for all of us.

My family hasn't had this before, and I decided to try the sauce without adding any extra taste to the meal to see what they really thought. My eldest daughter declared it to be her favourite before she even tried it. I tried to soften the blow of it being different, because she was under the impression it was my normal macaroni and cheese. However, I needn't have worried. She absolutely cleaned her plate and asked for more, which was fine by me.

My youngest took to her own bowl of pasta with great gusto as well, leaving only her bacon behind. She is a strange child, not liking bacon. But she clearly enjoyed the pasta and sauce. My husband thought it was nice, but could have done with a little seasoning and I had to agree. It was a little bland without some extra salt or pepper. I think next time we get this, I might add some cheese and cracked pepper. I would love to try it with onion but unfortunately my eldest detests onion so that is off the menu. Thanks so much Watties and KIWIreviews for letting us try this. Another win for the fussy kids,

I left my husband in charge of working out what to do the Wattie's Italian Creations Carbonara Sauce for dinner tonight. We had some left overs in the fridge and some fresh veges and sausages. I came home from work to a delightful smell. The bacon smell wafted out to the driveway and I couldn't wait to see what he had created. He put the left over fettuccine at the bottom of a dish and put thinly sliced vegetables and then poured the sauce over the top. He then baked it until the vegetables were cooked.

Although the meal passed the initial smell test, I found it a bit salty and that it didn't taste like real bacon. My children weren't that fussed on the flavour of the meal either. I think the fact that it was a lot saltier than our usual meals didn't help.

Looking at the ingredients, it is interesting to note that the main ingredient by a long shot is water. It doesn't mention the water percentage. The next item listed is cream at 13%. I think that most of the Wattie's Creations sauces are quite favourable with regards to the amount of unknown items. This one, however, has quite a few "numbers" rather than food items. Although it was so easy to use this sauce, I think I would be more likely to create my own Carbonara sauce with fresh cream and real cheese (rather than powder) - that would eliminate the need for preservatives and perhaps some of the other items listed.

I'm a huge fan of pasta dishes more so Mac and cheese so when I was looking for something as a side dish to go with dinner and I spotted the Watties Carbonara sauce in the cupboard I decided to give it a go. I figured as it serves four it would go perfectly as a side dish and we could have the leftovers the next day for lunch.

Since I was planning on using leftovers for lunch I decided while the pasta was cooking I would fry up a bit of onion and bacon to add into it. Once it was cooked I added the sauce to heat ready to add the pasta. Just as the pasta was cooked my husband rung to say he was running late and be another half an hour away. I had noted on the packet it said it was also ideal as a pasta bake so everything was quickly added to an oven dish, cheese grated on the top and it was thrown in the oven.

Before I threw it in the oven I had to take a sneaky taste test because once I opened the packet the cheese and bacon smell of the sauce was saying eat me! While the sauce is very tasty for someone like me who loves making cheese sauce from scratch it was quite fake tasting. After it came out of the oven with grated cheese on the top it was a bit tastier and had more of a fresh home made flavour. If I use the sauce again I will be added the extras as I'm not sure I could eat it plain.

On the plus side the dish did reheat really well the following day for lunch and it didn't dry out like a lot of sauces tend to do.

One of the worst jobs of being a stay at home mummy is deciding what everyone is going to have for dinner. Getting the right meal can be stressful, I need something which is nutritious and yummy, something that the whole family will enjoy (2, 5 and a hubby) and (preferably) nice and quick. Pasta is a winner in this house my girls love it and so does my husband. So when I received this I was over the moon - a meal that everyone will enjoy made in less than 20 minutes is like a gift from heaven.

So easy to prepare put pasta on to cook (I used spirals) and then while that was cooking dice up some onion and bacon and grate some cheese. Quickly fry this up and by that time the pasta is ready, drain the pasta and add the sauce stir together and viola, a fantastic meal is waiting for you.

I know its a winner when the room falls silent and they dinner suddenly disappears from view and they are both asking for more. For tonight's dinner I also had garlic bread as a side and it was fantastic to clean the plate with the bread. As much as I liked it would of preferred more sauce or maybe in future will not use as much pasta. It still coated the pasta perfectly but would of liked some real sauce to be seen by the eye.

Watties creations are great for those nights when you need something quick to prepare and are way healthier than take aways. I love them and the price is really good for them. Highly recommend.

Tonight we tried one of the Watties Italian range meals - Carbonara. For a Sunday night dinner, I liked the sound of something that required very little effort on my part. This has the added bonus of very few dishes to clean up afterwards too. In fact I decided to set myself a challenge and do it all in the one pot - including cooking the optional extra bacon.

First I boiled the water in a heavy bottomed saucepan and cooked the pasta (I used sea-shells). While that was draining I cooked my bacon in the same pan, then I added the sauce to heat and then finally stirred the pasta back through - it was that simple. They suggest serving it with parmesan cheese, but for a quick family meal I decided just to use normal cheese.

They suggest using about 250 - 300g of pasta, and although I normally try to push the limits to make things go further, my experience with Watties meals is not to do this, and I'm glad I stuck to the 300 grams, but even so the resulting meal easily fed my family of 3 with another good sized serving left over.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the pouch with the carbonara sauce in it, was the smell of bacon flavour, and although I love bacon, I'm really not a fan of fake bacon flavouring. However I will eat it if I have to so kept on going, plus a little taste-test on my finger put my mind at rest that it wasn't too strong. The carbonara does have actual bacon in it - little bits that smelled and looked like the bacon bits that tend to come in canned/packaged meals so this may have been what I could smell.

As far as taste goes, my 5 year old looked at the final dish and her eyes lit up - she loves creamy pasta, and she served herself a huge helping and dug straight in. However half way through she discovered the bacon pieces that had come with the sauce and started picking them out saying she didn't like them. And I have to admit I was with her on that one! However with my additional crispy fried bacon, mostly we didn't notice the rubbery little bacon bits that came in the sauce and my daughter must have eaten most of them as there weren't many left on her plate.

I have tried a number of these Watties meals and usually love them and find them fairly authentic, but this not so much. I felt it tasted a lot more fake and packet-like than many of their other meals in the pouches. I personally wouldn't buy it again, but I do give it points for being quick, easy and cheap to make. And if you like smoky bacon flavour more than me, then you might enjoy the taste too, so it would be well worth grabbing one for the pantry should you want to whip up something in a hurry.