Trader Joe’s Valentine’s Day Review

Italian Artisan Heart-Shaped Pasta

The Italian Artisan Heart-Shaped Pasta is perfect for the Valentine’s season. What says “I love you” more than a bowl of pasta, amirite? The bag contains a mixture of normal pasta and red beet-dyed pieces. I can confidently report that the beets did not interfere with the taste, so you do not need to worry too much about complementary flavor pairings. Due to the open nature of the heart shape, this pasta is ideal for soups. I made Pasta E Piselli, a pea and tomato dish, which worked great with the Trader Joe’s heart-shaped pasta.  

Ricotta Cuoricini Ravioli

The heart-shaped ravioli is the reason I wanted to explore the Trader Joe’s Valentine’s options in the first place. I have previously made heart-shaped ravioli from scratch and know the work, sweat, and tears that go into filling and shaping each pasta. While home-making ravioli with love is always superior, the average human does not have a spare 5 hours to make a bowl of pasta. That’s where Trader Joe’s comes to the rescue (if you are interested in seeing a future article about my pasta-making journey, drop a comment!). Like the heart-shaped pasta above, the ravioli is also dyed with beets to offer a natural pink/fushia coloring that embodies the cutesy color pallet of the holiday. The filling features a combination of ricotta, parmesan, and balsamic reduction. The beets and balsamic are the overriding flavors, making this a sweeter dish (perfect for your nearest and dearest sweetheart). A sauce that embraces the sweetness of the filling is ideal, perhaps a pinkalicious goat cheese and beet sauce or a light drizzle of olive oil and parmesan. 

Heart-Shaped Macrons

They taste just like your favorite macrons, just heart-shaped. The cream-colored macaron has a smooth vanilla bean filling with a dollop of strawberry jam in the center. The pink macaron has a tart and vibrant raspberry cream filling. Both cookies offer the perfect balance of sweetness, making them the ideal addition to any Galentine’s celebration and pink treat charcuterie board. They are beautiful, delicate, and charming, just like you!    

Double Chocolate Croissants

I am by far the biggest fan of Trader Joe’s croissants! Last year, I included the frozen croissants in my 5-must try Items from Trader Joe’s list, so it’s safe to say, I was pleasantly surprised to see a new flavor available. While not advertised as a Valentine’s item, the double chocolate flavor screams decadence and celebration, like a heart-shaped chocolate box, except this is socially acceptable to eat for breakfast. The double chocolate croissant is prepared just as the others: place the frozen croissant on an oiled pan, cover it with a towel overnight to prove, and throw it in the oven once you wake up! The result is a fresh, chocolatey, flakey pastry, perfect for brunch get-togethers and dunking in your favorite coffee drinks. 

Cards

I always ignored the card section at Trader Joe’s, but I’m glad I finally took a moment to investigate their Valentine’s selection. As someone with a best friend who loves cheese, this card instantly called to me and found its way into my cart. The illustration is colorful, relatable, and chock-full of hearts. The inside reads, “For a gouda friend like you,” an oh-so-cheesy message for the cheese lover in your life, perfectly encapsulating the cheesiest day of the year. It is genuinely the cheesiest card you will ever find!  

Flowers 

Trader Joe’s is also surprisingly known for their elite flower selection. They have a vast variety of flowers, making it the perfect spot to build your own bouquets if you have an eye for floral arrangements. If we learned anything from Miley Cyrus, it’s that you can buy yourself flowers this holiday! Splurge on a cart full of pink tulips, blush roses, a little bit of greenery, and cotton candy colored babys breathe to show yourself some love this season. While February 14th only comes around once a year, you should love yourself always!        

Bonus Item: Pickle Salad?

This item obviously does not belong on this list (It might if you know someone who would really appreciate pickles on Valentine’s Day, but for the general public, I realize salad and pickles are not the typical flavors of a holiday built around chocolate and candy). Nonetheless, I love pickles and have seen the Dill-icious salad mix on a few grocery shopping trips. I've always been intrigued but reluctant to try something bordering on weird. I only wish I'd purchased this sooner. We put cucumbers in salads; why not pickles? As someone who loves pickles, this salad was like a match made in heaven. The dill ranch dressing fit the theme to a T, and the crispy dill potato chips acted in place of a crunchy crouton. I added a handful of sliced pickles and can confidently say, this is one of my newest favorite salad mixes offered at Trader Joe’s. Why not relish in the Dill-icious flavor of pickles this Valentine's Day? It’s weird, it’s different, but if we learned anything from Kelce and Swift, sometimes different worlds are meant to collide.