September Food and Drink News – One of the easiest pasta suppers ever, must be with a good dollop of pesto (either red or green, depending on your personal preference). So I have some news for pesto lovers: Barilla’s Pesto Rosso has just won a Great Taste Award star – with judges calling it “an excellent product” for its creamy texture and gentle tomato aroma. Made with juicy Italian sun‑ripened tomatoes, fresh basil, Grana Padano DOP, and a splash of Modena PGI Balsamic Vinegar, the pesto is gluten‑free, vegetarian, and ready straight from the jar for instant pasta upgrades, toastie spreads, pizza swirls, traybake drizzles – you name it. Packed in a handy 190g jar (keeps for five days in the fridge once open) and available at Co-op, Morrisons, Ocado, Amazon, and selected independents for around £3.
In a playful twist, Heinz has teamed up with Mr. Men Little Miss to unveil its newest family-friendly pasta sauce. Made with 100% natural ingredients, no added sugar, and packed with three hidden vegetables, Mr. Ridiculously Good’s Smooth Tomato Bolognese is smooth-textured, tasty and tailored specifically for children’s palates, helping parents get more goodness into their kids with less of the struggle. Heinz and Mr. Men Little Miss have created a brand-new character: Mr. Ridiculously Good, a tomato-fuelled spin on the existing Mr. Good. The Mr. Ridiculously Good book officially launches this month for back-to-school season. The new pasta sauce will be available nationwide in Tesco with an RRP of £3.00.
One of our favourite chocolate brands – FATSO – has launched a limited edition new flavour, possibly the most dangerously moreish flavour yet. Drunk’n Monkey is truly tropical and tipsy with crispied up banana chips, a glug of rum and a sprinkling of salted crackers in dark Colombian chocolate. The bars are made only with the best cocoa from family-run Luker’s Farm in Colombia. The chocolate is true single origin with Fino de Aroma accreditation (just 8% of cocoa growers are awarded this globally!) and grown with the fair and sustainable future of the local community and the planet in mind. £7.25 per 150g bar from sofatso.com, Delli Market, Holly & Co and select retailers, whilst stocks last.
Gloucestershire-based cheesemaker and distiller, Charles Martell & Son won the Best Soft Cheese trophy at the Artisan Cheese Awards 2025, with its full fat pasteurised cow’s milk cheese, Slack-ma-Girdle. And having had the chance to taste it, I can seriously recommend it. It’s a natural rinded soft cheese, with oozing texture and a delicate flavour profile, including buttery and lemony tasting notes. Well-known as producers of the iconic Stinking Bishop – the cheese that initiated a resurgence in washed rind cheesemaking in the UK – Charles Martell & Son collected a host of awards for its other cheeses, including Gold for Stinking Bishop, Single Gloucester and Hereford Hop. Slack-ma-Girdle is available from www.charlesmartell.com, at £35 for a whole 700g wheel, (which will be fab as a party centrepiece) as well as from independent cheese retailers across the UK.
And still on a dairy theme, Welsh butter brand, Castle Dairies has teamed up with Halen Môn sea salt (hand-harvested from the clean clear waters around the Isle of Anglesey) to create two new delicious products. Castle Dairies Salted Halen Môn Butter and Castle Dairies Salted Halen Môn Spreadable Butter are perfect for butter lovers looking for a traditional block butter or convenient spreadable format. Castle Dairies salted Halen Môn butter contains British butter, Halen Môn Sea Salt Crystals and Halen Môn Fine Salt to deliver a wonderfully crunchy texture and authentic salted taste. Castle Dairies salted Halen Môn spreadable butter combines British butter, British rapeseed oil, water and Halen Môn Sea Salt to create a creamy salty spreadable butter packed with flavour, with the added convenience of being able to use straight from the fridge. Castle Dairies salted Halen Môn butter block 250g (£3.25) and Salted Halen Môn spreadable 250g (£3) are both available from Waitrose.
And when it comes to spreading that butter, do try it on the delicious, newly launched crumpets from Jason’s, the UK’s No.1 sourdough brand. It is expanding beyond bread with its first-ever Proper Sourdough Crumpets, now in 700 Tesco stores (RRP £1.60 for 6). Made from just flour, water, salt and fermented wheat flour, they’re naturally leavened with Jason’s Sourdough starter – no preservatives, seed oils, added yeast or artificial additives. It’s always refreshing to find a widely available, mainstream brand that uses just ‘proper’ ingredients, and no ‘nasties’.
If you’re someone who likes to have a freezer packed with handy, go-to meals, I must introduce you to science-backed, dietitian-designed, chef-made, ready meal provider, Field Doctor, This company has just released (in perfect timing for Breast Cancer Awareness month in October) a new range in partnership with Perci Health (the UK’s leading virtual cancer clinic) as part of the UK’s fully integrated nutrition and education programme specifically designed to support breast cancer patients to eat well during and after breast cancer treatment. The programme is co-created with leading dieticians Jo Cunningham and Dr. Clare Shaw, based on the latest research, and offers over 30 chef-made Mediterranean-style frozen meals combined with an on-demand educational video series from Perci Health’s multidisciplinary experts. This new range includes meals such as: Teriyaki Salmon + Whole Grain Rice Chicken Tikka Masala 3 Bean + Smoked Tofu Chilli. They are ideal for anyone who likes to buy healthy, easy and very delicious ready meals, but they also make a lovely and really thoughtful gift.
Last, but by no means least…a delicious Thai whisky! Thailand has always been a land of intrigue. Now it’s the birthplace of PRAKAAN. This remarkable new whisky is crafted at PRAKAAN Distillery in Kamphaeng Phet, within Thailand’s northerly Western Forest Complex – part of a UNESCO World heritage site. The area’s abundance of natural resources and hot, humid climate, provide the perfect conditions to make premium whisky with a distinctive Thai character. PRAKAAN has three expressions named ‘The Tribura Series’. They represent a pride in Thai heritage. Each whisky is distinctively different in taste, but collectively share the same characteristically Thai ‘house style’, of tropical fruit notes and sweet, vanilla notes. Each bottle, whether it’s the Single Cask (Aged in Ex-Bourbon Oak casks £65 rrp), Peated (£70 rrp) or Double Cask (aged in ex-bourbon and sherry oak casks £80 rrp), reflects character and complexity. Available from selected whisky distributors such as The Whisky Exchange.
The Seasoned Gastronome