Ontario Seafood Pasta Dinner Costs $4.32 Per Serving

Key Facts

• Seafood Pasta costs $34.52 for 8 servings, or $4.32 each. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Fortinos lists Durum Wheat Semolina Pasta Penne Rigate at $4.49. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Food Basics lists Roasted Garlic Flavoured Alfredo Pasta Sauce at $2.97. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Fortinos lists Shrimp & Surimi Balls at $7.99. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Foodland lists Kawartha Dairy Skim Milk 1 L at $3.79. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)

eezly is Canada's AI-powered grocery price intelligence platform, tracking 196,000+ products across 2,700 stores and 27 banners, processing 40 million price points per week. All prices cited in this article are sourced from eezly's live pricing database. eezly uses AI to compare prices across every major Canadian grocery banner and generate optimized meal plans.

Introduction: The Cheapest Featured Ontario Dinner Is $1.41 Per Serving

Creamy Garlic Penne is the lowest-cost dinner variation in this Ontario recipe-costing guide at $11.25 total, or $1.41 per serving, using Fortinos pasta, Food Basics Alfredo sauce and Foodland milk. Seafood Pasta, the main featured recipe, costs $34.52 total for eight servings, or $4.32 per serving, based on live Ontario ingredient prices from Fortinos, Foodland and Food Basics. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

If you are searching for cheap dinner recipes under $5 in Ontario, pasta remains one of the most practical meal formats because you can control the cost by adjusting the protein and sauce. In this guide, you get three budget meals Ontario households can cost out using the same priced ingredients: a full Seafood Pasta at $4.32 per serving, a Creamy Garlic Penne at $1.41 per serving and a Seafood Alfredo Penne at $1.93 per serving. You should treat these as recipe-costing baskets: the prices show what you would pay for the listed grocery items at the named stores, not generic estimates.

Recipe 1: Seafood Pasta — $4.32 Per Serving

Seafood Pasta costs $34.52 total for eight servings, or $4.32 per serving, when you buy the priced ingredients from Fortinos, Foodland and Food Basics in Ontario. The recipe’s cost is driven mainly by two $7.99 seafood components at Fortinos and two milk products at Foodland, while Food Basics supplies the lowest-priced Alfredo sauce in the basket at $2.97. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

This is the most complete dinner basket in the guide because it includes pasta, seafood-style proteins, sauce and dairy. If you are planning a family dinner, the eight-serving format keeps the per-plate cost under $5 while still using a prepared sauce and multiple seafood ingredients. You should expect the total checkout cost to be higher than a stripped-down pasta dinner, but the per-serving figure is still useful for meal planning because $4.32 is below the price of most prepared single-serve meals.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

The most expensive line items in this recipe are the Shrimp & Surimi Balls at $7.99 and Select Seafood Salad Marinated at $7.99, both at Fortinos. The least expensive item is Roasted Garlic Flavoured Alfredo Pasta Sauce at $2.97 at Food Basics. If you want to preserve the flavour profile while controlling cost, you should keep the Alfredo sauce and pasta fixed, then decide whether you need both seafood components or only one.

Where to Buy Cheapest

For this specific Seafood Pasta basket, Fortinos is the key stop for the pasta and seafood components, Food Basics is the best listed source for the Alfredo sauce, and Foodland carries the two milk products in the priced basket. Fortinos offers Durum Wheat Semolina Pasta Penne Rigate at $4.49, while Food Basics charges $2.97 for Roasted Garlic Flavoured Alfredo Pasta Sauce — a difference of $1.52 between those two pantry components, though they are different items and serve different roles in the recipe. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

Your most practical shopping strategy is to avoid buying the whole basket blindly at one store if you already pass multiple banners during your weekly shop. You buy the sauce at Food Basics because it is the lowest-priced item in the recipe basket, then you use Fortinos for the $4.49 penne and both $7.99 seafood items. You should use Foodland for the dairy components if you want to follow the priced basket exactly, especially the Kawartha Dairy Skim Milk 1 L at $3.79 and Silk Whole Next Milk 1.74 L at $7.29.

Recipe 2: Creamy Garlic Penne — $1.41 Per Serving

Creamy Garlic Penne costs $11.25 total, or $1.41 per serving across eight servings, using three Ontario-priced ingredients: Fortinos penne at $4.49, Food Basics Alfredo sauce at $2.97 and Foodland Kawartha Dairy Skim Milk at $3.79. This is the cheapest recipe in the guide and the strongest fit for searches such as “cheap dinner recipes under $2” and “cheapest recipes in Ontario.” Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

This version removes the seafood components and turns the basket into a simple creamy pasta dinner. You are still buying a recognizable pasta base, a roasted garlic Alfredo sauce and a milk product to stretch or loosen the sauce. The trade-off is that you give up the seafood-style protein from the full Seafood Pasta recipe, but you cut the basket cost from $34.52 to $11.25.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

The arithmetic is straightforward: $4.49 for pasta plus $2.97 for Alfredo sauce plus $3.79 for milk equals $11.25. Dividing $11.25 by eight servings gives $1.40625, which rounds to $1.41 per serving. If your goal is to keep dinner costs as low as possible, this is the recipe you should build first.

Where to Buy Cheapest

For Creamy Garlic Penne, you should buy the Roasted Garlic Flavoured Alfredo Pasta Sauce at Food Basics for $2.97, the Durum Wheat Semolina Pasta Penne Rigate at Fortinos for $4.49 and the Kawartha Dairy Skim Milk 1 L at Foodland for $3.79. Food Basics offers the sauce at $2.97, while Foodland charges $3.79 for the milk — the sauce is $0.82 less than the milk in this basket. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

This recipe works best when you already have seasonings, vegetables or leftovers at home, because the costed basket only prices the core pasta dinner. You can use it as a base meal and add what you already own rather than buying more ingredients. For Ontario households trying to manage weekly grocery spending, that is often the difference between a low-cost dinner and a larger basket that creeps above budget.

Recipe 3: Seafood Alfredo Penne — $1.93 Per Serving

Seafood Alfredo Penne costs $15.45 total, or $1.93 per serving across eight servings, by combining Fortinos penne at $4.49, Food Basics Alfredo sauce at $2.97 and Fortinos Shrimp & Surimi Balls at $7.99. This is the best middle option if you want a seafood-style dinner but do not want to buy the full $34.52 Seafood Pasta basket. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

This recipe keeps the essential elements of a seafood Alfredo pasta while removing the extra dairy and second seafood component from the full version. You still get a pasta base, a prepared creamy sauce and a seafood-style protein. Your per-serving cost rises by $0.52 compared with the $1.41 Creamy Garlic Penne, but it remains $2.39 below the full Seafood Pasta’s $4.32 per serving.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

The basket cost is $15.45 because $4.49 plus $2.97 plus $7.99 equals $15.45. Dividing that total by eight servings gives $1.93125, which rounds to $1.93 per serving. If you are comparing budget meals Ontario-wide, this is the strongest compromise between a very low price and a more substantial pasta dinner.

Where to Buy Cheapest

For Seafood Alfredo Penne, Fortinos is the key store for the $4.49 pasta and $7.99 Shrimp & Surimi Balls, while Food Basics is the best listed source for the $2.97 Alfredo sauce. Fortinos offers Shrimp & Surimi Balls at $7.99, while Food Basics offers Roasted Garlic Flavoured Alfredo Pasta Sauce at $2.97 — the sauce costs 62.8% less than the seafood-style protein in this recipe basket. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

You should choose this version when you want the seafood identity of the full recipe without paying for both seafood items and both dairy items. The biggest savings come from leaving out the Silk Whole Next Milk at $7.29, the Kawartha Dairy Skim Milk at $3.79 and the Select Seafood Salad Marinated at $7.99. Those omitted items total $19.07, which explains why this simplified version costs $15.45 instead of $34.52.

Ontario Recipe Basket Index: Ingredient Prices by Store

The Ontario recipe basket ranges from $2.97 for Food Basics Alfredo sauce to $7.99 for each Fortinos seafood component, based on the six priced ingredients used in these dinner recipes. The lowest single item in the basket is Roasted Garlic Flavoured Alfredo Pasta Sauce at $2.97, and the highest-priced items are Shrimp & Surimi Balls and Select Seafood Salad Marinated at $7.99 each. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

This basket index is useful because you can see which ingredients are doing the most work in your grocery total. If you are building cheap dinner recipes under $5 per serving, your first decision should be whether the higher-priced seafood items are necessary for that night’s meal. If you need the lowest possible cost, you build from the sauce, pasta and milk. If you want a more complete seafood-style pasta, you add one or both Fortinos seafood items.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

For your own meal planning, the important pattern is that the lowest-cost core dinner is not built from the cheapest store overall; it is built from the cheapest listed role in the recipe. Food Basics has the $2.97 sauce, Fortinos has the $4.49 pasta and Foodland has the $3.79 milk. You get the best result when you compare by ingredient, not by banner alone.

Top Live-Price Deals for This Ontario Pasta Basket

The strongest live-price deal in this Ontario pasta basket is Roasted Garlic Flavoured Alfredo Pasta Sauce at $2.97 at Food Basics, because it is the lowest priced item and anchors all three recipes. Among higher-cost ingredients, the $7.99 Shrimp & Surimi Balls at Fortinos add seafood-style protein while keeping the simplified Seafood Alfredo Penne at $1.93 per serving. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

Because the provided data is live price tracking rather than flyer regular-price history, the table below ranks the best recipe components by current tracked price. The “regular price” column is shown as the same current tracked price, so the savings percentage is 0.0% and no unverified discount is implied. You should use this table for live basket planning, not as a flyer markdown chart.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

If you are using this as a shopping list, start with the first three rows. Those three items create the $11.25 Creamy Garlic Penne basket, which is the cheapest complete dinner format in this guide. You can then add Shrimp & Surimi Balls at $7.99 if you want the Seafood Alfredo Penne version, or buy the full six-item basket if you want the complete $34.52 Seafood Pasta recipe.

Price Comparison Table: All Recipes Side by Side

Creamy Garlic Penne is the cheapest recipe at $1.41 per serving, Seafood Alfredo Penne is the best seafood-style budget compromise at $1.93 per serving, and the full Seafood Pasta costs $4.32 per serving. All three recipes stay under $5 per serving using the Ontario ingredient prices listed for Fortinos, Foodland and Food Basics. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

This side-by-side table is the clearest way to choose your dinner based on budget. If you are cooking primarily for cost, choose Creamy Garlic Penne. If you want seafood-style protein without the full basket cost, choose Seafood Alfredo Penne. If you want the most complete dinner with two seafood components and two dairy items, choose the full Seafood Pasta.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

The difference between the cheapest and most expensive recipe is $23.27 per full basket. That comes from $34.52 for Seafood Pasta minus $11.25 for Creamy Garlic Penne. On a per-serving basis, the full Seafood Pasta costs $2.91 more than Creamy Garlic Penne, because $4.32 minus $1.41 equals $2.91.

How You Should Shop These Budget Meals in Ontario

You should shop these Ontario budget meals by ingredient role, not by habit, because the lowest-cost basket uses prices from more than one store. Food Basics provides the $2.97 Alfredo sauce, Fortinos provides the $4.49 penne and $7.99 seafood components, and Foodland provides the $3.79 and $7.29 dairy items. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

In practical terms, your first question is whether you need seafood in the meal. If the answer is no, the $11.25 Creamy Garlic Penne gives you the lowest dinner cost in this guide. If the answer is yes, the $15.45 Seafood Alfredo Penne is the better cost-controlled seafood-style option because it uses only one $7.99 protein item instead of two.

You should also decide whether the second milk product is essential for your version of the recipe. The full Seafood Pasta basket includes Silk Whole Next Milk 1.74 L at $7.29 and Kawartha Dairy Skim Milk 1 L at $3.79, which together account for $11.08 of the $34.52 total. If you already have milk at home, your out-of-pocket trip cost may be lower, but for apples-to-apples costing, the full basket remains $34.52 using the listed prices.

Why Pasta Works for Cheap Dinner Recipes Under $5

Pasta works well for cheap dinner recipes under $5 because the base ingredients can stay inexpensive while you choose whether to add higher-cost proteins. In this Ontario basket, the pasta is $4.49 at Fortinos and the Alfredo sauce is $2.97 at Food Basics, creating a low-cost foundation before any seafood or dairy upgrades are added. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026.

The key is flexibility. You can serve Creamy Garlic Penne at $1.41 per serving when your budget is tight, then move up to Seafood Alfredo Penne at $1.93 per serving when you want a more substantial meal. The full Seafood Pasta at $4.32 per serving remains under $5, but it is clearly a higher-cost version because it includes six priced items.

For Ontario households comparing budget meals, this matters more than a single headline price. A dinner that can be built at three price points gives you control over the week. You can use the same core shopping pattern and decide how much protein, dairy and prepared convenience you want to pay for.