Saucy (Dolmio Bolognese Sauce)

Member Name: Diaz

Product:	Dolmio Bolognese Sauce
Date:	06/02/02 (182 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick and easy to use

Disadvantages: Doesn't taste good, big disadvantage

Mealtimes, ah joy of joy. Mealtimes at Chez Leech are pretty fraught affairs. We have two kids Molly almost 5 and James almost 3. James will eat almost anything, unless of course his sister makes a fuss, then he empathically makes a fuss too. Molly will eat almost nothing; it’s like Jack Sprat with more catholic tastes. So between James eating like the cookie monster and getting as much food on him, us and the kitchen table, floors and occasionally walls; and Molly putting off her food as long as she can, by picking out bits of food and screwing her nose up at it, stalling by going to the loo for a good ten minutes and as many other delaying tactics as the fiendish mind of a five year old can muster; we have fun…..

It all started with a rogue encounter with an onion, the onion was peeled in front of Molly and made her cry. She took it as real tears and so her mind was set, onions are evil. She has a fair point about peeling onions but it led to an all out boycott. Since she knew she could get away with that the next on the dietary hit list was mushrooms, followed by broccoli and peppers. I think just about all she will eat is carrots and peas and then only under duress.

Of course most dishes, at least the ones I can rustle up, contain at least a little bit of onion in them. The kind of things I’m talking about is spaghetti bolognaise, that staple of every student and male who thinks they can actually cook but can’t really. We tried in vain to slice the onions nice and thin, no deal. Fry them to oblivion, otherwise known as caramelisation (Hmmmmm) no deal. Chop them nice and chunky so we can pick them out, occasional success only marred by the fact that you always get one stray bit of onion slipping in the meal. So meal times involve picking bits of onion off her plate as my food and hers went cold. The only way round it is not to put onion in the food, which would of course be admitting defeat.

Now m
y wife came up with a cunning ruse, of trying one of these Dolmio sauces. Surely something as processed as this would have the taste but not the actual bits of onion in that cause so much trouble. Actually the ruse was more fired by the fact that if you bought a jar of the sauce you got a packet of pasta free. Never one to pass up a bargain my wife bought it and we slipped it onto the plate and waited for the results.

Now as you can imagine the point of these jar sauces is you add it to meat and that’s your lot, hardly challenging cuisine. Something even I with my limited kitchen navigation skills can muster. Of course I let the wife do it while I took care of the kids….

On appearance the sauce was good, the colour was bright and vibrant, the consistency was smooth and the finish glossy.

It was easy to use and easy to make, there is something to be said for convenience. Of course that only really applies if the resulting food is actually edible. On plus points Molly didn’t find any trace of onion, the downside was it wasn’t really very nice, not that it was terrible, it just wasn’t good.

The overall flavour is tomato, which is obvious by it’s colour, this flavour is marred by sweetness, which wasn’t very complimentary. There are plenty of herbs in the mix too, but the sweetness of the tomato all but overpowers them, though there was a hint of basil and oregano it wasn’t strong and far from fresh. The other thing in the sauce, which were evident by their appearance but not their taste, were onions, OK I spotted them Molly didn’t.

So will I be eating Dolmio sauces again?? I very much doubt it. In fact it seems innapropriate to put this under gourmet foods...

OK they are very quick and convenient but they don’t taste great and even me with my limited culinary skills can out do them on taste.

Summary: