A good meat-free ravioli (Tesco Cheese Ravioli)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Tesco Cheese Ravioli
Date:	27/04/09 (154 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tastes great, cheap, quick and easy to make

Disadvantages: I'd prefer a stronger cheese centre

I love ravioli but the fresh stuff is a little pricey to buy on a regular basis, and I wouldn't be confident making my own pasta, so usually I end up buying the tinned stuff. The main problem I have with this, is I'm often a bit concerned as to what is actually in the meat, as it's never very meat-like if that makes sense?! I knew that there are now some tinned vegetable ravioli's available and when picking one up I noticed Tesco's cheese ravioli. I've never had a ravioli stuffed with cheese but I thought it sounded nice, so I picked up a tin.

The ravioli comes in a rather bright, purple can featuring a picture of the ravioli on the front. It's a standard can which has to be opened with a can opener - no fancy ring pull here!

When I opened the tin the first thing that struck me was that the ravioli parcels were quite a large size compared to the Somerfield own brand I normally buy. The sauce looked a nice rich orangey-red colour and the pasta was all a uniform size.

You can heat the ravioli in either the microwave or on the hob, but I always choose the hob with these things, I don't know why. Either way, it will only take a maximum of four minutes to heat up.

When it came to the taste, I must admit I wasn't really sure what to expect. I have a terrible habit of dissecting ravioli - by this I mean opening the parcel up and eating the middle first, then the pasta! I know, I know, I shouldn't play with my food, and in this case definitely not. When 'dissected' I found the cheese middle to taste slightly gritty and the pasta was slimy. However, when eaten as a whole parcel like it is intended, the flavour was much better. This way I couldn't taste the strange grittiness of the cheese, it simply tasted creamy, however there wasn't much of a cheesy flavour to it. I have to mention the sauce too, which was a lovely consistency, whereas often with these tinned products in tomato sauce, the sauce is runny and watery. The sauce did have a nice tomatoey flavour and had a slight spice to it , but I think overall it might have benefited from a few more herbs or spices in there.

Per half a can:
165 calories
5.1g protein
26.7g carbs
4.1g fat

A 410g can of this ravioli costs 48p from Tesco.

Overall, although I enjoyed the taste of this I think it would benefit from a stronger tasting cheese in the middle and maybe a spicier sauce. Still given that it was a meal in a can and that it only cost 48p it was pretty good and I'd still recommend giving it a try.

Summary: Worth a try