An Insult to Italian food (Tesco Italian Tomato & Mozzarella Pasta Bake)

Member Name: cdonkin

Product:	Tesco Italian Tomato & Mozzarella Pasta Bake
Date:	11/03/09 (143 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, quick, easy

Disadvantages: Lots of salt, tastless, not enough to fill you

I was wandering around my local tescos today frantically finding something to have for my lunch. Now I'm not really a fan of ready meals however time was ticking, I was hungry and wanted something warm and filling to satisfy my hunger. I settled on the Tesco Italian ... Tomato and Mozzarella Pasta Bake, an egg penne pasta dish covered in a rich tomato sauce topped with mozzarella sauce. The dish cost me £1.50 which at the time i didn't think was too bad.

This ready meal is easy to cook. There are clear instructions on the back for cooking in a microwave or an oven so you really can't go wrong. When it came out of the microwave I peeled back the plastic wrapped to see a steamy pile of mush. It smelt good but it certainly didn't look good. It was hard to discern what the dish was from the first look. It certainly doesn't look much like the photo on the packet.

For me looks are important and the look of the dish impacts the taste. However pessimistically i took a bite. The pasta was a bit hard but very warm, the sauce tasted of tomato but certainly didn't excite my taste buds. I couldn't really taste the mozzarella though I could see it. I generally thought the dish wast pretty bland and tasteless, the texture is okay but i expected a lot more. Maybe my expectations were too high.

I guess at £1.50 I paid for what I got. I certainly couldn't have this as a main meal. Even though it is 400g i was still left hungry at the end of the meal. The disk is moderately healthy but as with most ready meals loaded with fat:

400g provides:

25% daily calories intake
19% daily sugar intake
18% daily fat intake
18% daily saturates intake
35% daily salt intake

As a lunch with maybe some bread to eat with it is probably enough for one person, but defiantly not enough for a main unless you supplement it. I could see it being all right with a stick of garlic bread, a tomato and mozzarella salad and a nice bottle of red. Though if your going to go through enough trouble to make a meal of it, you may as well cook it from scratch. You could probably make this dish for cheaper, with larger portions and a damn site tastier for less than this price per person.

Summary: I certainly won't be buying this again.