Being a student, I have to budget my money quite carefully and plan out my meals so that I don't waste money. Pasta is something big on my shopping list as it is filling and easy/ quick to cook. However, I only really like carbonara sauce or a cheese based sauce with it. One of the best carbonara sauces out there is the Dolmio Creamy Carbonara Stir-in Sauce. I have tried many of the supermarket own brand sauces and nothing quite compares to Dolmio. Dolmio also do other stir-in sauces but I haven't tried any of them.

The sauce comes in a 150g plastic pot which roughly costs £1.75. At the time of writing this review, Tesco have them on offer for 2 for £3 which will save you 50p. The tubs are slightly more expensive than a jar of pasta sauce but this way, it saves waste especially if you are only cooking for yourself like I do. The plot is made from clear plastic and has a foil lid which pulls off easily. Around the tub is cardboard packaging which gives the product name, nutritional information and it also has on it the Dolmio logo. The pot of sauce says that it will serve 2 people.

The cooking instructions on the packet say to cook the pasta first and then stir in the sauce. The sauce can also be microwaved. However, the packet says nothing about heating up the sauce before stirring it into your pasta. I don't like the idea of putting cold sauce onto hot food so I always heat it up a little bit in a pan before adding in the pasta. I then leave it for a couple of minutes to make sure that everything is hot.

The taste of this sauce is lovely. The sauce is creamy and you can quickly taste the blends of different cheeses. There are also chunks of cooked ham in the sauce which gives a nice contrast to the creaminess of the sauce. There can sometimes be too much ham in packets or jars of sauce and I find it to be too much but this pot seems to have the right amount. There is also black pepper mixed in with the sauce but not so much that it overpowers the other flavours. That, mixed with the cheeses and ham is what gives this sauce a lovely smoky taste.

This pasta sauce has the right blend of everything for me which is why I like this one more than other brands. I do try to buy it on offer as much as possible though otherwise it can become expensive.

Each 150g Pot contains:
192 Kcal's
2.2g Sugar
16.0g Fat
Of which 10.0g are Saturates
2g Salt