When It Comes To Frozen Lasagna, Avoid Buying It From This Store Brand

Few things hit quite like a premade lasagna when you're not in the mood to cook. Ideally, it'll be leftovers from the previous time you cooked lasagna, which (as we all know) taste better after sitting in the fridge for a night or two. But, if you don't have any leftovers (or if you're the only person in your household who eats the stuff), then a good frozen lasagna will be more than welcome. Bear in mind: We said a good frozen lasagna. As is always the case with food, not every product is created equal. When The Takeout tried 16 different frozen lasagnas, we found that eight were satisfactory (including offerings from Rao's, Marie Callender's, and Trader Joe's), while eight fell well short of the mark. That being said, none of the lasagnas were worse than Walmart's Great Value Five Cheese Lasagna Pasta.

Mind you, this shortcoming is quite out of character for the chain; Great Value offers some solid, affordable products. Great Value's Olive Garden copycat breadsticks are popular, and its bacon held its own when we compared it to competing grocery store brand products. Alas, the brand's lasagna just doesn't quite measure up.

Anyone who's had mediocre pizza will tell you that too much sugar makes a tomato sauce taste like ketchup, disrupting the balance of the whole dish. Thankfully, for the most part, the lasagnas we sampled avoided this pitfall with the notable exception of Great Value Five Cheese Lasagna Pasta. This frozen lasagna was far too sweet and, to make matters worse, it didn't contain any other flavors at all. The end result was a sweet but bland lasagna that we found far from appetizing. 

As our writer noted: "It very much tasted like some of the cafeteria lunches from elementary school. Not to mention, the ricotta was also disappointing. Rather than having a pleasant texture, this had something of a mealy feel, almost looking like a bowl of mush." We suppose that, at just under $3 a pop, we can't get too angry about this lasagna's shortcomings. However, those looking for a cheap, frozen lasagna can surely find far better products at similar prices.