When growing up, whenever we had tea as children we could always tell if it had come from a jar. We called this "plop", mum would say, "Sorry I'm in a rush tonight we're having plop for tea".
Stuff from a jar, especially tomato based sauces, always have a distinct flavour that you can tell straight away is not home-made. Usually it's far too sweet and salty.
In the interest of science (and because there was an offer on Dolmio Lasagna sauces at the Co-op) I thought it would be interesting to make two and compare them under strict test conditions*.
The recipe that the Dolmio was up against is only The World's best Lasagna.
Unfortunately, a certain somebody accidentally burnt the second (home-made) lasagna. However, due to the name of this blog I can't complain and it does kind of make the pasta sheets all nice and chewy...
According to the World's best Lasagna serving calculator, 115g of mince meat was supposed to be used - but that didn't sound right, so for the test we used equal amounts (400g) for each recipe.
Dolmio:
This recipe uses equal amounts of red/white sauce and despite not having any proper fresh ingredients tasted pretty damn good, and again for breakfast. It did however taste like plop, but that is forgiveable as it came from a jar :)
World's best:
A bit too salty but extremely morish. It didn't reheat very well but that's probably because we nuked it in the oven. It was lacking in the white sauce department - the combination of Mozzarella and Ricotta didn't achieve the creaminess that the Dolmio had.
Verdict
Taste-wise the World's best lasagna definitely wins, I think the Italian salami in it just makes your mouth water! If you are going to make a lasagna, I suggest following that recipe, but keep some cheddar on standby because the red/white ratio was a little off.
I've had an offer from a friend who claims his mum makes a better lasagna, so I'll write a follow up post when my taste buds have made up their mind.
*Not really strict test conditions
Comments
My mum also makes an awesome lasagna which incidentally we are having for tea tonight!
It probably wouldn't be considered a traditional Italian lasagna because of the additional ingredients (red & green peppers, mushrooms) and that she uses cheddar, however, it still tastes good and the white sauce is always creamy.
We also tend to "burn" the topping a bit as it does taster nice.
A square or rectangular dish is a good investment if you are making lasagna regularly - it's so much easy to lay the pasta sheets!
by Jimmy on 18th August 2009 at 2:57 pm
Ah ha, yes! A square dish is a great tip! I'll have to sample your mum's as well. I think it'd probably beat Ric's hands down.
by Andrew on 18th August 2009 at 3:02 pm
Lol! You could end up starting a lasagna war if you're not careful!
by Jimmy on 18th August 2009 at 3:19 pm