I tested supermarket filled pasta from ASDA’s tortellini to Waitrose ravioli… delicious winner had great flavour & bite
GET nifty and thrifty with fresh filled pasta.
It cooks in minutes so is quick and easy to rustle up – plus it doesn’t cost a fortune.
Just bung it in a pan of boiling water, let it simmer for three to four minutes, add a sauce and your dinner’s a winner.
Pasta-lover Hayley Minn put supermarket spinach and ricotta-flavoured packs to the test to work out which were bella.
Here she gives her verdicts and marks each out of five
Morrisons Spinach & Ricotta Tortelloni
300g 2.25 or 2 for £3.50
WITH this tortelloni the only one in my taste test that featured butternut squash, as well as spinach and ricotta, I was intrigued to find out how it would taste.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed.
It also included hazelnuts and crispy sage but, sadly, I don’t think the flavours mixed well together.
The texture of the pasta wasn’t much better – it was too chewy for my liking.
A definite tortelliNO.
Rating: 2/5
Tesco Spinach & Ricotta Fresh Tortelloni
300g, £2 or £1.80 with Clubcard
TASTY enough, but the flavours from the cheese and spinach weren’t as strong as some of the others I tried.
I couldn’t eat these without some sauce and seasoning to pep up the taste.
Rating: 4/5
Co-op Fresh Spinach & Ricotta Tortelloni
300g, £2.50
ABSOLUTELY delicious!
The outside was soft but still slightly al dente, so had a nice bite, and both the cheese and spinach flavours from the filling came through really strongly.
All I needed to add was a bit of oil and it was perfect – no sauce was necessary.
These pasta parcels were my winners.
Rating 5/5
Sainsbury’s Spinach & Ricotta Tortelloni
300g, £2 or £1.75 with Nectar
I WAS really impressed with this Sainsbury’s offering.
There was so much filling and all the flavours from the spinach and ricotta came through well.
I was in cheese heaven with this and could easily have eaten the entire pack, even though it serves two.
I just had to season it slightly with some pepper.
It’s great value with a Nectar card
Rating: 4/5
Waitrose Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli
310g, £3.60
THE most expensive of all those I tried – but you do get slightly more for your money.
While pasta packs such as this usually say they’re for two then you are left feeling hungry, this was definitely enough for two.
The filling was also really tasty, with a strong flavour of soft ricotta cheese coming through.
And I loved the texture of the pasta.
It had the perfect balance of soft and chewy and I got a good, solid bite while eating it.
Very tasty.
Rating: 4/5
ASDA Spinach & Ricotta Tortelloni
300g, £2 or 2 for £3.50
SADLY, I could barely detect the flavours coming from the spinach and ricotta.
It was extremely bland, and only tasted good when I added a lot of sauce and seasoning.
I don’t know if it’s simply that I cooked it for too long in comparison to the others, but the pasta also seemed to fall apart easier than others.
A bit of a let-down.
Rating: 1/5
Lidl Deluxe Spinach & Ricotta Girasoli
250g, £2.19
INSTEAD of torelloni or ravioli, Lidl has chosen the more obscure girasoli – that’s pasta shaped like a sunflower – for its deluxe range.
And I loved it!
The filling was beautiful – lovely and soft, with strong flavours of spinach and ricotta.
The texture was perfect too, as it wasn’t too soft and had a good bite.
It’s just a shame that at just 250g for two people, you don’t get as much of it as some of the other pastas in my test.
Rating: 3/5