If you enjoy Italian food, there’s a good chance you’ve had a lasagna. This baked pasta feels instantly classically Italian, but, in fact, the way many of us — including a certain lasagna-loving feline — know the dish is anything but classically Italian. Rather, it stems from a whole category of pasta called lasagna al forno. This is a pasta dish that is baked in the oven and may contain any number of different ingredients. Though dishes like these were once specialty foods families would enjoy strictly during celebrations and holidays, Italian immigrants would help make them more everyday meal options.
However, the true Americanized version of lasagna has its ties to Stouffer’s. That’s right: The brand you probably know for seemingly endless frozen food options helped make American lasagna what it is today. During the craze of easy food convenience, Stouffer’s found its lasagnas outsold classics, like its casseroles. So, if you’re feeling any modicum of guilt for choosing a frozen lasagna over a freshly made one — don’t. Frozen lasagna is part of the reason so many of us are familiar with lasagna to begin with.
That said, not all lasagnas are created equal. To help you choose the best option for your family dinner, I set out to try several different brands to find the best version of this convenient, Americanized meal in your grocer’s freezer.
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Buy: Simek’s Italiano Lasagna
When researching for this article, I stumbled across the Simek’s brand, but I had never sampled any of its products before. Simek’s touts itself as being a company that can conveniently replace your time in the kitchen with an efficient, tasty alternative. I was pretty impressed by this offering; it was definitely one of my favorites among the ones I tried.
Compared to other lasagnas, I noticed a sweeter sauce. While ricotta from other frozen lasagna did not spread out along the noodles but rather stayed heaped together, this one did a nice job of coating without becoming a stuck-gummy layer. Ricotta shouldn’t feel like plaster in a lasagna. Fortunately, this one did not. Prior to cooking, I observed that Simek’s lasagna didn’t appear to be par-cooked as none of the cheese on top was melty. I assumed this to mean it would have more of that home cooked feel to it. It did.
I was happy with the balance of flavor and ingredients within the seasonings and cheese, and the noodles also had a nice, bouncy texture. I found that they did crisp up a little in some spots, further lending to that from-scratch, straight-from-the-oven-type feel I enjoy when I prepare lasagna fresh at home.
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Don’t Buy: Lean Cuisine Comfort Cravings Lasagna With Meat Sauce
Lean Cuisine takes up a massive area in my frozen food aisle. Lasagna, of course, being among the many choices. However, the idea of a lasagna being lean simply doesn’t mesh with what most of us want from the dish. Garfield would surely agree that lasagna shouldn’t be contained, otherwise, the result will suffer, and that’s what I found here.
Instead of being a firm, square serving, Lean Cuisine’s lasagna felt more like soup. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love saucy pasta, but even this was too much for me. On top of that, the noodles, though cooked through, were thick and gummy, closer to an udon noodle in thickness than the rather thin lasagna noodles. Not to mention, those lasagna noodles were actually ridged (not smooth) all the way through rather than just on the edges.
The oddest part came from the flavor. It’s wasn’t necessarily bad, but certainly heavy on the seasonings. I love dressing up my meal as much as the next foodie, but when a dish tastes exclusively like herbs, there’s an issue. I didn’t get a tomato, cheese, or even meat flavor; it was as though someone ravaged my spice cabinet and poured each jar in until all that tomatoey goodness was hidden. That said, it is leaner — only 7 grams of fat — which is half of Simek’s and also less than half the cholesterol at just 20 milligrams.
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Buy: Giovanni Rana Five Cheese Lasagna
Most of the time, when you pick up a lasagna from the grocery store, it’s in a box where you can’t see what you’re actually getting. That’s not the case with Giovanni Rana. There’s a window for you to see the pre-cooked lasagna so you get a good idea of what you’re putting on the table.
Because this one was already cooked and making it was just a really thorough reheating process, it did have a bit of that leftover taste. Some might not mind, but I’m not personally the biggest fan of that. The last thing I want when cooking a dinner at home is to be reminded that it’s not so fresh, even if I did have to give it some time in the oven.
Once I got past that, I found that the sauce was a pretty basic tomato sauce and the lasagna pasta was one of the better ones, texture considered. Though it wasn’t as saucy as swimming through the Lean Cuisine, there was still a fair bit of liquid to it. Still, the pasta held its form when cut out of the family-size serving dish and tasted like a well-made, if not basic lasagna. The blend of cheese made a nice top crust and while it wasn’t the freshest tasting, it’s a good buy at under $20 for the 2½-pound portion.
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Don’t Buy: Amy’s Vegetable Lasagna
I spent a few years as a vegan and then a vegetarian for a short time after that, and I can tell you there’s nothing more frustrating than getting a meal that purports to be vegetarian and doesn’t do anything to celebrate the veggies within the dish. This vegetable lasagna feels like it was made by someone who doesn’t like veggies, because there was just nothing about the produce that stood out. Truth be told, it was my least favorite of any of the lasagnas I tried. As a vegetable lover, this truly hurts to admit.
Though the brands couldn’t be more different from one another, Amy’s lasagna had the same type of ridgy-all-the-way-through noodles I saw in the Lean Cuisine variety. It was giving uncooked pasta, and definitely not something I expected. Unfortunately, the cheese content was super minimal here, with the smattering of shredded cheese on top feeling like more of a garnish than an actual ingredient. The ricotta was minimal to the point that I wondered if it was actually meant to feel more like cashew ricotta or something similar, rather than actually being full dairy ricotta cheese. I even checked the box, and, nope, it’s actual ricotta cheese. If Amy’s was going to do the veggies dirty, it could have at least added enough cheese.
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Buy: Michael Angelo’s Vegetable Lasagna
While Amy’s lasagna made me want to weep with vegetarian sorrow, Michael Angelo’s vegetable lasagna ellicited the opposite feeling. There were layers of ingredients with veggies you could see and taste for what they actually were. This one is a vegetable lasagna meant for people who actually love veggies and don’t want them as a simple replacement for the meat in the lasagna. It had every feel of a lasagna that came from a vegetarian restaurant that wanted its produce to shine through.
The veggies were tender and abundant without being mushy and overwhelming. In fact, it probably needed a little more sauce and cheese to balance out the vegetables. I was impressed with the simple, easy texture of the lasagna noodles, and there was nothing out of the ordinary here. You may want to have a little salt and pepper on hand for extra seasoning, but that’s going to be your preference for overall flavor.
In terms of nutrition information, this serving size is a little larger at 312 grams, while Amy’s is 269 grams. In that larger portion, you also get ten more calories at 360 but less fat than Amy’s at 11 grams, while Amy’s clocks in at 14 grams. For a heavier protein load, Michael Angelo’s has you covered at 21 grams to Amy’s 16 grams.
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Don’t Buy: Michael Angelo’s Lasagna With Meat Sauce
I love a microwave, but the first thing I noticed about the cooking instructions on the Michael Angelo’s lasagna is that it totally microwave shames you into using the oven. I feel like we should be past this by now. Just because it cooks something faster, doesn’t mean that it’s any worse. So, I chose to prepare this one in the oven, waiting longer, only to be disappointed. Maybe I should have saved myself the time and just gone for the microwave. Learn from my mistakes.
The first thing I noticed was how thin it was, with three meager layers of noodles. There was a freshness of flavor to it, but the layers were so minimal that it felt a little too meager to make much of a difference. Like other options that weren’t my favorites, this one was missing enough cheese on top, and the thick ricotta mixture was just strange. It felt like a mortar that you might put between bricks and just sort of stuck together. There was no gooey, melty, mixture feel. Instead, it just stuck to itself. This lasagna had three layers that were merely layered together. Nothing actually coalesced.
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Buy: Marie Callender’s Italiano Lasagna
When it comes to frozen meals or desserts, I frequently go for what I know excels. And since I’ve seen Marie Callender’s have some of my favorite offerings, I was pretty sure I was going to have a winner in this Italiano lasagna. The instructions alone are detailed with Marie Callender’s, calling for a two step cook. First, I cooked the lasagna on high for a few minutes then, finished on medium. Although there are instructions for an oven, the microwave options seem to be preferable as they were featured in a larger section on the packaging.
This lasagna featured a meat sauce with cheese and herbs as well as ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella, and romano for the cheese factor. The sausage was a little spicy, which was surprising, and it was pretty saucy overall, but not too much like Lean Cuisine. Unfortunately, I found that it didn’t hold that lasagna shape when cut from the pan, but the flavor quality compensates for this misgiving if you’re willing to look past it.
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Don’t Buy: Stouffer’s Veggie Lovers Lasagna
This one had absolutely everything going for it in my book. It had veggies, was creamy, and included a thick, cheesy sauce. The one thing I didn’t expect? Just how salty it would be.
Unfortunately, this lasagna from Stouffer’s was a pass. First off, it’s basically a chicken pot pie filling lasagna. If that’s what you’re really longing for, then it will probably speak to you. It was soupy and didn’t feel like it came together like some of the other lasagnas did. But in all likelihood, you’re not looking to get a gulp full of saltiness, and that’s what we had happening here. Looking at the sodium content, its easy to see where this might come from. The sodium for this serving is 1030 milligrams. To put that into perspective, Michael Angelo’s veggie lasagna was just shy of half that sodium content at 530 milligrams. I take umbrage with the idea that just because a recipe doesn’t have a whole lot of protein in it and instead focuses on veggies, it needs a lot of salt. A little bit, certainly, but not so much that you feel like you’ve filled your sodium intake for the day.
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Buy: Trader Joe’s Family Style Meat Lasagna
In my house, going to Trader Joe’s is an event. It’s a little bit of a drive away, but for quality food, it’s well worth it. In the case of this lasagna, I’d be willing to drive several towns over to bring it home for dinner.
Upon cutting it, the very first thing I noticed was the cheese pull. I spent a few of my formative years as a cheesehead in Wisconsin, so if someone appreciates a good cheese pull, it’s me, and this lasagna delivered. There is certainly a generous helping of cheese on top, which does slide around a little in cutting, but it’s perfect. I enjoyed the extra crisp this one formed with that cheese on the sides in a way that we didn’t see from any other lasagna.
For flavor, the balance between the meat sauce, seasonings, and the flavor of the cheese was exactly what you’d want to see in a lasagna you drove across town for. Honestly, if I didn’t know it came from Trader Joe’s, I’d expect it came from some Italian restaurant from the hands of a true Nonna. Not only that, but at $6.99 from my Trader Joe’s, this lasagna is definitely the best bang for your buck when it comes to the family sized options I tried.
Don’t Buy: Great Value Five Cheese Lasagna Pasta
One of the things I expected to find more often than I did was a sauce with sweetness to it. I don’t mean a pleasantly sweet sauce; rather, one that feels like there was sugar added to it in a way that makes no sense. The sweetness was the number one gripe I had about this option. Although some people add sugar to their sauce, adding just barely too much will dramatically impact that sweet and savory balance.
In addition to there being too much sweet flavor, there weren’t enough other seasonings. This lasagna was rather bland, and it very much tasted like some of the school lunches I remember from elementary school. Not to mention, I was also disappointed with the ricotta. Rather than having the texture I expected, this was something of a mealy feel, almost looking like a cream of wheat mush. It looked overly wet with an unappetizing texture. Honestly, this is a good example of you get what you pay for; this was the cheapest option of the sampled lasagnas at $2.97.
Buy: Rao’s Meat Lasagna
A couple of times, I ran into a lasagna that didn’t blow me away, but there wasn’t anything I had a problem with either. With Rao’s, that’s exactly what I found. While there’s nothing groundbreaking here, if you warm this up for dinner, you’ll be pleased with it. Rather than feeling like a slice of lasagna cut from a bigger piece, it is obviously assembled in the container, as is evident from the way the noodles, sauce, and cheese leave a little room around the outside. This effect isn’t too big of a deal, but it also busts the illusion that this is a homemade lasagna, and while that wasn’t important for me here, I can imagine it mattering to others.
I was pleased with the overall texture of the cheese, even if it felt a little grainier than some other lasagnas. As for the sauce, I felt it tasted a little like pizza sauce rather than pasta sauce, with rich seasonings definitely making themselves known. The richness comes through in the nutrition fact, too. This serving is 430 calories a serving, which is quite a bit higher than others. Stouffer’s meat lasagna, for example, is 360 calories per serving. The fat was higher, too, at 20 grams to Stouffer’s 11 grams.
Don’t Buy: Stouffer’s Frozen Lasagna With Meat & Sauce Classics
Stouffer’s may have been one of the companies that really helped bring lasagna’s popularity to the masses, but there are other companies that do it much better now. I enjoyed the rich, deep, meaty flavor of the sauce, but it was doing so much heavy lifting that the sauce became the only distinctive flavor in the lasagna. Due to the deeply ridged noodles, like some of the other lasagna options, the sauce clung to the noodles, giving it that heavily coated sort of feel.
I’m sure the cheese played a part in this lasagna, but the sauce and meat covered its flavor and texture so much that it offered a much more subtle taste. If you’re hoping for a lasagna with less of a cheese presence, I can imagine this classic Stouffer’s option being one you may greatly enjoy.
Methodology
I assembled this assortment of frozen lasagnas from as many different brands as I could get my hands on, stretching across three grocery stores: Publix, Target, and Trader Joe’s. To get the most interesting collection possible, I included cheese-based lasagnas, meat ones, Italian-specific options, and even vegetable lasagnas. From there, my family set to dining on lasagnas for dinner over the course of a week.
While eating, we discussed sauce quality and quantity, cheese pull and prominence, and noodle tenderness. I discovered that some lasagnas were basic and felt like a reheated lasagna, others were disappointing, and still others made me step back and wonder if I had amnesia and if the item I had pulled out of the oven was actually homemade. I ranked them according to ones I would surely buy again and those I’d sooner forget, hoping to help you make the best choice for what you should be buying at the grocery store.
