Rich, hearty and utterly satisfying, spaghetti bolognese remains one of Britain's most beloved pasta dishes. While many chef-crafted bolognese recipes can be notoriously complex, the finest versions are invariably those built around fresh, uncomplicated ingredients.
Nothing quite compares to a homemade bolognese, but there are days when cooking simply feels like too much effort, and that's precisely when a ready meal comes into its own.
I'll admit I'm not the greatest advocate for ready meals, as they frequently fall short on flavour — though I was pleasantly surprised by a fairly respectable effort during my Tesco lasagne ready meal taste test.
This time, I decided to put every spaghetti bolognese ready meal available at Sainsbury's supermarket through its paces.
Calorie-Counted Spaghetti Bolognese
Cost: £3.75
Kicking things off with the Sainsbury's calorie-counted spaghetti bolognese, the dish looked fairly unremarkable once heated through. There was a reasonable amount of beef mince, though a little extra sauce wouldn't have gone amiss, as it came across rather dry.
The sauce itself was disappointingly bland, though perhaps that's only to be expected from a calorie-counted ready meal. To make matters worse, the spaghetti was overcooked and nowhere near al dente.
Rating: 4/10
Taste The Difference Beef Bolognese
Cost: £4.85
Moving on to what I anticipated would be the star of the bunch, given the range and price point, this one ultimately disappointed. The bolognese used tagliatelle rather than spaghetti, which was a welcome touch, and the pasta had a lovely texture — no mushiness here. The meat-to-sauce ratio was also spot on.
However, one element that seriously let the dish down — something many premium ready meals seem guilty of — was the inclusion of smoked pancetta. The smoky flavour is simply too overpowering for a bolognese, and it wasn't to my taste at all.
Rating: 7/10
Stamford Street Co. Spaghetti Bolognese
Cost: £2.69
This is the cheapest spaghetti bolognese ready meal Sainsbury's stocks, so expectations were already low — and unfortunately, it delivered on that front.
At first glance, it looked rather unappetising, resembling little more than a basic tomato sauce. It was under-seasoned and seriously lacking in flavour. The beef was barely detectable, which is hardly what you want from a bolognese.
The spaghetti was even more of a letdown — a clumped, stodgy mess that required vigorous stirring just to separate. Frankly, at £2.69, it still feels overpriced.
Rating: 1/10
Italian-Style Spaghetti Bolognese
Cost: £3.75
Finally, we come to Sainsbury's standard spaghetti bolognese, which proved to be the clear winner and the only one I'd genuinely consider purchasing again. The mince-to-sauce and pasta ratio was spot on, and the spaghetti had a wonderfully satisfying texture. The reason this only scores an eight is that, despite boasting superior flavour compared to the others, it fell slightly short on salt and carried a hint of raw onion — that tell-tale taste you get when the onions haven't had quite enough time in the pan.
Priced the same as the one from their Calorie-Counted range and cheaper than the Taste The Difference, this would be the one to go for.
Rating: 8/10
