A warming, filling pasta dish is a simple and budget-friendly mid-week meal that will satisfy most people and can typically be on the table in a matter of minutes. With countless combinations of sauce, toppings and pasta shapes, dishes can be adapted to suit whatever families fancy.
Personally, keeping things classic with a predominantly tomato-based sauce is the way to go. It tends to pair brilliantly with most meats, such as chopped chicken sausage or beef meatballs, and can even be delicious on its own.
More often than not, a homemade sauce using roasted vegetables is the preferred option to keep things that bit healthier. But when throwing together something at the last minute, a trusty jar of ready-made sauce is always a handy cupboard staple.
Being fairly particular about sauces, the question was whether some of the cheaper options could hold their own against homemade classics. Two similar sauces from Aldi and Lidl were purchased to put them head-to-head.
The price and suggested serving sizes were identical. Aldi's Smooth Tomato jar and Lidl's Baresa Tomato and Basil sauce were both 69p and claimed to make enough to serve four people, reports the Express.
With no clear winner based on appearances alone, tasting them was the only way to determine which budget retailer came out on top. One batch of pasta was made, divided equally and half a jar of sauce used for each portion.
Split four ways, each serving of sauce works out at roughly 17p. Adding 150g of cooked pasta brings the cost to around 10-12p, depending on the brand chosen.
Overall, without adding any extras, the dishes cost less than 30p per portion. Typically, a sprinkling of cheese or some meatballs would be added alongside these dishes, but for the purposes of this test, the aim was to see how the sauces alone measured up against each other.
Aldi's sauce tasted remarkably fresh and boasted a wonderfully bold flavour. There were initial concerns when the jar only listed tomato as an ingredient, suggesting it might lack the seasoning needed to give it that extra kick, but those worries proved unfounded.
It had a wonderfully smooth texture, as its name implies, and wasn't so thin as to feel watered down, dividing neatly into four portions. It made for a thoroughly enjoyable meal that left you wanting more.
The Aldi bowl proved more satisfying than the Lidl version, which fell somewhat short compared to its budget competitor. The label states that the sauce contains basil, and there were faint traces of it.
However, it lacked the same depth of flavour as the Aldi offering, which felt far superior to a basic sauce - it was streets ahead. With no difference in price or size, Aldi would be the clear choice every time when it comes to rustling up a quick pasta sauce.
