Best value: Aldi, Specially Selected lasagne, 350g, £2.49
Browns attractively and, thanks to diligent work with those core ingredients that can give a dish a genuine depth of flavour (onion, garlic, smoked bacon, red wine), this punches significantly above its price. A dancing chorus line of herbs and the addition of sweeter pork to the ragu helps retains a lightness; it doesn’t become too dark and dense. Thin, silky pasta and a well-judged layer of bechamel complete what, for the price, is a very creditable lasagne. 8/10
Co-op, Truly Irresistible lasagne, 400g, £3.49
Like a greying, middle-aged Englishman on a Mediterranean beach, this looks horrifically pale. It is further let down by its blandly thick, claggy pasta and, while the nutmeg shines through, an overly sweet bechamel sauce. It is a pity as, in other ways, it isn’t bad. Beef stock, wine, smoked pancetta and herbs – the sage and rosemary are particularly vocal – combine to give the meat sauce a full, rounded flavour which lingers convincingly. 6/10
Morrisons, M Signature Aberdeen Angus lasagne, 700g, £4
Presumably due to an insufficient scattering of grana padano on top, this emerges looking as pasty as a 1970s school dinner. Things go downhill from there. Separated by no less than five sheets of gormlessly thick, galumphing pasta, this is like baby food: sweet, bland and topped with an inauthentic cheddar and mascarpone sauce, beneath which the meat ragu (pleasantly chunky at first, dry and tasteless thereafter), fails to assert itself. It needs waaaaay more seasoning. 3/10
M&S, lasagne al forno, 730g, £5.50
All browned and crunchy (a cynic might say burned), the pasta sheets that have curled up around the edges give this lasagne a handsome, homemade appearance. It is also generously layered with sauce. Sadly, the mousey ragu lacks character and the finely ground mince gives it a mealy mouthfeel. This needs a bigger glug of vino, more herbs, more everything. The pork mince makes its presence known quietly but, fundamentally, pasta is the dominant flavour. 5/10
Best flavour: Ocado, Charlie Bigham’s lasagne, 690g, £7
Curiously topped with grated cheddar and fresh parsley, this looks awful – all yellow and sweaty, like someone suffering from a bad bout of jaundice – but you cannot argue with its exceptional flavour. The chicken liver-laced ragu is genuinely rich and meaty, and its full flavours (fresh, fruity tomato; natural smoky bacon; tangy notes from the reduced wine and balsamic) combine elegantly to produce a very smooth and unusually complex mouthful. Even that topping, unedifying as mozzarella and cheddar may look, is undeniably and assertively cheesy. 8/10
Sainsbury’s, Taste the Difference lasagne, 400g, £3.30
A good, bronzed patination, but it tastes less attractive than it looks. The bechamel has a sound nutmeg flavour, but is almost gluey in texture. The tomatoey ragu has reasonable length, but its chunkily minced beef quickly becomes dry and chalky. Despite the addition of minced pork to the mix, it lacks lubricating fat. Most deleteriously, the sheets of pasta are far too thick. 4/10
Tesco, Finest lasagne al forno, 700g, £5
Do not get excited by that “al forno” flourish. It just means baked – a fitting appendage for the heaviest lasagne in this contest. It isn’t the pasta that is to blame but the meat sauce, which – its herb seasoning coming and going like a weak radio signal – tastes sweet, dull and heavy (note: tomato puree and cornflour feature high on the ingredients list). The bechamel is reasonably good, but cannot lift this ultimately bland lump of beef mince and pasta. 4/10
Waitrose, beef lasagne, 800g, £6.49
Bubbling like a creme brulee, this looks beautiful. Its creamy bechamel topping is light and smooth (although it could do with more nutmeg), and those dark, delicious “toasted cheese” patches take the edge off its sweetness. Unusually, this contains not just mince but rugged pieces of diced beef. Equally unusually, that beef packs a prominently peppery flavour. The pasta is thin with just the right amount of bite, but beyond the sauce’s peppery, tomato flavours, it lacks herby points of interest. 6/10
Ocado, Pegoty Hedge organic beef lasagne, 400g, £4.25
Another painfully pale “ghost lasagne”, its few tiny browned patches are like liver spots on an old man’s hand. Due to some alchemical combination of its ingredients (thyme, oregano, white wine, balsamic vinegar), this has a curiously sharp, herbal aroma. That idiosyncrasy is indicative of a meal that, with its definable vegetable pieces and wholesomely chunky minced beef, tasted the most “homemade”. An Italian would wonder at the use of Worcestershire sauce but, still, tasty. 6/10
