Nothing is more comforting in the evening than a delicious pasta dish, and pasta bake is one of my favourites. It has got to be one of the best mid-week dinners and a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. After a long day, you can shove it in the oven with minimal prep time and rest assured the whole family will love it.
First up, we have the sausage pasta bake, which I was thinking was going to be my favourite out of the four, but it was pretty average. I liked that there was a good amount of sauce, even though the flavour was lacking, and the pasta wasn’t overcooked – this happens a lot with ready meals.
There was a good amount of sausage slices in the meal, but they were bland, and I was not a fan of the texture – the meat turned to mush in my mouth. While there was grated cheddar cheese, I don’t feel like there was enough of it to call the dish a pasta bake.
This was the most expensive option; however, it’s worth noting that this serves two, while the others are just a single serving. This pasta bake was loaded with mozzarella, cheddar and red Leicester cheese, so it disguised the bland-tasting tomato sauce hidden beneath at times. This cheesy pasta bake was far better than the previous one, but it wasn’t the best one.
Next up, we have the tuna pasta bake, which came with a creamy white sauce as well as the classic tomato pasta sauce. Plus, instead of using rigatoni or penne, this one had pasta shells, which was a nice change.
Considering I love tuna, I was surprised that this pasta bake was probably the worst one for me. The tuna was the best bit, but the sauces, particularly the bechamel sauce, had a bad flavour. While it looked great on top, when I mixed the pasta, I noticed that the white sauce was very watery, and there wasn’t much tomato sauce in the dish.
It took me by surprise to find out that this chicken and bacon pasta bake was the best-tasting one out of all of them, as I’m not the biggest fan of white sauce-based pasta. This cheese sauce was better than the one in the tuna pasta bake; it could have just done with a little pinch of salt. I also like that they were not stingy with the amount of chicken and bacon pieces. If I were to buy a pasta bake from Sainsbury’s, this would be my go-to option.