Time-Saving Tuesday – Asda Pasta Bolognese Bake

Slightly late I know, but with my mother being in hospital and having stuff to sort out it’s manic at the moment but here it is, only a short while after the self imposed midnight deadline!

This is exactly what it says on the package…. it’s Bolognese sauce but with pasta…. win win! Ok let’s not get ahead of ourselves…. let’s take a look first!

I was a bit sceptical to say the least when I first saw this…. surely it’s spaghetti, not pasta that goes with Bolognese sauce. Maybe that was Asda’s way of talking about all sorts of pasta and it was actually going to be spaghetti. I once had a bottle of red wine with Ben my friend and it was described as “Red Wine” no grape, no vineyard barely even a description. The wine wasn’t from Asda but I thought that it may have been the same case here…. I was wrong! It was pasta, here are the ingredients.

The pasta in use was Penne and it was great, the dish was almost 1/3^rd pasta bake 1/3^rd Bolognese and 1/3^rd Lasagne. It was awesome, I was so wrong about it as I was expecting it to be tasteless and claggy. It wasn’t any of those things. It was easy to cook and came with really detailed cooking instructions.

The cooking instructions were clear, concise, detailed and covered varying ovens and microwave. I’m really impressed, for the economy range it was very informative, and also very clear for people with visual impairments. The packet described the dish in the following way:

Penne pasta in minced beef bolognese sauce, topped with béchamel sauce and cheddar cheese.

The pasta was easy to eat, the sauce was tasty with a good tomatoey taste to it, the mince wasn’t chewy and the Béchamel sauce was clean and rich and not claggy and sticky. The red wine came through which accompanied by the tomato gave it the Bolognese feel, the Béchamel brought the lasagne feel and the topping of Cheddar cheese added the Pasta Bake feel to it. The presence of red wine also made it feel a bit more grown up, something the packaging didn’t necessarily do. There was also the presence of my favourite herb…. yes you guessed it Basil!

Well folks, my mother bought this one for me, and since reviewing it I’ve eaten it twice, and if I’m doing the Asda order this week I’ll be ordering it again. I’d give it was going to give it an easy seven out of ten, but it has to be eight when you look at it only costs approximately 71p. The other thing that impressed me with regard to the cost that it had the red tractor on it which means the meat is assured by the Food Standards Agency. To find out more about the Red Tractor Scheme click here.

I’ve got to give a quick mention to niece Alice who is out in France, we had a good old catch up tonight via Skype… joys of Modern Technology.  She’s a fellow blogger you can check her blog out here.

If you feel like you want to make your own Bolognese, then why not try my recipe here! Come back later on in the week for my Lamb Kofta Curry, for those of you who are wondering, my mother is still in hospital but I’m hoping she’s going to be out soon… keep your fingers crossed.

Night.

Rich 😎