ITALIANS take their pasta parcels to heart.
There is a row raging over who invented tortellini, as the cities of Bologna and Modena each claim bragging rights over the meat-filled treat.
Italian pasta maestro put supermarket spinach and ricotta tortellini to the test[/caption]
With passions running high, we asked Italian celebrity chef Aldo Zilli to check out supermarket offerings of the similarly shaped but bigger tortelloni, filled with spinach and ricotta.
Here, pasta maestro Aldo, boss at London restaurant Undercroft Mayfair, gives Laura Stott his verdicts and scores . . .
Jack’s Spinach and Ricotta Tortelloni 250g £2.25 Budgens
Contains: ricotta 15%, spinach 13%
Budgens’ offering are extremely small and seem very processed[/caption]
THESE are on the pricey side, considering there is 50g less pasta than most of the others.
I wouldn’t mind if they tasted incredible, but they are pretty average.
Made with a mix of ricotta and an unspecified medium fat hard cheese, the fresh egg pasta parcels look very yellow in the packet with tight folds.
When I cooked them, a few broke in the boiling water.
Olive oil and butter have been used but I can’t taste those flavours.
Extremely small and they seem very processed.
OK if you have no better options, and you could grate extra cheese on top to improve them.
But there’s not much flavour and it’s an expensive packet.
Rating: 3/5.
Cucine Spinach and Ricotta Tortelloni 300g, £1.59 Aldi
Contains: 17% ricotta cheese, 10% spinach
Aldi’s tortelloni is very generous with the filling and has a nice flavour[/caption]
PRETTY good pasta parcels from Aldi, which says they are made in Italy.
Traditionally tortelloni come from the Bologna region in Northern Italy and with a vegetable filling like this one we’d probably eat them with nothing more added than a simple drizzle of good olive oil and perhaps a couple of crispy fried sage leaves.
These fresh egg parcels have been made with sunflower oil – not the oil I’d expect to see – but they still eat well.
Very generous with the filling and a nice flavour.
These are a decent shape so they didn’t rip open while cooking.
A great price, too – and I’d buy these myself for an easy evening meal.
Rating: 4/5.
WINNER: Chef Select Spinach and Ricotta Tortelloni 250g £1.99 Lidl
Contains: ricotta 35%, spinach 20%
Lidl’s Chef Select Spinach and Ricotta Tortelloni were bouncy, light and pillowy – my favourite[/caption]
Tortelloni is the type of tortellini usually stuffed with soft cheese.
These are neat, petite and uniform – exactly as they would be if I made them myself. Flavourwise, I’m impressed.
Fresh, yellow with egg, and springy pasta which tastes really Italian.
They are dense with creamy ricotta and you can see the vivid green spinach when you bite in.
There is also an extra 5% mascarpone cream cheese, breadcrumbs and a grind of nutmeg so they are filling and tasty.
Cooked evenly with no splits.
Bouncy, light and pillowy, these are great value and my favourite.
Rating: 5/5
Spinach and Ricotta Tortelloni 300g, £2.30 Marks and Spencer
Contains: ricotta 11%, spinach 12%
M&S’ tortelloni taste decent but sadly some of them tore so some of the filling ended up in the water[/caption]
Made with multiple cheeses, these parcels also contain mozzarella and another hard cheese as well as the soft ricotta.
A mix of oils is listed in the ingredients including olive, rapeseed and sunflower, but I’m happy with how they taste.
Nicely plump, soft and large, so you feel you are getting a proper meal, with enough for two hungry people.
As they are quite translucent, you can see there is plenty of green spinach squashed into each one even before you cook them
Well made, thick pasta but a few of them had torn so some filling ended up in the water and some were stuck together too. But not bad at all.
Rating: 4/5.
Spinach and Ricotta Tortelloni 300g £1.59 Tesco
Contains: ricotta 15%, spinach 13%
Tesco’s bland tortelloni is plasticky to the touch and has tasteless filling[/caption]
NOT very impressed. They didn’t look nice in the packet and didn’t taste any better when I cooked them.
Even before I put them in the pan, you could see the pasta looked shiny and it seemed plasticky to touch.
I’m not sure why the tortelloni looks like this but Tesco’s offering is just not very appetising.
The packet states they are made in Italy and there’s proper olive oil in the ingredients. But you wouldn’t know it.
They are a funny shape, like little crabs, and once cooked they had no discernible flavour. Very starchy and bland.
Lots of the stuffing came out, too.
But the parcels are large with plenty of filling, even if it is tasteless.
Rating: 2/5.
Spinach and Ricotta Tortelloni 300g, £2 Sainsbury’s
Contains: ricotta 16%, spinach 9%
Where is the green spinach in these? I can’t see any in the filling.
The egg pasta packets with crimped edges looked tiny and are folded rather tightly.
On the positive side being small means there are lots of them in the packet which is good is you want them to go further.
But it also means you don’t get much stuffed inside as there isn’t room.
They all stayed together when I cooked them with no splits in the pan, and they tasted pleasant.
But really what you get in the middle is just cheese with seasoning. So that’s why they aren’t green.
The consistency is right and so is the pasta which delivers a clean taste – but it’s mostly cheesy.
Rating: 3/5
Spinach and Ricotta Tortelloni 300g, £1.97 Asda
Contains: ricotta 18%, spinach 6%
Asda’s stuffed pasta has a good filling but there’s not enough of it – so the ratio isn’t right[/caption]
The packet says these parcels are made in Italy using fresh egg pasta.
They are a slightly unusual shape, as they have been folded very small and tight with perforated-style edges.
But you do get plenty in the packet, which is good if you’re using them to feed them kids.
Made with sunflower oil not olive. But overall I don’t mind the flavour.
Nice shape they look neat and well made.
Some have stuck together though and quite a lot split when I boiled them which isn’t great for the washing up.
Good filling but I would like more of it, as you get a lot of pasta per parcel so the ratio isn’t right.
Rating: 3/5
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