Restaurant quality or flop? Fresh, fancy supermarket pastas ranked from the sloppy to the top

From the lasagne-filled ravioli made by Latina Fresh, to eggplant parmigiana tortellini from Rana, the fresh pasta in the refrigerated section of your local supermarket has evolved and expanded. It’s a change driven by increasing interest in supermarket meals, as consumers swap restaurant dishes for ready-made convenience during the cost of living crisis.

Data from an NAB consumer report released in July showed that 55 per cent of 2000 consumers surveyed were willing to cut down on eating out or buying takeaway meals as a way of balancing their budgets. Ready-made meals offer an attractive alternative, with fresh pasta ready to eat in under five minutes for as little as $2.50 per serve.

“In the last year, we have seen a growth in fresh pasta sales as customers look for more gourmet options at home,” a spokesperson for Woolworths tells Good Food.

“We know many customers are looking for more ways to get value out of their shop and with our fresh pasta range, we’re bringing restaurant quality to the kitchen table.”

Both major supermarkets now offer more than 20 varieties of fresh pasta, and Coles has recently introduced several home-brand options targeted at vegans (Nature’s Kitchen) and athletes (Perform Build).

Across Australia, revenue in the pasta market is expected to grow by 3.65 per cent over the next year.

With all of these new choices, it can be difficult to tell how the pasta will cook and eat from a quick glance at the options in the refrigerator aisle. So I decided to put them to the test.

Choosing both filled ricotta and cheese pasta and simple strands of fresh supermarket pasta from Coles and Woolworths (along with a few wild cards), I considered the following factors when determining my ranking:

• Colour (and where the colour comes from)
• Length
• Cooking time
• Texture
• Flavour
• Value

For this taste test, I used Katrina Meynink’s quarantine sauce. One pot makes about 10 dinners and includes two cups of white wine (leaving you two glasses to sip while the sauce simmers). Be aware, the sauce’s four-hour cooking time means you’ll need to get cracking in the afternoon if you want to eat dinner at a reasonable time.

Each pasta was cooked according its package instructions, with a big pinch of sea salt in plenty of boiling water. Salt enhances the flavour of the pasta, making it an important step for any pasta you choose to cook. It was then drained and tested both before and after adding the sauce.

Fresh supermarket filled spinach and ricotta pasta (ranked from worst to best)

Coles spinach and ricotta agnolotti, $5 for 600g
Serves four, ready in three minutes

The mildly flavoured spinach and ricotta filling was thick and pasty in this budget Coles option, frequently sticking to the roof of my mouth (bleurgh). There were also quite a few empty pasta pockets. But you can’t beat it for price, coming in at just $1.25 a serve.

25degrees South baby spinach and Victoria fetta ravioli, $9 for 325g
Serves two, ready in three minutes

25degrees South is channelling farm-to-table restaurant vibes with the packaging, but the ravioli isn’t quite there. In a pot of boiling water the big, delicate pillows of pasta fall apart quickly, letting the filling escape. What remains is flavoursome but water-logged, and difficult to eat.

Leggo’s ricotta and spinach agnolotti with parmesan, $9 for 630g
Serves four, ready in five minutes

This is a good option for families at $2.25 a serve. The filling is a pale green paste with a barely perceptible flavour of parmesan. Still, it emerges al dente after five minutes and gets the job done.

Grand Italian ricotta and spinach agnolotti, $6 for 325g
Serves two, ready in four minutes

Creamy mascarpone and aged grana padano cheese are added to the classic ricotta and spinach pairing for “extra flavour”, but I’m struggling to taste it. This is a relatively bland option with thick pasta, best suited for when you want the flavours of your pasta sauce to really shine.

Latina Fresh ricotta and spinach agnolotti, $8.50 for 625g
Serves four, ready in five minutes

The packaging promises this is a new recipe, with more filling and thinner pasta. The smooth mixture of Australian-made ricotta, parmesan and spinach has a subtle but notably cheesy flavour. The pasta still errs on the thicker side, but it’s pretty nice with a generous serving of quarantine sauce.

WINNER
Rana ricotta and spinach tortellini, $8 for 325g
Serves two, ready in two minutes

Italian favourite Rana has nailed this one. It’s a simple, creamy filling with a comparatively greater percentage of ricotta and spinach, encased in thin sheets of fresh pasta. Each mouthful is a satisfying pop of flavour, sweet and a little citrusy.

Wildcards: Are they worth it?

Latina Fresh vegetarian broccoli and potato, $8 for 375g
Serves two, ready in two minutes

Does anyone else have a core childhood memory of eating sad, wet broccoli after your mum boiled it for too long? That’s what this green filling reminds me of. It’s not entirely off-putting, but it certainly isn’t my favourite either (especially for the price).

Coles Perform Build high protein vegetable ravioli, $6 for 360g
Serves two, ready in three minutes

Does it taste like anything? No (at least, not that I can tell). Does it make me feel better to know that one serve contains roughly half of my daily protein intake? Yes. For gym-goers who are tired of meal-prepping the same high-protein dinners day in, day out, it could offer an inoffensive and quick alternative.

Coles Finest free-range egg ravioli with Angus beef ragu and grana padano, $6 for 350g
Serves two, ready in 1.5 minutes

Giovanni Di Sebastiano and his family have made pasta in Melbourne for more than 30 years, so I had high hopes for this Coles collaboration. The pasta itself is great – big pillows of delicate pasta, cooked al dente. And the filling is generous, coming right out to the edges, all rich and meaty. But there is something about the sinewy texture that just isn’t for me.

25degrees South Victorian three cheese ravioli, $9 for 325g
Serves two, ready in three minutes

These large, soft pillows of pasta pack a real punch. With a generous filling of Gippsland milk ricotta, mascarpone and pecorino wrapped in silky cracked pepper pasta, this is a flavourful option reminiscent of cacio e pepe. After three minutes the pasta is al dente and best paired with a simple buttery sauce.

WINNER
Rana eggplant parmigiana tortellini, $5 for 325g
Serves two, ready in two minutes

What’s not to love about this tortellini? It ticks all the boxes: a creamy filling; a soft and quick-cooking pasta that doesn’t fall apart; and a subtle, cheesy, tomatoey flavour that would complement many types of sauce. If I ever feel like eating filled pasta from the supermarket again (doubtful), this is the one I will buy.

Fresh non-filled supermarket pasta (ranked from worst to best)

What makes a good fresh non-filled supermarket pasta? They’re softer and more supple than their dried pastas and better suited to smooth, saucy dishes. But they’re also easy to overcook, prone to tearing and considerably more expensive than the dry stuff.

Latina Fresh gluten-free tagliatelle, $8.75 for 280g
Serves two, ready in two minutes

The first thing I noticed about this pasta was how sticky it was once cooked. That makes it great for picking up sauce, but the rubbery mouthfeel wasn’t for me. It was also very yellow, likely due to the addition of carotene in an attempt to better mimic the look of wheat-based egg pasta. Add on that price tag ($4.37 per serve) and I’m leaving this one to the coeliacs.

Coles pasta pappardelle, $4.20 for 300g
Serves two, ready in three minutes

A good pappardelle pasta should be long and thick, with a slightly rougher texture to really pick up all that delicious sauce. This one missed the mark, with super short, dense strands of pasta that stuck together in boiling water and didn’t adhere well to the sauce.

iPastai pappardelle, $5 for 350g
Serves three, ready in two minutes

The sunshine yellow strands of thick pappardelle pasta looked great in the cardboard gingham packaging, but struggled to separate in boiling water. They emerged, despite my best efforts, still clinging together. This is a heavy and doughy pasta that retains its structure under repeated fork stabbings and the weight of a heartier sauce. Plus, at just $1.60 per serve, it’s good value.

Latina Fresh classic egg fettuccine, $6 for 375g
Serves two, ready in two minutes

This pasta looks fresh and light coming out of the packaging, and holds its shape well when cooked. But it’s shorter and flimsier than its rival Rana (below), becoming soggy and brittle under the weight of the sauce. When considering that higher price tag ($3 per serve), I’m going to pass.

Coles fettuccine, $4.20 for 300g
Serves two, ready in three minutes

Coles fettuccine keeps things simple, using just three Australian ingredients in its recipe. It’s flat, thin, pale and short – certainly not one for those who like twirling their pasta. But in three minutes it’s cooked perfectly al dente and gets the job done for just $2.10 per serve.

Rana fettuccine, $6 for 325g
Serves two, ready in two minutes

Rana delivers a light fettuccine that feels pretty close to restaurant-quality, maybe because of its egg content, which is higher than some. But does it “make any sauce sing”, as promised on the packaging? Well, it does capture the sauce. But it also becomes flimsy under the extra weight, breaking apart when twirled with a fork. It is also the most exxy of the bunch, at $3 per serve.

WINNER
iPastai linguine, $5 for 350g
Serves three, ready in two minutes

This pasta is made with flour, eggs and “passion”, promising to “take you to the heart of Italy from the first bite”. I was sceptical, particularly given ambiguous descriptors like “Italian best flour” on the packaging, but I was proven wrong. The pasta felt light but substantial, firm to the bite and just a little sticky. It picked up all the sauce, passed the twirl test, and one bite quickly turned into an entire bowl.