Recently I was contacted by Michael Angelo‘s Gourmet Foods, which claims to have the best frozen lasagna. To prove it, they offered to provide me with a gift card to purchase one of Michael Angelo’s lasagnas and test it against one of their competitors.
My family eats a lot of frozen lasagna. My siblings love it and they can devour one of those large family-size pans in one sitting. So I was definitely curious to check out Michael Angelo’s lasagna and thought it would be a lot of fun too.
Michael Angelo’s is a family owned company. Michael Angelo is a third generation Italian, and founded the company along with his mother, Sara.
One of the reasons Michael Angelo’s believes their lasagna is so good is that it’s made in small batches. I picked up one of these small batches, and then also a Marie Callender’s one which seemed to resemble it in terms of ingredients, method (small batch), etc. I also picked up a family-size Safeway brand lasagna because that is actually the one my brothers love the most and usually buy.
I invited all the kids over along with their significant others and we had ourselves a frozen lasagna dinner party.
Michael Angelo’s
Safeway
Marie Callender’s
My thoughts: Presentation-wise, I thought the Marie Callender one was the prettiest. But taste-wise, Michael Angelo’s was definitely the winner for me. The Safeway one tasted very one dimensional. Meat sauce, cheese, and noodles. With the Michael Angelo’s one, I could taste the Italian herbs and spices, the acidity of the ricotta. It was much more flavorful and suddenly my go-to Safeway brand seemed dull and bland in a side-by-side comparison. Marie Callendar’s had similar herbs and spices as Michael Angelo’s, but in my opinion, it was too much. Too salty, too many flavors going on.
Here’s a view of the slices:
Afterwards we took a count. Only five people tasted all three so those are the only ones allowed to vote. The final tally: 3 for Angelo’s, 1 for Safeway and 1 for Marie Callendar. DH, my sister and I prefered Michael Angelo’s. One brother still preferred Safeway. The other brother converted to Marie Callendar’s. So it wasn’t universal and everyone has different tastes, but I really enjoyed Michael Angelo’s and so did DH and we’ll likely be buying that the next time we want frozen lasagna. You can read more about Michael Angelo’s here.
Ok Okay here it goes. So I tried Michael Angelo’s on 2 separate times. Then I tried Safeway’s Brand ..OMG. Safeway Brand” what the heck were you thinking? You think those of us that are of italian heritage..are stupid??? The sauce was terrible. Something really hot on my tongue like a cross between black pepper, a mexican mole sauce and some kind of indian spice. This was gross! Look if you are going to mix spices or you run out of something..do not substitute..it will come out in the flavors. My tongue is on fire. It was hiddeous, non authentic, a waste of money. It said it had cheese..really? Perhaps the top for crust..but the rest, not sure I know what else is in there. Some oddly flavored ground beef concoction and like I said unidentifiable specks of white something throughout the lasagne. Does not really look like cheese/ Bottom line hands down…Michael Angelos is truer to me as the real deal and great tastes and value.
it’s funny isn’t it how you can be totally satisfied with something and then you have a better version and it totally opens your eyes. I grew up eating Safeway brand and never had any issues and then I started trying out other versions like Michael Angelo’s, and what a difference!
I don’t care much for Marie Callendar’s but then I’ve been a Stouffer’s fan most of my life. Maybe I’ll try MA’s since I like some of their other frozen pasta meals.
You know a couple of people mentioned Stouffer’s to me. I should have got that one too for the taste test.
I tried both Michael Angelo’s and Marie Callendar’s before and have to agree that Michael Angelo’s is much tastier!
I have to confess, I didn’t even know about them until I was contacted. But I’m glad I tried it!