Mine arrived today with a pack of Penne pasta. Thank you Napolina! Never one to hang around, I decided to crack on and do macaroni cheese - or cheesy pasta as it's known in this house. It's not a massively popular dish in this house to be honest, and when I make it from scratch, it's quite saucy, just the way I like it.
So this review is just for the macaroni cheese version. I'll try the lasagne later in the week.
Firstly, the instructions were not particularly comprehensive and did not specify how much pasta to use. For a dish that serves four, I would usually use 100g pasta per person, but given that the pack included a 500g package of penne, I put it all in, which I now see wasn't my brightest of ideas.... more of that later....
The amount of liquid suggested (160ml milk and 160ml water) is quite difficult to measure when measuring beakers and jugs usually come in 25ml measures, so measuring an additional 10ml was difficult and it's possible I only put 300ml rather than 320ml of liquid into the dish. The recipe also suggested a shallow dish, so I used a small rectangular roasting dish. I think a ceramic casserole (deep) would have been better on reflection.
I followed the recipe to the minute. After the first 20 minutes cooking, you take out to stir. Many of the bits of penne were quite browned and charred at this point as they were not under the sauce. This could be because I put 100g too much of the penne in the dish, or it might be that there wasn't enough liquid, or that the oven temperature was too hot (175 fan). At this point you stir, and top with grated cheese and cook for a further 25 minutes.
The dish smelled delicious. When I took it out of the oven, I noticed that all the sauce had disappeared, absorbed by the pasta. This is quite disappointing as it was very dry and crunchy, and in my opinion macaroni and cheese should be saucy and soft.
However, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the children loved it (aged 11 and 8). They said "amazing but some bits are too hard", and "I normally don't like macaroni cheese but this is perfect".
I thought it was tasty but disappointingly dry, and I had to throw out quite a few of the "hard" bits. The left overs will be soaked with more milk and hopefully will be softer when reheated. If I were to make it again, I'd use less pasta, more liquid, and make sure the liquid covered the pasta, cooking at 150 fan oven.
I also liked that I recognised nearly all of the listed ingredients, nothing too dodgy in there.
Now, to the questions...
As a parent, what is the biggest tea-time challenge for you?
Finding something healthy and quick that the children will gobble down and ask for more.
Would you say you are more aware of the ‘added sugar’ in food now than you were perhaps a year ago?
Definitely. I am trying to cut down on sugar where I can.
What is your top priority as a parent when choosing which products to purchase or meals to cook for your family?
I try to buy things with recognisable ingredients.
From the ones you tried, which is your favourite flavour in the range? Which did your children like? So far have only tried the macaroni cheese, the children loved it subject to the "hard" bits described above.
Would you use the products again? Why?
I'd have a jar of this in the cupboard as a standby. However, I can make macaroni cheese from scratch more quickly than this recipe (45 minutes cooking time in total), AND I would never, ever, in a million years, think of adding sugar to macaroni cheese. I mean why would you? It would be weird.
If it came up in conversation, would you recommend the sauces to a friend or family member?
I probably would - it would be very good if you don't or won't cook, however if you are a good cook, you can whizz up a real macaroni cheese much more quickly than it would take to make this one. It IS very easy though!