Ready Meals Review – 4 Stir-Fry

Finally the review that all you older bachelors have been waiting for (and you girls too) and with the flair it cooks among other things lol

After a long epic that lasted months, by my own will because I prefer to eat good stuff, I have almost finished tasting the Findus ready meals and I can give you an exhaustive review, accompanied by photos, of each product. Excluding the frozen vegetables from the line which I don’t consider ready meals, only the risotto – because I categorically refuse to eat frozen risotto – and the lasagna Bolognese, which cannot be found in my area, have touched the taste buds of my noble tongue. But without further ado, here is the result of my journey through the "specialty" Italian in order of tasting. For convenience, I will insert the photos in the comments indicating them with the dish they refer to (although it wouldn’t be difficult to understand what they represent, thank goodness).

1. Pappardelle with ragù: sold at the modest sum of 5.50 euros for what would be 2 portions but which to me seem like a generous portion. To the eye they look strangely good. The pappardelle are nice and present, slightly rough, even if the ragù is too much for my taste compared to the pasta. But when I smell it, it all falls away, it doesn’t smell like good pasta with meat sauce but like cheap tomato paste. Finally, the taste is mediocre, if I close my eyes it looks like a tomato pasta with some soggy pieces inside that resemble a meal chewed and spat out. Applause for the pasta however, despite being pre-cooked and subsequently cooked for around 8 minutes in a pan, it remains consistent and does not have the "hospital paste".
   • Vista: 7.5/10
   • Smell: 4/10
   • Gusto 5.5/10
2. Ricotta and spinach ravioli: in this case it is a portion sold for 4.50 euros. At first sight they are a normal plate of industrial ravioli floating in a sea of ​​tomato sauce, the dough is smooth and you can really notice the industrial aspect of the product. The smell is strangely inviting, they don’t have the same concentrated smell as ragù but they smell like a sweeter tomato, I can’t complain overall. The taste is also, surprisingly, above average. You can recognize the taste of the ricotta and spinach, the tomato goes well with it and is not too acidic despite being industrial, overall I enjoyed them.
   • Vista: 6/10
   • Smell: 7/10
   • Gusto 7.5/10
3. Tricolor pennette: sold at an excellent price compared to the previous dishes, I found them for 4.00 euros and they also seem like 2 normal portions (even though I ate them all myself). The sight is deceiving, they look like the classic pens from the middle school canteen; those that were brought pre-cooked in huge polystyrene boxes. However, smell and taste make this dish re-evaluate. They have the same tomato flavor as ravioli, which isn’t bad, and are better than ravioli in taste. The pasta is cooked in an acceptable way to be frozen and the mozzarella gives that extra twist that makes the dish tastier.
   • Vista: 5/10
   • Smell: 7/10
   • Gusto: 8/10
4. Sorrento style gnocchi: here too sold at 4.00 euros for two portions, but to me they seem less present than penne and are scarce in two dishes. They present themselves to the eye like the gnocchi that they give you at the porchetta festival as a first course together with tagliatelle with mushrooms and penne alla boscaiola, nothing extremely exciting. Here too the aroma is not bad, they use practically the same tomato as penne and ravioli; However, they fall on my taste. I’m team potato gnocchi that are consistent but melt in your mouth while these are chewy, they are hard balls in a tomato and mozzarella sauce resulting disappointing overall although the sauce (the same as that of the penne) is decent.
   • Vista: 6.5/10
   • Smell: 7/10
   • Gusto 6/10
5. Mediterranean cufflinks: We are always in the range of 4.00 euros for two portions, but if before there were two portions (or almost) of edible food, here we are spending 4 euros for a dish that SUCKS. To the eye they present themselves badly, pale and dull colors that scream "hospital". the smell doesn’t exist, you can only smell a little of vegetables but nothing sensational, and the taste is horrible. There is no sauce in the pasta, it’s a dish of pasta and vegetables but with vegetables that are disgusting because they are the typical frozen vegetables that have a watered down aftertaste. It also lacked salt.
   • Vista: 3/10
   • Smell 4/10
   • Gusto 2/10
6. Deviled chicken: For the modest sum of 6.00 euros for a generous portion (I imagine as usual 2 are indicated in the package) you can also find the legendary chicken of Chest or thigh which should have been the flagship product of the line for more than 20 years. Maybe there is no sauce for the chicken but it doesn’t look bad, a classic chicken (which seems dry) with potatoes. The smell is inviting, you can smell the chicken and also the rosemary in the potatoes. The taste however is a 50/50: if you eat the chicken you are happy, if you eat the potato you would have preferred to eat a teaspoon of sand. Strangely, the strips are really soft and juicy but the potatoes are awful; floury, soggy and also with a bad taste.
   • Vista: 6.5/10
   • Smell 7/10
   • Chicken taste 7/10
   • Potato taste 3/10
7. Caserecce alla boscaiola: we return to the 4.00 price range for the usual two scant portions (really, are those in the photo two portions?). At the beginning of cooking they start off badly, they have a lot of very liquid sauce that melts, and for at least 5 minutes the pasta floats in a white mess; as time passes it shrinks but continues to look like a hospital dish where boiled peas reign supreme. On the nose it is monotonous, there is a slight hint of mushrooms but nothing more. The taste is monotonous like everything else, flat, the ham is not received and the peas are flavorless like Mediterranean pasta. What saves it and keeps it monotonous is the cream that makes the cream and the light aroma of the mushrooms.
   • Vista: 5/10
   • Smell: 5/10
   • Gusto 5/10
8. Tagliatelle with mushrooms: We return to the price range of the rich, 5.90 euros for two portions as usual. Upon opening they look bad with a lot of broken tagliatelle in the bag, when they are cooked and mixed they are barely noticeable and you can say that they are a normal dish of tagliatelle with mushrooms from the festival. The colors here are also a little dull, but better than the homemade ones overall (even just for their presence on the plate). To the nose you can feel that you are cooking pasta with mushrooms but at the first bite you wonder if perhaps the mushrooms were left in the pan. Despite the presence of chopped mushrooms, the flavor is completely missing, they are completely watered down, and there is only the flat flavor of cream made with cream. Not even the pasta is saved, the pappardelle with ragù is much better in consistency
   • Vista: 6/10
   • Smell 6/10
   • Gusto 5/10

After this long examination I can say that, in my opinion, only tricolor penne and ravioli can be part of the diet of the true Italian man. Firstly because they are relatively good dishes for belonging to the frozen category and then because they have the colors of our sacred flag. Leave the rest on the shelves so that, given the price, you can quickly cook something good for yourself that has more flavor and satisfies you more.