The Frozen Lasagna Brand You Should Avoid In The Freezer Aisle

Ah, the beauty of lasagna — an ageless pasta masterpiece with classic Italian ingredients, flavors, and textures. Perhaps no one speaks more eloquently on lasagna philosophy than the grumpy but loveable cartoon cat, Garfield. Serving us gems, like "Once again, my life has been saved by the miracle of lasagna" (via YouTube). And it would be a delight to come home after a difficult Garfield Monday to simply pop a tasty frozen lasagna in the oven. Unfortunately, as we've found thanks to Food Republic's ranking of frozen lasagna brands, some lasagnas just aren't that miraculous.

So, next time you're perusing the freezer aisle, we recommend you steer clear of On-Cor Lasagna with Meat Sauce, which came in last place out of 10. Compared to the other frozen lasagnas, On-Cor proved to be seriously lacking in two of the main ingredients — mozzarella and sauce. Not only was there not enough of the two, but they were dull and flavorless. There certainly was plenty of pasta, but it was just too thin and probably overworked, leaving terribly hard edges and a soggy, lifeless center — seemingly assembled by a machine in a factory, rather than human hands. 

ith a 28-ounce, four-serving package running around $4.99, On-Cor Lasagna with Meat Sauce is a steal. Unfortunately, the low-quality ingredients seemingly pilfered any flavor the lasagna might have scraped together had it been more generous. Even the company itself notes that it's a good idea to add extra cheese and sauce to the lasagna in its "Dinnertime Tips" (per On-Cor). The only listed spices (other than the enigmatic "spices") are onion and garlic powders — little wonder what little sauce there is is uninspiring.

Embellishing a "not great" frozen lasagna with better ingredients can give it a bit of a spark — a renovation, rather than a full rebuild, if you will. Start with a celebrity chef-trusted jarred pasta sauce. Spoon a layer onto your still-frozen lasagna and top that with a good, low-moisture shredded or sliced mozzarella. Low-moisture mozzarella will melt evenly, rather than becoming too runny or watery. In the case of On-Cor, which was low on flavor overall, it may require even more spice fortification. A dash of fennel seeds in your jarred tomato sauce is a great way to increase the flavor, or simply add a sprinkling of dried Italian herbs or chile flakes to the lasagna before the cheese goes on.

If this seems like a lot of work for something that's supposed to be ready to go in the oven right out of the package, starting with a better frozen lasagna might be the best route. In our lasagna rankings, Beecher's Cheese Curd Lasagna with Meat Sauce came in first place and Trader Joe's Trader Giotto's Family Style Meat Lasagna came second. So, they're solid choices and much closer to "the miracle of lasagna," even close to homemade -– or at least created by human hands.