9 Store-Bought Frozen Lasagnas Ranked Worst To Best

There is something to be said for a Sunday night lasagna dinner: All of your loved ones gathered at the dining table and bread and wine being passed around as everyone dives into a show-stopping lasagna. The pasta dish itself is a labor of love, as you have to cook many of the individual components — including the noodles, meat, and/or veggies — before assembling, then bake the monstrosity in the oven until the cheese is gooey and the sauce is just perfectly caramelized. There's a reason it makes an appearance on Sunday tables and not weeknight ones. 

But store-bought frozen lasagna? Well, that's one step closer to Sunday dinner on an average Wednesday. The instructions for these freezer aisle staples are simple: just uncover them, pop them into the oven or microwave, and in no time at all, you'll have a steaming plate of noodles, sauce, and flavorful add-ins. However, just because your store stocks these lasagnas in the frozen aisle doesn't mean they're all worth buying. 

To save you the heartache of a sloppy, hard-to-cut, watery, or grossly under-seasoned pasta dish, I took the liberty of trying and of ranking an array of meat lasagnas available at local grocery stores. For the sake of comparison, I bought only ones made with tomato sauce and meat — though there are more than enough white sauce-topped and vegetarian options out there — and baked them in my oven or microwave according to the package directions. I ranked each lasagna based on its flavor, consistency, and whether or not I could pass it off as homemade. 

I'll admit that I haven't eaten a ton of lasagnas in my life, but I can still tell when a brand is so far off base that it's not worth salvaging. Marie Callender's, for one, misses the mark when it comes to its frozen Italiano meat lasagna. That said, I can give the brand some leniency, as it makes every kind of frozen meal under the sun.But if it can't do lasagna well, I don't think I can trust some of its other dishes.

There was something seemingly "off" about every component of this lasagna. The pasta was overcooked and rubbery, and the melty mozzarella (which didn't really melt all that well) was all fixed in the center of the dish. While I could see a sprinkling of herbs on the top, it was merely for show. I couldn't taste what they were or figure out what non-decorative purpose they served.

The sauce warrants its own paragraph — it's that bad. It was more "off" than the other components, and I can't really put my finger on why. It tastes like if you ordered a tomato soup at a restaurant and got a mixed vegetable one (which contains some tomatoes) instead. There are almost underlying notes of carrot, squash, and other veggies here, which really drew my attention away from what was supposed to be a tomato flavor. It's sour, though I don't think adding extra sugar would correct it; I think it needs more savoriness and heft — and honestly, a spoonful of Rao's tomato sauce wouldn't hurt. I doubt even Garfield would eat this lasagna, which pushed it to the bottom of my list.

I was really entranced by both the price and the look of this lasagna from Bremer, Aldi's private label brand. It was, per ounce, one of the cheapest I sampled. Unlike other brands that had mozzarella that clumped on one side or in the center, the cheese on this one was well-distributed, encasing the entire tray of pasta and sauce. However, all bets were off when I punched through the top cheesy layer with a fork to reveal the soupy mess underneath. 

I want to make one thing clear: User error was not a factor here. I followed the baking instructions to a T (and checked the box again to make sure I was following them correctly). While the top layer had cooked through, the bottom layer almost resembled gravy. It was savory but thin, and I couldn't really pick out any pieces of ground meat. The sponginess of the pasta also didn't help, and neither did the goopy cheese. After a couple of bites, I did come across some meaty morsels, though they were very small crumbs, rather than chunky, juicy ground beef. The sauce lacked herbiness and chunkiness, and it was just like bite after bite of soggy, soupy lasagna. Although its price tag may be low, I can't think of any instance where you'd want to buy this lasagna — unless you're purposely trying to eat a lasagna soup (and if so, you could probably just add some warmed stock to it, and it would fit the bill).

Lean Cuisine doesn't have the best reputation — at least in my book. Lasagna is just one of those dishes where you can't cut calories or corners — you know when it's made with full-fat ricotta versus a low-fat alternative. While I liked the tiny, single serving appeal of this product, I didn't have high hopes for it. 

This frozen lasagna, which was hard like a rock by the time I put it in the microwave, had to be cooked for four minutes with the film on before it was left to cook for another 2½ minutes uncovered. The second cook is crucial, as it would have been a swimming pool of red sauce and half-melted cheese otherwise. After a couple minutes of letting it stand, I took a peek and couldn't help but laugh.

This lasagna looks bad — like, comically bad. There is like five times as much red sauce as really necessary, and the entire thing is set in a literal swamp of red sauce, which is very acidic and thin and lacks proper seasoning. The noodles themselves aren't half bad, and I thought they were much more toothsome than even some of the brands that ranked above it. But I assume that the brand had to cut calories somewhere, so it shortchanged me on the mozzarella. The meat was passable and in large chunks rather than dispersed in the sauce. I don't think that adding any sort of herb would really alter the nutrition facts too much, and it would be Lean Cuisine's only hope of rising in this frozen lasagna ranking. 

I'm going to apologize in advance to all the Nonnas out there because the concept of a pepperoni lasagna just sounds blasphemous. Guy Fieri's Flavortown pepperoni lasagna made it into this ranking by the skin of its teeth. It has meat, and it has red sauce, so technically it counts. However, rather than being structured like a typical lasagna with layers of noodles, sauce, and meat, this one was made with amoeba-shaped curly noodles, tons of sauce, a paltry amount of cheese, and an even smaller amount of pepperoni on top. It was like a pepperoni pizza had a midnight rendezvous with a lasagna — kind of weird, kind of wonderful, and definitely something Fieri would come up with. 

The microwave instructions told me to cook it for just about four minutes, take it out, stir it, and put it back in the microwave for another 90 seconds. I was glad for the stir break, as I could redistribute the cheese and roni that had sloshed off to one side. There wasn't enough pepperoni in this dish to convince me that it was supposed to be the star, and I was too distracted by the — very clearly microwaved — noodles that lacked any toothsomeness. The sauce was salty and flavorful, and the cheese was a little more present than I had anticipated, but all in all, I was left feeling shortchanged. It has novelty appeal, which can't be said for all the lasagnas on this list. But I can't say that it was worth the money for a single serving.

I had heard great things about Great Value's lasagna before, so I was excited to try it myself. I find that Great Value's frozen foods (and products, as a whole) can be really hit or miss (its ice cream sandwiches, for lack of a better word, suck, and so does its beef and broccoli, which I tried on a whim a few weeks before this ranking and instantly regretted). But for its price and its size, this lasagna really isn't half-bad. 

It was nowhere near as watery as Aldi's Bremer Bistro lasagna, and there was more than enough cheese on top. Could that cheese have been pushed to the edges? Sure, but I didn't mind doing a little work myself, considering that the reheating instructions for this frozen lasagna were so simple. The pasta underneath that cheese was very sturdy and soft, yet still more toothsome than some of the other brands on this list. There was also no shortage of meat or ricotta. Another selling point for this brand was the clear layers of noodles, cheese, and sauce. The whole thing didn't squash together in a single, flat bite, which I enjoyed (and it made cutting a single slice pretty easy). 

However, where this frozen lasagna lost me was on the sauce. Great Value isn't always known for quality, and the same can be said about its sauce. This one was a little too sweet and too thin for my liking. There weren't any umami notes to complement the cheese or the meat, and its flavor was quite flat overall. A better sauce would have brought this one up in my ranking significantly.

By this point in the ranking, I had come to learn that the sauce was the weakest point for store-bought lasagnas. Rao's, I figured, would knock this one out of the park. It's my go-to brand for store-bought marinara, so I figured that it could do a dish like lasagna, where the primary flavor stems from that sauce, some justice. However, I was surprised to see that Rao's, instead of focusing all of its efforts on adding a ton of great sauce, focused on the cheese instead. 

This lasagna was absolutely rife with ricotta, which was visibly seasoned and layered between well-cooked lasagna noodles. Although I could see that there were some pieces of ground beef scattered throughout the layers, it definitely wasn't the most easily identifiable ingredient, and I couldn't really taste it. The ricotta carried the bite, though I didn't like that it was almost rubbery and cottage cheese-like. The ricotta is supposed to add a creamy texture to this lasagna, and there wasn't enough sauce to balance out the copious amounts of the cheese inside it. When I did get bites of the sauce, though, I couldn't help but comment on how good it was. Rao's should have cut the amount of ricotta it used and added more sauce. I think that this might have also driven the price down — because I have reservations about paying almost $14 for a lasagna that I can make better myself (and still use Rao's sauce). That value factor, coupled with the small amount of meat and sauce, earned it a middling spot on my list.

This was the only microwaved product that based its cooking time on temperature rather than solely on time. I had to nuke it for three minutes, uncover it, and then reheat it until the center reached 165 degrees Fahrenheit (the packaging says it's about three minutes). I don't know about you, but I'd really rather not whip out a thermometer for microwaved food.

However, Gordon Ramsay has brand presence, so I figured someone who touted themselves as a "chef" could really make a humble dish like lasagna sing. And this one was certainly a little avant-garde and restaurant-style. There was a noodle roll-up in the center of the dish, which had to be spooned with sauce halfway through cooking. It's a little extra work, sure, but it does give it a unique edge that none of the other frozen lasagna brands on this list offered.

There was cheese everywhere in this dish: on top of the lasagna, in the lasagna, and under the lasagna. It was one of the few brands on this list that actually went bold with the cheese, which I can appreciate. The sauce was also much more well-seasoned than almost every other one on this list. It was herby and bright — not quite as good as my mom's marinara, but it's certainly passable. While I could tell that there was meat there, it didn't take center stage. Instead, it added to the overall savoriness of the lasagna. The noodles are where I express some reservations: Because they were exposed on the edges for the initial nuke, they were dried out and a bit rubbery. But as far as frozen meals go, sure, I'd buy it again. 

Would Michael Angelo's lasagna have anything in common with its Renaissance namesake? This frozen lasagna sure doesn't look like it was meticulously sculpted in the slightest; it kind of looks like a fifth grader threw it together as a last-minute attempt at an art project. Half of the cheese is melted while the other half is not, and the edges sank almost immediately after I pulled it from the oven. Despite looking a little (read: a lot) worse for wear, its flavor isn't all that bad. The noodles are toothsome and firm enough to cut smoothly, and the cheese on top adds an extra melty indulgence. However, there are still some things that I would like to see worked on if Michael Angelo's wanted to get this artistic rendering into the Sistine Chapel of lasagnas. 

The tomato sauce here is acidic and pucker-worthy, though I think that adds to the homemade feel of the dish. Too many of the other lasagnas had flavors that weren't quite right, and most of them lacked thickness, richness, and, most importantly, character. This lasagna's sauce is tart in the way a restaurant sauce or a homemade version would be. It has that lasagna je ne sais quoi that the lower-ranked brands on this list didn't. A more balanced flavor and larger, more easily discernible, pieces of meat would have helped tremendously. The main reason why I didn't want to rank this as my top pick, though, is the cost. My top pick was a little more reasonably priced than Michael Angelo's. Some say you can't put a price on art, but I at least know when I'm getting a good buy — and it's not here.

Stouffer's really sells itself on its "more food for less" promise. The box notes that there is twice as much meat as "required by the lasagna with meat sauce standard." Who the heck certifies lasagnas, and are they hiring? It also touts that it has 75% more food than the brand's 10-ounce version, which I think is yet another play to cater to budget-friendly Boomers. 

But as we all know, more does not always equate to better, especially when it comes to lasagna. Just don't tell Stouffer's that because it also takes "more" to the next level when it comes to microwave cooking time: 6 minutes unvented and 7 minutes vented. While it beats the 48-minute oven cooking time recommendation, it seems quite long for a product that's supposed to be easy to microwave and go. I also didn't think my microwave was that powerful, but this lasagna did burn on the edges a bit. 

Like Lean Cuisine, there was more than enough sauce to go around here, and the cheese on top was a bit light. However, the sauce's consistency was much thicker and more flavorful. Stouffer's had a very clear, stick-to-your-ribs consistency that can't be said for many of the other microwaved lasagna brands. The noodles were, well, store-bought and a bit past al dente, but the sauce covered them up nicely. The meat wasn't very sizable, but it did impart a great flavor as a whole. All in all, it's really not a bad lasagna, and it had a better value than my No. 2 pick, earning it the top spot.

I may not eat a ton of lasagna — which may come as a shock to anyone who saw me buy nine frozen lasagnas at the grocery store — but I know a good noodle when I see one. I prepared each of these pastas from frozen based on the recommended method on the box. Some only included instructions for microwaving, while others (the family-sized ones, specifically) were made in the oven due to their size and density. I followed all directions for venting and letting the pastas stand before trying them warm.

A good meat lasagna is comprised of several components, which I reviewed individually as well as all together. The noodles shouldn't be rubbery or too hard, and the cheese should add flavor and richness to the lasagna. Most of the lasagnas on this list used ground beef (with the exception of Guy Fieri's Flavortown rendition, which opted for pepperoni), though regardless of the type, that meaty flavor should have been present and added to the overall lasagna. The sauce, I quickly realized, is where many of these brands faltered. The lasagna's predominant flavor note should have been the tomato sauce. I ranked brands that had well-balanced, chunky, and delicious sauces higher than those that were acidic, watery, under-seasoned, or otherwise fell flat. The metric of homemade-ness was a bit more subjective, and I found that none of the lasagnas really could replace a Sunday supper dish. The highest ranked ones, overall, offered a great value for the money, too.