We Tried 11 Frozen Lasagnas. This Is the Best

Whether you need to feed your family or just yourself, few frozen foods are as filling or satisfying as lasagna (or lasagne, if you prefer). Just pop it in the microwave and dinner can be ready in less than 10 minutes. The oven takes longer — an hour or more for some family-sized portions — but the resulting golden brown, crispy-cheesy top when baked is worth the wait, in our opinion. To find out which supermarket frozen lasagna is the tastiest, we bought 11 kinds from a grocery store in Austin, Texas, then baked them in the oven according to direction and taste-tested each. The results that follow are listed from worst to best.

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410 calories, 24 grams fat, 34 grams protein per serving

This was the only lasagna among our samples that did not come with cooking instructions for the oven, so we microwaved it according to package directions. Needless to say, the result was the least visually appealing; it sat looking flat and forlorn in the container. The flavor wasn’t much better: tough noodles, gritty ricotta, and meat sauce that tastes like old hamburger.

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280 calories, 10 grams fat, 17 grams protein per serving

We were skeptical of this frozen lasagna, the only one that used noodles made from vegetables (mostly lentil flour and zucchini) rather than wheat flour. And our skepticism was well founded. The pasta was mushy and flavorless, while the sauce contained unpleasantly undercooked chunks of onion and carrot, plus weird nuggetlike bits of meat that tasted like an odd mix of ground beef and sausage.

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270 calories, 13 grams fat, 14 grams protein per serving

With a thick topping of herb-studded cheese and deep red sauce, this lasagna looked tasty enough. But when we tucked into it, we were sorely disappointed. The thin sauce was overpowered by basil, the ricotta layer pasty, and meat that looked more like small beans than chunks of sausage. As one taster put it, “This looks awful!”

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350 calories, 14 grams fat, 16 grams protein per serving

There was no mistaking this as a vegetarian lasagna. From the first bite to the last, the pasta and sauce were overwhelmed by a strong vegetal flavor of spinach and onion. The cheese topping was sparse, as was the ricotta, and the noodles were rubbery.

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310 calories, 14 grams fat, 14 grams protein per serving

San Antonio-based HEB commands a loyal following from many Texas shoppers, so we were keen to sample its version of lasagna. But the result was disappointing. The thick ricotta layer overpowered the flavor of the unremarkable sauce, while the noodles left a grainy aftertaste.

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310 calories, 7 grams fat, 17 grams protein per serving

Like many of the frozen lasagnas we sampled, the noodles in the Lean Cuisine option were on the limp side, but at least they were pleasingly thick. The bright red meat sauce was on the watery side, on par with basic jarred pasta sauce, but the cheese was skimpy and poorly distributed. 

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290 calories, 12 grams fat, 11 grams protein per serving

One glance at the orange sauce was enough to tell us this was no ordinary lasagna. HEB’s vegetarian option was tastier than its meat lasagna and far more palatable than Amy’s. We could taste red bell pepper, carrot, spinach, and cream, though like the other HEB variety we sampled, the ricotta was too thick for our taste and noodles had slightly grainy quality. 

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400 calories, 16 grams fat, 24 grams protein per serving

Rao’s is well known for its jarred pasta sauces, which consistently win taste tests, so we were excited to see it also makes frozen foods. Unlike other lasagnas, the meat in Rao's sauce was finely minced, creating a thick, almost creamy consistency that one of our panelists loved but the others found off-putting. We agreed that the sauce tasted a bit too salty and that the cheese topping was a bit rubbery.

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270 calories, 9 grams fat, 15 grams protein per serving

Stouffer’s was by far the sauciest of the bunch; we could hardly see noodles through all the thick, creamy meat sauce. Cheese was on the skimpy side, and if there was a layer of ricotta, we couldn't find it. But the sauce, though heavy on the oregano, was tasty enough.

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290 calories, 13 grams fat, 14 grams protein per serving

Although the sauce appeared dark and rich to the eye, it had an oily consistency with an overpowering punch of dried herbs such as oregano and garlic salt. But the meat in the sauce actually resembled ground beef, not the disturbing nuggets in some other brands we sampled, and the noodles didn’t turn to mush. This Walmart lasagna couldn’t match the quality of our top selection, but it was a decent alternative.

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300 calories, 10 grams fat, 16 grams protein per serving

This Austin-based brand was the only frozen lasagna we tried that came out of the oven resembling homemade. Grated cheese was well distributed across the top; The fat, fluted noodles were toothsome, not chewy; and the thick, rich-looking sauce tasted like it came from an old-school Italian restaurant. True, the sauce was a bit on the salty side, and the chewy ricotta layer resembled tofu more than cheese. But this was the only frozen lasagna that we went back to for second helpings.

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