Fresh pasta
The Fresh Pasta Company fresh egg tagliatelle 250g, £3.50, aeron-finefoods.co.uk
Delicate and pasta-like. It's fragile and thin and tastes wholesome and eggy, just like handmade pasta. But it's not the best pasta I've ever had.
3 stars
Somerfield, fresh tagliatelle 500g, £1.69
Marginally thicker than the others, but it's bouncy with a nice consistency and it's a lovely translucent colour.
3 stars
Tesco, Finest spaghetti 500g, £1.19
It's not bad but I'm struggling to find any egg or pasta in here. It's a little dull and weak.
2 stars
Asda, fresh spaghetti 400g, £1.48
This tastes like a bowl of noodles. Yet it has the nerve to call itself spaghetti. A poor attempt.
No stars
Pesto
Co-Op 190g, £1.25
This has the best smell. It's veering towards lime green in colour but I reckon the basil was fresh and it tastes like proper pesto.
4 stars
Sainsbury's, Taste the Difference alla Genovese 190g, £2.35
A lovely colour. The basil leaves look fresh and it smells OK. It's a little bitty but it stirs well. Pretty good.
3 stars
Roi di Badalucco
80g, £3.50, papadeli.co.uk
Promising before you eat it. It certainly looks the part. A lovely, rich, dark colour but it's incredibly salty.
2 stars
Suma 160g,£2.87, organicdelivery.co.uk
Bizarre. They've used dried basil and there's hardly any olive oil in here. It feels rough in my mouth. All wrong.
1 star
Extra virgin olive oil
Somerfield 500ml, £2.15
This is a lovely, rounded oil. It has depth of flavour, and doesn't overwhelm like some oils do. It's very subtle.
4 stars
Marks & Spencer, Single Estate Toscano 500ml, £6.99
Pretty peppery and strong with quite a powerful aftertaste. It has a lot of body. I would serve this with fish as it would clearly flavour any dish.
3 stars
Sainsbury's, Taste the Difference Tuscan 500ml, £5.99
Herby and potent. Perhaps a little too potent, though. A very rich oil with an almost bitter aftertaste, but I quite like the boldness.
3 stars
Roi di Badalucco 1l, £10.95, papadeli.co.uk
Rather bland and weak. It feels like no passion went into making this. It's a mish mash blend of different oils resulting in an odd flavour.
1 star
Tinned Plum Tomatoes
Cirio 400g, 80p, natoora.co.uk
The finest flavoured tomatoes which, when crushed under my fork, create a superb pulp. Bright red and thick. I wouldn't hesitate to buy this product.
5 stars
Napolina 400g, 45p, Tesco
When I mash these tomatoes with my fork, they become a wonderful thick pulp. The juice smells beautiful and tastes divine.
4 stars
Marks & Spencer, organic
400g, 59p
These are full of water. They're slippery and smell watery, too. A shame, because when they're whole, they look very appealing.
2 stars
Tesco, Finest San Marzano 400g, 75p
Shallow, bitter and tart. Full of water and incredibly acidic. Pretty bad.
1 star
Mozzarella
Galbani Santa Lucia 125g, £1.09, Waitrose
This has retained a lot of cow's milk flavour. It's moist and breaks messily, which it should. It also smells of milk, which is important.
4 stars
Nonno Nanni 100g, 86p, natoora.co.uk
This has the milkiest smell by a long way. It's also very, very moist and melty. Very close to perfection.
4 stars
OMA 125g, £1.76, organicdelivery.co.uk
This lost something along the way. I suspect that at one stage it was a nice, milky, moist ball.
3 stars
Tesco, Healthy Living 125g, 59p
Very good mozzarella for pizza. But hopeless for anything else. If it's meant for pizza then full points, but it's not great to bite into raw.
1 star
Pancetta
Marks & Spencer 100g, £1.99
It looks nice but it's cut slightly too thin. I don't like the way each strip is packaged individually. What a waste. Cooks well and smells lovely, though.
4 stars
Tesco, Finest smoked 100g, £1.69
A very smoked pancetta. It's the correct thickness and it fries up well. But prior to cooking, the meat looked ill and sad and I find this somewhat offputting.
3 stars
Sainsbury's, Italian smoked 105g, £1.69
This smells incredibly smoked. It's lovely and pink and certainly looks promising before it's cooked. But it's actually very salty.
2 stars
Waitrose 70g, £2.09
An excessively fatty piece of pancetta. It's almost lardo. You can smell the fat in the pan and it's almost like swallowing a strip of grease.
1 star
