Somerfield Italian Spaghetti Carbonara

On browsing through Somerfield on a Saturday I found myself at the reduced items fridge, or as I like to call it, the ‘Oops’ department. This is food that's very near to its sell by date. I quite often find bargains in here with the ‘oops’ sticker on, and as I don’t like paying £3 for a meal that’s pigmy sized, I usually go away happy with something I can pop in the microwave and eat quickly. I am a gal that’s always on the move!

Here ...
...waiting for me patiently for a mere £1.44 reduced from the regular price of £2.15. A veritable bargain. Let’s go home, baby!

* What it says on the box *

Egg spaghetti and smoked bacon in a rich creamy cheese sauce.

Enough for the dieters to run screaming to their beds. But Mack80 is fed up with low fat meals, they do nothing for her trim physique, so let’s go the whole hog and rack up those calories.
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On browsing through Somerfield on a Saturday I found myself at the reduced items fridge, or as I like to call it, the ‘Oops’ department. This is food that's very near to its sell by date. I quite often find bargains in here with the ‘oops’ sticker on, and as I don’t like paying £3 for a meal that’s pigmy sized, I usually go away happy with something I can pop in the microwave and eat quickly. I am a gal that’s always on the move!

Here is where Senor Carbonara came to hand. He was waiting for me patiently for a mere £1.44 reduced from the regular price of £2.15. A veritable bargain. Let’s go home, baby!

* What it says on the box *

Egg spaghetti and smoked bacon in a rich creamy cheese sauce.

Enough for the dieters to run screaming to their beds. But Mack80 is fed up with low fat meals, they do nothing for her trim physique, so let’s go the whole hog and rack up those calories.

* Nutritional info *

This is a 340g pack

Wait for it – a whopping 527 kcals

Fat – prepare yourself – 25.2 g (of which saturates are 15.3g)

OK so it’s really bad for you, but I don’t care. I tell you, I just don’t care!

* Cooking it *

Because I’m lazy, this was a microwave moment. Remove the outside sleeve and pierce the film covering your meal.

Microwave on full for one and a half mins (on 850W). Peel back film and stir, then microwave for another one and a half mins. Leave to stand for a further one minute. Don’t want to burn your pretty little mouth, do you?

For a 750W microwave, the times are increased to two and a half minutes both times.

Oven cooking is 190C (Fan 170C), 375F or for the gas ovens it’s number 5 and pop it in there for 20 to 25 minutes. Just a word of warning, and that is that the packaging may soften a bit when heated. So be careful when lifting it out of the oven that it doesn’t spill everywhere!

* Smell *

Didn’t really notice one. Worrying!

* Look *

Quite a generous amount of spaghetti. The sauce isn’t runny or swimming around the plate, which is good. This shows it’s quite thick, it’s creamy looking and there’s bits of black pepper visible on top. The bacon is tiny but there seems to be lots of it dotted about.

* Taste *

It’s quite salty therefore a bit dry. It makes you feel thirsty. The sauce is creamy and you can taste the black pepper which adds to the flavour rather than overpowering it. I can’t really taste any cheese in it but looking at the ingredients there’s only 2% hard cheese and 2% mature cheddar in it so maybe that’s why?!

Now to the meat. Not happy about this! The bacon is chewy and tastes a bit plasticy! I know that’s not a word but that’s the only way I can describe it. It doesn’t taste like bacon I normally eat (not that I have it very often). Oh and maybe that’s because it’s only 3% bacon! What’s the other 97% then?! I don’t think I want to know.

* Other info *

This product may be frozen for up to one month.

* Verdict *

The bacon was extremely fatty. I admit I’m really fussy with fatty meat but this was ridiculous. It was so tiny it was hard to pick out amongst the pasta, which was stuck together. However, as I’m an expert in being picky in this particular instance, I managed to stack the bacon all up at the side of the plate and try and forget about it! I couldn't bring myself to eat that.

I think that covering the fat, I mean bacon, with sauce was just a sneaky way of putting yucky cuts of meat in there and expecting you not to notice. Well KirstyM did! So basically most of the ‘meat’ was pushed to the side of the plate ready for garbage disposal. I have no cat or dog waiting hungrily giving me the eye, nor any other victim (“hey, fancy some of my fat?” doesn’t quite cut it) so I guess the dustbin will have to have it!

So, would I buy it again? For me personally, no. However the rest of it was tasty. Considering it was so high in calories and fat, it did zip for my appetite but hey! This happens quite a lot with these cheapie meals. I don’t actually think of them as meals anyway, it’s a snack to me!

If you’re not bothered about fatty bacon then you’ll like this. In this instance I have tried to be objective but as that was a main ingredient and it was horrible, I have to only give it 3 stars, that’s for the pasta and the sauce, which I did eat! I can’t recommend it because although I got it reduced, to me it wouldn’t be worth the full price. If this didn’t contain meat, the product would be fine (although still high fat for you dieters!).

There is an address on the packet if you have questions but I’m afraid the ‘oops’ sticker was very stupidly put over the top and when I attempted to peel it off for your information, the address came off with it! There is mention of a guarantee if you’re not completely happy with your purchase and you will be refunded.

www.somerfield.co.uk

One final word, this product does contain egg, milk and wheat so if you have allergies, please avoid.

Thanks for reading. Now, where’s the chocolate?!
 

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