8 Frozen Lasagnas You Should Definitely Buy And 8 You Shouldn't

If you enjoy Italian food, there's a good chance you've had lasagna. This baked pasta entree feels classically Italian, but, in fact, the way many of us know the dish — including a certain lasagna-loving cartoon feline — is anything but classically Italian. Rather, it stems from a whole category of pasta called lasagna al forno. This oven-baked dish deserves a place among pasta recipes that never get old, since it may contain any number of different ingredients. Though dishes like these were once specialty foods that families would enjoy strictly during celebrations and holidays, Italian immigrants helped make them more everyday meal options.

However, the true Americanized version of lasagna has its ties to Stouffer's. That's right: The brand you probably know for seemingly endless frozen food options helped make American lasagna what it is today. During the craze of easy food convenience, Stouffer's found that its lasagnas outsold classics, like its casseroles. So, if you're feeling any modicum of guilt for choosing a frozen lasagna over a freshly made one — don't. Frozen lasagna is part of the reason so many of us are familiar with lasagna to begin with.

That said, not all lasagnas are created equal. To help you choose the best option for your family dinner, we set out to try several different brands to find the best versions of frozen lasagna at your local grocery store.

When researching for this article, we stumbled across the Simek's brand, but had never sampled any of its products before. Simek's touts itself as being a company that can conveniently replace your time in the kitchen with an efficient, tasty alternative. We were pretty impressed by this offering; it was definitely one of the best.

Compared to other lasagnas, we noticed a sweeter sauce. While ricotta from some of the other frozen lasagna brands did not spread out along the noodles, but rather stayed heaped together, this one did a nice job of coating without becoming a sticky layer. Ricotta shouldn't feel like plaster in a lasagna. Fortunately, this one did not. Prior to cooking, we observed that Simek's lasagna didn't appear to be par-cooked, as none of the cheese on top was melty. We assumed this to mean it would have more of that home-cooked feel to it. It did.

We were happy with the balance of flavor and ingredients within the seasonings and cheese, and the noodles also had a nice, bouncy texture. The pasta did crisp up a little in some spots, further lending to that from-scratch, straight-from-the-oven-type feel we enjoy when preparing lasagna fresh at home.

Lean Cuisine takes up a massive area of grocery store frozen-food aisles. The brand is a major factor in the lives of many people, to the extent that there's now a Lean Cuisine diet plan that requires a DNA sample. Lasagna, of course, is one of the brand's many products. However, the idea of a lasagna being "lean" simply doesn't mesh with what most of us want from the dish, and that's what we found here.

Instead of being a firm, square serving, Lean Cuisine's lasagna felt more like soup. Now, saucy pasta can be delicious, but this was too much. On top of that, the noodles, though cooked through, were thick and gummy, closer to an udon noodle in thickness than the rather thin lasagna noodles. Not to mention, the lasagna noodles were actually ridged (not smooth) all the way through rather than just on the edges.

The oddest part came from the flavor. It's wasn't necessarily bad, but certainly heavy on the seasonings. We love dressing up a meal as much as the next foodie, but when a dish tastes exclusively like herbs, there's an issue. We didn't get a tomato, cheese, or even meat flavor; it was as though someone ravaged a spice cabinet and poured each jar in until all that tomatoey goodness was hidden. That said, this option is leaner — only 7 grams of fat — which is half of Simek's and also less than half the cholesterol at just 20 milligrams. 

Most of the time when considering dinner options, and you decide it's best to just pick up a frozen lasagna from the grocery store, it's in a box that doesn't let you see what you're actually getting. That's not the case with Giovanni Rana. There's a window for you to see the pre-cooked lasagna, so you get a good idea of what you'll be putting on the table.

Because this option was already cooked, and making it was just a really thorough reheating process, it did have a bit of a leftover taste. Some might not mind, but we're not the biggest fans of that. The last thing we want when cooking a dinner at home is to be reminded that it's not so fresh, even if it gets some time in the oven.

After getting past that, we found that the tomato sauce was simple but savory, and the lasagna pasta was one of the better ones in regards to texture. Though it wasn't as saucy as swimming through the Lean Cuisine, there was still a fair bit of liquid to it. Still, the pasta held its form when cut out of the family-size serving dish, and it tasted like a well-made, if basic, lasagna. The blend of cheese made a nice top crust, and while it wasn't the freshest-tasting meal, it's a good buy at under $20 for the 2½-pound portion. 

For vegans or vegetarians, there's nothing more frustrating than purchasing a meal that purports to be plant-based but doesn't do anything to celebrate the veggies within the dish. The vegetable lasagna from Amy's feels like it was made by someone who doesn't like veggies, because there was just nothing about the produce that stood out. Truth be told, it was among the least favorite of any of the lasagnas we tried. As vegetable lovers, this truly hurts to admit.

Though the brands couldn't be more different from one another, Amy's lasagna had the same type of ridgy-all-the-way-through noodles found in the Lean Cuisine variety, which was definitely unexpected. Unfortunately, the cheese content was super-minimal here, with a smattering of shredded cheese on top feeling like more like a garnish than an actual ingredient. The ricotta flavor was scarce to the point that I wondered if it was actually meant to feel more like cashew ricotta or something similar, rather than actually being real dairy ricotta cheese. We even checked the box, and, nope, it's actual ricotta cheese. It's surprisingly easy to make ricotta at home, and we're pretty sure that would've turned out better. If Amy's was going to do the veggies dirty, it could have at least added enough cheese.

While Amy's lasagna made us want to weep with vegetarian sorrow, Michael Angelo's vegetable lasagna elicited the opposite feeling. There were layers of ingredients with veggies you could see and taste for what they actually were. This is one of the best frozen vegetable lasagna varieties, meant for people who actually love veggies and don't want them as a simple replacement for the meat in the lasagna. It had the feel of a lasagna that came from a vegetarian restaurant that wanted its produce to shine through.

The veggies were tender and abundant without being mushy and overwhelming. In fact, it probably needed a little more sauce and cheese to balance out the vegetables. We were impressed with the simple, easy texture of the lasagna noodles, and there was nothing out of the ordinary here. You may want to have a little salt and pepper on hand for extra seasoning, but that's going to be your preference for overall flavor. 

In terms of nutrition information, this serving size is a little larger at 312 grams, while Amy's is 269 grams. In that larger portion, you also get 10 more calories at 360, but less fat than Amy's at 11 grams, while Amy's clocks in at 14 grams. For a heavier protein load, Michael Angelo's has you covered at 21 grams to Amy's 16 grams. 

We love the convenience of a microwave, but the first thing we noticed about the cooking instructions on the Michael Angelo's meat-based frozen lasagna is that the brand totally shames you into using the oven instead. Our society should be past microwave shaming by now. Just because it cooks something faster, doesn't mean that it's any worse. So, we chose to prepare this one in the oven, waiting longer, only to be disappointed. Maybe we would have saved time and spared ourselves emotional distress had we just gone for the microwave. Learn from our mistake.

The first thing we noticed was how thin this lasagna was, with three meager layers of noodles. There was a freshness of flavor to this Michael Angelo's meat lasagna, but the layers were so minimal that it felt a little too meager to make much of a difference. Like other options that weren't our favorites, this one was lacking enough cheese on top, and the thick ricotta mixture was just strange. It felt like a mortar that you might put between bricks. There was no gooey or melty feel — instead, it just stuck to itself. This lasagna had three layers that were merely layered together. Nothing actually coalesced.

When it comes to frozen meals or desserts, it's often best to go for what we know to excel. And since Marie Callender's offers some of our favorite offerings — including one of the best chain restaurant chicken pot pies — we were pretty sure this frozen Italiano lasagna would be a winner. The instructions are detailed, calling for a two-step cooking process. First, we cooked the lasagna on high for a few minutes, then finished it on medium. Although there are instructions for an oven, the microwave options seem to be preferable, as they were featured in a larger section on the packaging.

This lasagna featured a meat sauce with cheese and herbs as well as ricotta, Parmesan, mozzarella, and Romano for the cheese factor. The sausage was a little spicy, which was surprising, and it was pretty saucy overall, but not too much. Unfortunately, this variety didn't hold that lasagna shape when cut from the pan, but the flavor quality compensates for this misgiving if you're willing to look past it.

This one seemed to have absolutely everything going for it. It had veggies, it was creamy, and it included a thick, cheesy sauce. The one thing that was unexpected? Just how salty it would be.

Unfortunately, this lasagna from Stouffer's was a pass. It's basically a lasagna made with chicken pot pie filling. If that's what you're really longing for, then it will probably speak to you. It was soupy and didn't feel like it came together like some of the other frozen lasagnas did. But in all likelihood, you're not looking to get a gulp full of saltiness, and that's what we had happening here. Looking at the sodium content, it's easy to see where this might come from. The sodium for this serving is 1,030 milligrams. To put that into perspective, Michael Angelo's veggie lasagna was just shy of half that sodium content, at 530 milligrams. Just because a recipe doesn't have a whole lot of protein in it and instead focuses on veggies, that doesn't mean it needs a lot of salt. A little bit, certainly, but not so much that you feel like you've exceeded your sodium intake for the day after one frozen meal. 

There are some Trader Joe's products that are worth buying every time we visit. Even if it's a little bit of a drive away, for quality food, it's well worthwhile. Now that we've discovered that TJ's offers one of the best frozen lasagnas out there, this easy dinner item will be added to the list.

Upon cutting the lasagna, the very first thing we noticed was the cheese pull. If anyone appreciates a good cheese pull, it's us, and this lasagna delivered. There is certainly a generous helping of cheese on top, which does slide around a little in cutting, but it's perfect, and it forms a crispy layer on the sides in a way that we didn't see from any other lasagna.

For flavor, the balance between the meat sauce, seasonings, and the flavor of the cheese was exactly what you'd want to see in a lasagna you drove across town for. Honestly, without knowing it came from Trader Joe's, we'd expect this came from some Italian restaurant. Not only that, but at $6.99, this lasagna definitely provides the best bang for your buck when it comes to the family-sized options. 

One of the things we expected to find more often than we did was a sauce with sweetness to it. This doesn't mean a pleasantly sweet sauce; rather, one that feels like there was sugar added to it in a way that makes no sense. The sweetness was the number-one gripe about this option. Although some people add sugar to their sauce, adding just barely too much will dramatically impact that sweet and savory balance.

In addition to there being too much sweet flavor in this Great Value lasagna from Walmart, there weren't enough other seasonings. This lasagna was rather bland, and it very much tasted like some of the cafeteria lunches from elementary school. Not to mention, the ricotta was also disappointing. Rather than having a pleasant texture, this had something of a mealy feel, almost looking like a bowl of mush. It looked overly wet with an unappetizing texture. Honestly, this is a good example of getting what you pay for; this was the cheapest option of the sampled lasagnas at $2.97.

A couple of times, we found frozen lasagna that couldn't be called the best, but there wasn't anything problematic with it, either. With Rao's, that's exactly what we encountered. While there's nothing groundbreaking here, if you warm this up for dinner, you'll be pleased with it. Rather than feeling like a slice of lasagna cut from a bigger piece, it is obviously assembled within the container, as is evident from the way the noodles, sauce, and cheese leave a little room around the outside. This effect isn't too big of a deal, but it also busts the illusion that this is a homemade lasagna, and while that wasn't important here, we can imagine it mattering to others.

We were pleased with the overall texture of the cheese, even if it felt a little grainier than some other lasagnas. As for the sauce, we felt it tasted a little like pizza sauce rather than pasta sauce, with rich seasonings definitely making themselves known. The richness comes through in the nutritional information, too. This product packs 430 calories per serving, which is quite a bit higher than others. Stouffer's meat lasagna, for example, has 360 calories per serving. The fat content was higher, too, at 20 grams to Stouffer's 11 grams. 

Stouffer's may have been one of the companies that really helped bring lasagna's popularity to the masses, but there are other companies that do it much better now. We enjoyed the rich, deep, meaty flavor of the sauce, but it was doing so much heavy lifting that the sauce became the only distinctive flavor in the lasagna. Due to the deeply ridged noodles, like some of the other lasagna options, the sauce clung to the pasta, giving it that heavily coated sort of feel.

We're sure the cheese played a part in this lasagna, but the sauce and meat covered its flavor and texture so much that it offered a much more subtle taste. If you're hoping for a lasagna with less of a cheese presence, we can imagine this classic Stouffer's option being one you may greatly enjoy. 

Finally, a frozen lasagna that isn't overly reliant on tomato sauce to cover up any and all of its potential culinary sins. Beecher's is primarily a cheesemaker, but the brand is building its reputation for producing elevated versions of familiar foods in frozen variations — particularly with its macaroni and cheese, and the confidently cheese-forward cheese-curd lasagna.

Those cheese curd nuggets melt into the dish to provide a salty, creamy decadence in every bite — such a permutation of cheese should be more common in lasagnas of all kinds. And where no cheese curds await, there's a wonderful mélange of ricotta blended with spinach. This is as much of a spinach lasagna as it is a cheese lasagna, with this leafy vegetable doing the umami-boosting work that tomatoes usually do in this dish.

As a result, Beecher's Cheese Curd Lasagna provides the best of what frozen lasagna can offer — it's a savory, complex vegetarian meal bolstered by all that well-made cheese. The only real fault of this product is its price; one 23-ounce package can cost over $14. However, while this amount is supposed to feed two to four people, it provides such a rich and filling entree made with such high-quality ingredients that a huge portion just isn't necessary.

This ultra-budget family dinner from On-Cor technically isn't lying when it calls itself a "lasagna with meat sauce." After all, gravy is a sauce derived from meat, and On-Cor's Lasagna with Meat Sauce is essentially a lasagna slathered with an oily beef gravy. Contrary to the promises of the picture, there's almost no ground beef in the actual entree. There is, however, a thick and bountiful layer of orange grease that comprises the upper half-inch or so of the tray upon cooking. It doesn't ever quite coalesce with the thin and meager ribbons of mozzarella, but it does mix with the cloyingly sweet tomato sauce.

The consistency is also woeful and off-base for a lasagna. To keep the price down on On-Cor items, one would imagine that corners have to be cut everywhere, so perhaps there's no budget to pre-cook or cut the lasagna noodles. There are just a few large sheets of pasta layered in the dish, and they're nearly impossible to work through with a knife or fork without sloshing grease around. Chewy like gum in some spots, crunchy in others, the noodles don't do their job. On-Cor's Lasagna with Meat Sauce — with its dusting of cheese, soupy consistency, and giant crouton-like noodles — feels more like an Italian-inspired French onion soup.

Those distinctively Costco vibes of casual abundance and understated, affordable luxury are in full effect here. As a product under its Kirkland Signature house-brand umbrella, the warehouse store chain's Italian sausage and beef lasagna is exquisite, far better than it has to be to fulfill its purpose as a weeknight family dinner. First and foremost, this is probably the best deal you can find when buying frozen lasagna — sold in packs of two 3-pound containers, with each very large tray providing six generous portions, each lasagna can feed a family for well under $10 per meal.

Costco spent all of that money on ingredients, too. The noodles are soft, buttery, and flavorful, easy to cut through with a fork, and providing a savory taste that mixes well with what feels like dozens of layers of other ingredients. Creamy, salty, and well-seasoned ricotta cheese is present in most every bite, as is the chunky tomato sauce. But the stars of this lasagna show are right there in the name — it's packed with both Italian sausage and ground beef. On their own, those proteins could be too spicy or bland, respectively, but mixed together they provide a balanced meaty mouthfeel, and turn this lasagna into a very hearty meal with many textures and tastes. We can confidently state that this product will not be one of the biggest Kirkland Signature flops in Costco history.

Real Good Foods is an innovative producer of frozen meals that mimic homestyle favorites with recipes that can be safely enjoyed by people whose systems can't tolerate gluten or high carbohydrate loads. But judged against other frozen lasagna products with all of the gluten and carbs that this Italian dish is known for, the Real Good Foods Lasagna Bowl is far from the best. For one thing, since it doesn't have any actual noodles in it (which are the foundational ingredient of this dish, as flat sheets of wheat-based pasta are also called lasagna), the Real Good Foods Lasagna Bowl is more akin to chicken Parmesan.

Instead of noodles, this frozen dinner employs extremely thin layers of bland, cooked chicken, which are then layered with Parmesan, ricotta, and mozzarella cheeses, all amid a chunky marinara sauce. The chicken winds up being rubbery, its flavorlessness overpowered by an abundance of runny ricotta. The end result provides only hints of Italian flavors and lasagna construction, without ever really living up to the challenge of being an adequate substitute. The Real Good Foods Lasagna Bowl is also fairly pricey for a single-size bowl, and it's difficult to ascertain why — a 9-ounce serving of this product, made with unexceptional ingredients, can cost about one-third the price of a 90-ounce supermarket-brand frozen lasagna.

We assembled this assortment of frozen lasagnas from as many different brands as we could get our hands on, stretching across multiple grocery stores. To get the most interesting collection possible, we included cheese-based lasagnas, meat ones, Italian-specific options, and even vegetable lasagnas. From there, we set to dining on lasagnas for dinner over the course of many days.

While eating, we discussed sauce quality and quantity, cheese pull and prominence, and noodle tenderness. We discovered that some lasagnas were basic and felt like a reheated lasagna, while others were disappointing, and still others made us step back and wonder if the item pulled out of the oven was actually homemade. The selections were chosen according to products that we would surely buy again and those that we'd rather forget, hoping to help you make a good choice when picking up the best frozen lasagna options at the grocery store.