This week - Lasagne.

€4.89 for 350 grams, €13.98 per kilo

Highs: Straight out of the packet this looks fairly good, with a decent amount of cheese sprinkled on top. Made with 30 per cent beef, the sauce is substantial and the lasagne holds its shape well when cut into small slices. It is widely available, too.

Lows: At €13.98 per kilo, this is the most expensive lasagne tried and it is hard to shake the notion that the only thing remotely deli-like about this is the price. While it looks great and is clearly of a high quality, it tastes a little dull and minutes after eating it, you might struggle to remember what it tasted like. The cheese is a little bland and there were four different E-numbers listed as ingredients, which took away from its wholesome appearance.

Verdict: Nice, but at this price?

Star rating: ***

Tesco Value Lasagne

€1.49 for 400 grams, €3.27 per kilo

Highs: The thin layer of cheese on top tastes okay and the tomato sauce is alright. It is also made in Ireland. More importantly, by a fairly hefty margin this is the cheapest of the lasagnes tried.

Lows: At just 7 per cent, the meat content is very, very low - this is apparent from the first mouthful, as it lacks any real substance. It is also incredibly gloopy and while it looks unappetising uncooked, it looks worse after spending the required time in the oven. The meal's long list of ingredients combines the pleasant-sounding wine and regato cheese with the not-so-inviting sounding sodium-stearoyl-2- lactylate - but it remains almost entirely tasteless.

Verdict: Cheap and nasty.

Star rating: **

Carroll Cuisine Lasagne

€2.85 for 350 grams, €8.14 per kilo

Highs: This lasagne has a lighter coloured tomato sauce than the others and for reasons that are impossible to pinpoint, it was found to be quite addictive. The white sauce was nice too and the pasta was sturdy enough to allow the whole dish keep its shape well once divested of its foil container. The top, sprinkled as it was with a good amount of cheese, tasted good, and it browns up very well.

Lows: But it was all downhill after that. This is made with pork, a fact which is not advertised too prominently on the packaging - and at just 15 per cent, there's not too much of it either. Another ingredient listed is "cheese", although which particular class of cheese that might be is left to our imagination.

Verdict: Strangely comforting.

Star rating: ***

Marks & Spencer Lasagne

€2.99 for 400 grams, €7.48 per kilo

Highs: This has a higher percentage of beef - 31 per cent - listed among the (entirely natural) ingredients and it has more substance to it as a result. The sauce is rich and tomatoey and has a nice tang to it. The pasta used in the M&S lasagne is excellent, and manages to crisp up where it should and remain nice and moist everywhere else.

Lows: There was not a whole lot of cheese sprinkled on top of this lasagne, which meant that, on this occasion at any rate, it didn't brown as nicely as some of its rivals. While it is made with Irish beef, it was the only lasagne not actually made in Ireland.

Verdict: Tastes pretty good.

Star rating: ****