The good Italian test

Giancarlo Caldesi, chef-proprietor of Cafe Caldesi and owner of La Cucina Caldesi cooking school, tests fresh pasta, pancetta and pesto

Fresh pasta

The Fresh Pasta Company fresh egg tagliatelle 250g, £3.50,

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


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,

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,

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,

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,

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


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,

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,

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


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