The best of Britalia

It's the latest culinary controversy: have we really become a nation seduced by the flavours of Italy yet conned into buying substandard "Britalian" foods? Italian chef Antonio Carluccio thinks so, and this week he lambasted the supermarkets for their mass-produced, "tasteless" meals made, he says, with the wrong ingredients to keep prices down and appeal to less sophisticated palates.

But how poor are the supermarket's Italian foods when compared to Mr Carluccio's own offerings. Carina Cooper, the Evening Standard's food writer conducted a blind tasting.

TOMATO-BASED SAUCE

Sainsbury's Neapolitan sauce, £1.49: contains tomato, oregano and basil. This is a bastardised version of a traditional sauce. A true Neapolitan sauce should only contain basil. The consistency is poor and the ingredients are not properly homogenised. Too watery and sweet.

**

Tesco's finest tomato and mascarpone sauce, £1.99: contains tomato (50 per cent) and mascarpone (15 per cent). Not exceptional. It could do with additional ingredients such as Parmesan and basil to make it richer.

contains tomato and basil. It doesn't have the rich flavour of a traditional Italian sauce and could do with being enriched with more fresh herbs.

**
Carluccio's polpa, £2.50 per jar:

A very good basic sauce. You would need to add onion and garlic, but overall it is simple and authentic. ****

Carluccio's polpa, £2.50 per jar:

Sainsbury's green pesto, £1.49: contains olive oil, medium-fat hard cheese, basil and pine nuts. A very bad consistency, none of the ingredients hangs together.

*

Tesco's pesto, £1.89: contains olive oil, cheese, basil. Again, the ingredients haven't combined properly and the consistency is too watery.

**
M&S pesto, £1.99: contains pine nuts, olive oil and medium-fat hard cheese. Not bad but the balance of ingredients needs correcting as it's a little too oily and salty.
***

Carluccio's pesto sauce £1.80 per 100g:

olive oil, basil, pine nuts. Fresh and good colour, but it should have a slightly thicker consistency and more potent basil flavour.

***

BASIC PASTA

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference garlic and herb tagliatelle, £3.99: not bad, but a little too rubbery.

**
Tesco's fresh egg tagliatelle, £1.06:

cooked correctly to an al dente texture, this is still very ordinary. *

M&S fiorelli pasta, £2.49: not bad, but the consistency is too rubbery. ***

Carluccio's pasta, £2.95 per box: by far the best pasta. An excellent eggy texture and it tastes fresh. It was easy to cook and retained a good al dente bite.

*****

LASAGNE

Sainsbury's lasagne, £3.29: contains tomato, pasta and meat. This was terrible: bland, school food that did not taste remotely like a traditional lasagne. *

Tesco's lasagne al forno, £4.99: contains tomato, fresh pasta and meat. After cooking this, I was horrified by the texture. It was dry and crispy on top and the pasta within was soggy and too floury. *

M&S lasagne al forno, £4.99: free-range egg pasta, beef Bolognese, Chianti wine and grana padano cheese. The best supermarket lasagne. It has the correct ratio of pasta to meat and the overall taste is authentic. ****

Carluccio's meat lasagne, £5.75 per slice:

contains fresh egg pasta, cheese. Good consistency, but the tomato was too acidic. The lasagne didn't contain enough meat; however, the ingredients were extremely fresh. ***