Frozen Friday: Michael Angelo's - Lasagna with Sausage

I tried Michael Angelo's Lasagna with Sausage in the family size (I believe it also comes in a regular portion) which a 2 pound tray meant to serve 4 people. It's a classic lasagna with meat sauce and Italian-style sausage. The box boasts "small batch from scratch" and "absolutely no preservatives."

These normally go for about $8, but I picked this one up on sale at Smart & Final for $5.99.

I'd tried Michael Angelo's before and was impressed with the quality and taste of ingredients, plus the fact that you can read the ingredients and not wonder "What the heck is that?"

The ingredient this time were pretty good as well, but there was a bit of a problem with the execution. The instructions were of the set-it-and-forget-it variety, but following the instructions, my lasagna wasn't heated evenly or all the way through even as the cheese had started to burn. Where Marie Callender's solved this uneven heating problem with technology, Michael Angelo's just has a plain plastic tray. I ended up heating it for a bit longer at a lower power setting to achieve a more thorough temperature, but the problems didn't stop there.

I'm not sure who made this small batch of lasagna, but I think they screwed up. While the meat sauce was simple but tasty, the ricotta shown in the picture was not to be found. You'll also notice that all the cheese on top had either burned or congregated to the middle. I later found the ricotta only made an appearance on one side of the lasagna. All of this left Michael Angelo's Lasagna with Sausage feeling a bit off-kilter and not diverse enough in flavor; I wanted more mozzarella and ricotta cheese in my slice.
As for the sausage, I wasn't really able to distinguish it from the meat in the meat sauce.

At the end of the day, while Michael Angelo's Lasagna with Sausage was still okay, the execution was pretty off and I found myself missing ingredients and wanting more distinguishing flavors. I think I'd have more luck with the individual size.

Nutritional Info - Michael Angelo's Lasagna with Sausage
Serving Size - 1 cup (227g)
Calories - 320 (from Fat - 120)
Fat - 13g (Saturated Fat - 6g)
Sodium - 530mg
Carbs - 31g (Sugar - 5g)
Protein - 21g