Crosta & Mollica ready meal

Source: Crosta & Mollica

Cannelloni Beef & Pork Ragù is one of three recipes that will roll exclusively into Waitrose on 16 May

Upmarket Italian brand Crosta & Mollica is set to enter chilled ready meals.

It will launch a trio of recipes – Cannelloni Beef & Pork Ragù; Lasagne Porcini Mushroom & Prosciutto; and Parmigiana Aubergine & Tomato (rsp: £6/400g) – exclusively into Waitrose chillers on 16 May.

Cannelloni Beef & Pork Ragù comprises bechamel sauce layered with ragu-filled pasta, topped with Grana Padano cheese.

Lasagne Porcini Mushroom & Prosciutto, meanwhile, features five layers of fresh egg pasta with bechamel sauce.

Finally, Parmigiana Aubergine & Tomato is made up of layers of fried aubergine, fior di latte mozzarella and slow-cooked tomato sauce.

Oven-baked and ready for plates in 25-30 minutes, the “easy meal solutions” containing Italian ingredients required “minimal preparation with maximum taste”, it said.

They will join Crosta & Mollica’s existing frozen ready meal offering, which rolled into Ocado in September 2022.

The meals are the latest in a flurry of recent innovation from the brand, which last month launched a duo of sorbet-filled fruit shells into Waitrose, and launched an eight-strong range of dried pastas and pasta sauces into the retailer in August 2022.