I Tried 8 Rana Pastas And Ranked Them Worst To Best

I love a quick, simple meal like pre-made pasta. It takes mere minutes to cook, which is a wonderful time-saver in the kitchen. I don’t have to craft something from scratch, ultimately creating a pile of dishes and extra work. To be honest, I’ve purchased many ravioli and tortellini options over the years; I tend to prefer the former just because there’s usually more filling, but either yields a speedy meal. I’ve purchased Rana pasta, too — typically random options I’ve seen in the grocery store, so I wasn’t aware of how vast its pasta selection is. Well, that array makes sense because Giovanni Rana (the person and the brand) has been crafting pasta for decades (dating back to the 1960s), but the brand made the jump to the United States in 2012. Now, Rana sells anything from lasagna to green and yellow tagliatelle. 

I wouldn’t have enough time in the day to try all its pasta options, so I narrowed it down to a handful of ravioli, tortellini, and tortelloni options. To come up with a ranking, I ultimately judged them based on the execution of the flavors, whether they taste like advertised, the filling-to-pasta ratio, and how versatile the pasta is with various sauces. Some were really great, and I would happily repurchase them, while others were pretty underwhelming. If you’re looking for a flavorful, convenient meal, I have a couple of top picks for you.

Chicken and mozzarella are wonderful partners in anything from sandwiches to pasta. However, the Chicken Mozzarella Cheese Tortelloni was definitely the biggest letdown among the Rana flavors I tried. There’s just so little chicken, it almost feels like it is missing entirely. The pieces are minuscule and don’t impart much flavor or textural intrigue, making this taste much more like a cheesy pasta. 

The tortelloni shape also has a lot of pasta, and with such a small amount of filling, it ultimately feels very pasta-heavy. There is some creaminess from ingredients like mozzarella and mascarpone, but there’s maybe a whisper of chicken. It doesn’t deliver much in terms of flavor, and the little flavor it does have leaves me wanting more. Interestingly, the chicken element is listed as “roasted chicken crumbles,” and that sounds about right based on how small they are. I was interested in having chicken-based tortelloni, but this is a skip for me. It’s not that it tastes bad. It’s perfectly palatable if you want a cheese pasta, but I wouldn’t purchase this again based on the overall results.

I quite like the combination of spinach and cheese, particularly in pasta, but this Rana product simply does not provide enough spinach flavor. On the one hand, I can really appreciate the multicolored pasta base, with both the standard durum wheat and the dried spinach-infused varieties. It is interesting and attractive, and the spinach ones have a mild spinach flavor in the pasta exterior. In addition to the ricotta cheese, there’s also mascarpone, Parmesan, and mozzarella. But overall, this leans mostly creamy with a hardly discernible spinach flavor. Typically, this leafy addition is quite easy to taste because it has a distinctively green, vegetal note.

This Spinach & Cheese Tortelloni pasta is mostly creamy, with just a small amount of spinach. While it is certainly truer to its name than the chicken tortellini, don’t purchase the spinach-y Rana product out of your love for the leafy green. It isn’t quite as prominent as I would like; that said, the pasta with the dried spinach incorporated has a slightly more interesting flavor. Even if the bag were only the green ones, it would still rank where it does, because it isn’t very exciting compared to the next option.

Lobster ravioli sounds luxurious and enticing. However, the Rana iteration is mediocre at best. It has small but somewhat meaty lobster morsels, but what left me feeling weary was the overall aroma. The lobster smells slightly fishy, which isn’t something I would expect from a good, fresh lobster product. The flavor is okay, but it certainly doesn’t leave me wanting seconds. Nothing went to waste, but it is not something I would recommend to you, dear reader, nor would I get it again. And apparently, others think it isn’t particularly good either (specifically Costco customers).

Even if it wasn’t fishy, the flavor isn’t particularly impressive. I think there are plenty of other lobster recipes for seafood lovers that give you more control over the dish and the flavors. The filling is a blend of ricotta cheese, lobster meat, butter, and flavors such as lemon zest, garlic, and tomato paste. It’s fine. It’s good, but it is not the best that Rana has to offer. I would like slightly larger pieces of lobster — as we’re already working with a small piece of ravioli, I understand it can’t get significantly bigger. Most of all, I want a fresher, less fishy lobster aroma. Despite the wafting fragrance, I still appreciated the lobster’s flavor profile over the spinach and cheese blend.

The five-cheese tortellini is the last tortellini, or tortelloni, I tried. So if you’re looking for the best among folded shapes, then the five-cheese is the way to go. This is the most successful of the pastas so far because of its intense flavor. The cheese is potent and rich — I can taste it in every bite, and it feels more balanced with the amount of pasta. I felt satisfied and intrigued by the flavors, and that’s all because of the cheeses, baby. 

If you’re wondering what the blend is, I was, too. Turns out it’s a combination of ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, and mascarpone, which we saw in the aforementioned spinach ricotta, but this time around, there’s also fontina. This quintet of quesos brings a flavor intensity and dimension that make it enticing to eat, piece after piece. This is finally the part of the ranking where I was particularly interested in and satisfied with the overall flavors. 

I think this is a successful flavor combination, and it goes to show that you don’t necessarily need meat to make a scrumptious pasta. That said, the next three are all meat-based. Similarly, but not exactly, the Rana Cheese Lovers pasta did very well in a popular fresh pasta ranking. Clearly, cheese works for the brand. This is definitely the easiest pasta to pair with various types of pasta sauce, whether you want to slather it with butter, spicy vodka, easy Alfredo sauce, or beyond.

When I think of smoked beef brisket, I can’t say that ravioli comes to mind. It’s certainly interesting in this pasta application. To start, I quite like the texture of the finely shredded beef. It’s juicy and soft, easy enough to mash between your tongue. It’s not like it requires some effort to chew it. The texture is impeccable, even somewhat juicy. After taking a bite of it and looking inside, I could see a small amount of oily juice, which helps keep it moist and prevents the feeling of dry sandpaper on your tongue. 

The flavor of the Smoked Beef Brisket Ravioli is a mixed bag. The meat is seasoned and rich, with a touch of creaminess from Gouda cheese. The pasta is thoroughly savory from the beef and beef stock, but then there’s a sweet barbecue sauce, a Tex-Mex barbecue seasoning with caramelized sugar and a hint of smoke. A lot is going on here, so it’s hard to make out a single flavor note. 

It doesn’t seem too sweet, but that’s because there’s everything from breadcrumbs to carrot puree going on in each piece. The flavor is extremely unique and clearly delicious; however, I can’t rank it higher simply because it seems a little more complex to pair with sauces. You have to be really strategic because it already has a lot of flavoring; for this reason, it seems somewhat limiting. Not just that, though, I genuinely prefer the flavor of these next two a bit more.

Biting into Rana’s Beef Short Rib Ravioli introduced me to a new pre-made pasta experience. I haven’t had a ravioli or any stuffed pasta with such a filling before. It is marvelously juicy and savory, kind of like you made short ribs for dinner and then decided to pair them with your pasta. I wish there were more filling because they are quite thin, but the meat inside is still rich and flavorful. 

It tastes juicy and well-seasoned and certainly lives up to its name. I know we’re working within the confines of raviolis, so there’s not all that much you can stuff in there, but I still wish there was more inside. I feel like you have to eat more just to get satisfied. Both beef meat ravioli were quite thin, and I think this is because they aren’t as creamy as the other pastas. 

This truly tastes like an elevated option you would get at a restaurant, because it uses cooked, boneless short rib and beef demi-glace made from roasted beef bones, onion, carrot, tomato paste, and a variety of other seasonings. It’s almost like you made a pot roast and popped it in the ravioli form. There’s also mascarpone, fontina, and Gouda, although it doesn’t really taste especially cheesy; the meatiness is the primary flavor. This is a great option to mix up pasta nights!

For the most part, I usually go into my taste tests with an open mind. I might be aware that I like certain flavors, but I will always approach it with fresh eyes; that is to say, I had no expectations for the Italian Sausage Ravioli. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised by its wonderful flavors and textures. It perfectly balances the fatty complexity of the sausage with the cheesy filling. 

The sausage is cut into small, pearl-shaped rounds. They are tiny but still provide a fair amount of texture, so it doesn’t feel like you’re just eating soft mush. It has the most textural intrigue out of all the pastas thus far. The pork sausage has a fatty taste and a bit of a peppery note, which I assume comes from the spices listed on the ingredients — pepper is not officially called out. 

The Italian Sausage Ravioli definitely has a cheesier filling, putting it more in line with the lobster ravioli; however, the sausage is noticeably more prominent. Perhaps it’s because of the sausage’s sturdiness; it’s not as delicate as lobster and not so measly as the chicken. Additionally, the chunks are a little more texturally interesting than the shredded beef in the previous beef-based ravioli versions, which were just soft. This isn’t fancy, but it’s very well made, highly flavorful, and versatile. Pair it with any number of sauces and sides, perhaps Rana’s very own Alfredo — which Tasting Table previously deemed the best store-bought Alfredo.

I have a feeling that some people are going to hate how high the Mushroom Ravioli ranks, but it genuinely provides a lot of flavor. If you’re a mushroom hater, then stick with my No. 2, 3, and 4 choices; they are still quite delicious. This fungi option, though, is deeply savory and earthy, with a noticeable umami depth that makes it taste complex and expensive. 

There’s an array of cheeses — ricotta, Gouda, mascarpone — as well as heavy cream to provide a luxurious base, but it’s deeply seasoned, too. Garlic, black pepper, dehydrated onion, and, of course, the roasted mushrooms provide more dimension. The ‘shrooms are finely chopped but still provide some textural contrast to the soft cheesy base — but never fear; it’s mostly smooth. The Italian sausage had more of a bite than this one.

This Rana ravioli might be a great option for people who enjoy the flavor of mushrooms but not the somewhat chewy or sometimes rubbery texture associated with them. You can use this with any number of sauces, from tomato to cream-based and anything in between. I used to frequently get mushroom ravioli at a restaurant, and this offers a similar experience without the high cost of eating out these days. I’d suggest pairing this pasta with marsala cream sauce for the best experience. This will be my go-to Rana pasta, ravioli or otherwise.

The Rana options I selected were available locally. I found that availability per store plays a huge role in what you might see (or be aware of). I never knew there were so many Rana products, likely because one store only carries so much variety. I cooked each bag according to the instructions; this helped me see if there were any broken ravioli and how that affected the general experience. Generally, if you follow instructions and are gentle with the pasta, you should have extremely minimal breakage. 

I cooked the pasta over a couple of days, so I didn’t over-pasta myself. I judged the pastas on overall flavor execution — did it live up to the its description, and could I discern the distinct tasting notes? Beyond that, I was seeking a delicious pasta I would repurchase that had a somewhat even filling-to-pasta ratio. Too much pasta with too little filling was an easy way to rank lower. Versatility wasn’t initially a factor, but some of the flavors were tasty but so unique that they made it difficult to pair them with sauces; that means you have to be strategic about how you use them, and they might not appeal to as many customers. My top two hit everything I was looking for: versatility, great taste, and an appropriate amount of filling.