Consumer Reports on "Celebrity" Pasta Sauces

[Dave Feldman]

The new (June, 2002) CR tested 11 "plain" (usually marinara) sauces, and divided them into three groups. The lowest-rated ("good") featured the expected suspects: Newman's Own slightly beating the control-samples, Prego and Ragu.

Under Very Good, CR rated, in order, The Silver Palate, Patsy's, and Bove's of Vermont.

And then, as excellent, all of them with the comment of "tasted freshly prepared"

#5 at cost of 92 cents per serving: Lidia's Marinara
#4, at $1.01 per serving: Coppola's Pomodoro-Basilica
#3, at $1.45, Rao's Marinara
#2, at 3.12 , Bobby Flay's Spicy Tomato
And #1, rated a CR Best Buy:
Emeril's Kicked Up Tomato ("Chunky, robust, spicy, complex flavors and notable heat. Naturally sweet-tasting tomatoes and fruity olive-oil flavor."

All but Bobby Flay's are available in stores. I never thought I'd see a tomato sauce twice as expensive as Rao's.

[Chino Wayne]

Having observed the food processing industry close-up when I was a rent-a-cop and sometime college student, I usually rate all canned products the same. Now I know there are differences, but I can tell you, that at Kern Foods in City of Industry, California they processed 4,000,000 pounds of tomatos every week during the season, making ketchup, tomato sauce, tomato paste, etc. Many of the final products had the Kern's label on them, but many did not. They had this huge fenced off area in the warehouse called the Label Room. In this area were shelves and shelves of different brand labels, what you would expect, the typical supermarket house brands, and "generic" type lables, but also plenty of Progresso labels too.

So, in my opinion, many of the bottled/canned sauces are very similar if not the same, although I do conceed that there are differences, and there is no way I would put anything with a Ragu label in my pantry.

Having said all that, my preference is Newman's. Not because it has Paul Newman's smiling face on the label, but because it tastes decent, and I always fix up bottled sauces with my own addtions anyways, and I like the idea that he sells this stuff not to line his pockets, but to give back something to those who need a hand.

[Dave Feldman]

Wayne,

One of the best elements of this feature is that CR actuallly states who makes most of the sauces covered in the piece.

[Chino Wayne]

Cool, so then you really can find out what you are really buying.

[Joe H.]

What a joke! Emeril's sauce isn't in the same league with Rao's or Mom's which wasn't even included! Bobby Flay's is cheaper than Rao's, perhaps they feel that you need more of it to constitute a serving.

Rao's is the best bottled sauce that I have ever had. I've been buying bottled sauce around the U. S. for ten years in my travel and there's nothing that really comes close to it.

It's worth the money.

I should also note that the Washington Post did the same thing about six months ago and sampled something like 20 sauces. Rao's was first with Mom's second.

[9lives]

Isn't Rao's the restaurant in Harlem that most of us can't get into? I'm sure the sauce is good but I have a hard time buying a sauce from a restaurant that wouldn't give me a table.

[jen kalb]

If Rao's is the sauce I think it is, we had a whole thread discussing these matters last year - I believe it was concluded that the sauce was made by the same people who make the much less expensive Victoria sauce.

I frankly dont know why CF tested the celebrity sauces - maybe they felt that is what is out there in su;permarkets nationwide. We have enjoyed barilla, 5 brothers and most recently Trader Joes sauces (the eggplant one was very nice) just fine.

[Dave Feldman]

Yes, I don't think CR is interested in testing many products that are only available regionally.

I think this is a great use for CR, personally. As a long-time subscriber, I understand the emphasis on the big-ticket items like autos and washing machines, but these are purchases you might make once a decade. I love when they test cheaper items that you might buy on a weekly or monthly basis.

[the rogoe]

CF did a test on regular and generic sauces a few years ago, but I can't remember who won.

[the rogue]

I personaly think that Rao's is terrible. I did my own taste testing and thought that Rao's was burnt and bitter tasting on ten jars out of all their types I tried. I like the Food Emporium brand, Masters Choice for basic sauce.

[Joe H.]

Yeah, right. Master's Choice.

[the rogue]

Joe you seem a bit condemning here? Have you tried Master's Choice, especially their garden style? Can you report back with some quality feedback instead of a four word negative post that doesn't add anything informative to the discussion? I would like to hear a personal review of what sauces you think are good and bad and why.

Personally, in my opinion, I think Master's Choice is very fresh and clean tasting. You can taste the vegetables which are crisp and fresh. It has a nice balance between acid and sweet with good herb flavor. Light and not overwhelming but with enough flavor and body to stand up to a nice Locatelli Pecorino Romano.

[Joe H.]

Master's Choice is a cheap bottled chain sauce not dissimilar from most other store brand bottled sauces.
Rao's Marinara and Puttenesca as well as Mom's Marinara and Puttenesca are both excellent-for BOTTLED sauce. Over artisinal pasta this is a very, very good easy and quick non fattening dinner. Sorry to be so harsh but we each have different tastes and your comment surprised me.
It is outrageous what Rao's charges for this sauce. Unfortunately I pay it because I believe it is the best BOTTLED sauce.
As for the restaurant it really is almost impossible to get in. But most on this board have to understand that it is very small and all of the tables are basically spoken for. It is not really a "public" restaurant as we might know them. No, I have never eaten there but they publish an excellent southern Italian cookbook that I have made, probably, half of the dishes out of over time. Almost all I would make again. Like other New York restaurants such as Gargiulo's (sp?) at Coney Island Rao's is really a throwback to another era where the restaurant became family to many who ate there. As a result few tables are really open to the general public. Rao's is more properly described as a private club with members.

[ben f]

I tasted several of the Rao's sauces a few weeks ago at a gucci food store. Two of them (sorry I don't remember the names) were okay, but two of them were truly awful, with a dark, salty, almost sour taste to them. I remember thinking that maybe this was a bad batch or something so I asked the server about it and she assured me it was supposed to taste like that.

I'm just going to continue staying away from jarred pasta sauces and pine for my late summer german johnson tomatoes.

ben

[the rogue]

I agree with you. Truly ghastly stuff. If that's what it's supposed to taste like how do they get repeat business? The several types of rao's I tried were so bad I will never try them again. And I am ticked off that I paid so much as well.

[Chino Wayne]

Question: Is the food really good at Rao's, or is it just the mystique and "exclusivity" of the place?

Or is it one of those deals where the original was successful and really good, but as someone got the bright idea to expand out with commercial products the commerce interfered with the whole, orginal, small scale, personal touch?

[Joe H.]

Really "ghastly," huh. Interesting description. Rao's has at least five different sauces of which two are extraordinarily good for BOTTLED sauce: marinara and puttenesca. The fra diavola, the eggplant and the vodka are fairly good but frankly for $10.00, well, I might describe them as ghastly also.
For those who don't like Rao's sauce what would you consider to be a good BOTTLED sauce? I'm capitalizing "bottled" because the recipe for their sauce is in their cookbook and when you use fresh, very, very ripe San Marzano tomatoes the sauce is clearly superior. I would actually argue that one of the secrets to making fresh sauce is using very ripe, even overly ripe tomatoes.

[the rogue]

I guess we all have different tastes... it was the marinara and puttenesca sauces that I thought had a bitter, burnt, metallic taste to them. It took a severe tooth brushing to get the taste out of my mouth.

[Joe H.]

"bitter, burnt, metallic taste...severe tooth brushing to get the taste out of my mouth."
At least the sauces left an impression.

[the rogue]

Yeah, you could say that... But who needs impressions like that?

[zora]

Now, if this were a Chowhound "celebrity" pasta sauce tasting, one of the celebrities would have to be Trader Joe. I have not tried all of Trader Joe's pasta sauces, but my current fave is the Roasted Red Pepper, in a jar. My former favorite was the marinara that came in the can with the green label, but I used to have to fix that up with a little wine, some extra garlic and a bay leaf. The roasted red pepper sauce, I use as is. One of my stand-by quickie weekday dinners is spaghetti and turkey meatballs that have been poached in TJ's sauce. What TJ's pasta sauces do other 'hounds like?

[Joe H.]

Zora, try Rao's puttenesca sauce over Rustichella d'Abruzzo spaghetti (Fresh Fields) with a bit of freshly grated Reggiano and let me know what you think. Thanks.

[saucyknave]

Didn't Cooks Illustrated also do a test on tomato sauces? How do their results compare with CR?

[JK Grence (Cosmic Jester)]

Barilla came in first of the jarred sauces- Rao's was mistaken for Chef Boyardee on occasion. However, nothing came even CLOSE to the freshly prepared pasta sauce, and it's something even a kitchen klutz can make.

[saucyknave]

I agree with you totally. I was just curious whether the two testings came up with similar results.

Would you believe I've never used a jarred sauce. I have tasted them at my DIL's and collect the very useful square sided jars from them.:)

In season, the fastest sauce is diced fresh tomatoes over hot pasta or quickly cooked; out of season I keep baggies of it in the freezer. Tastes better, lots cheaper, seasoned to the occasion.

[susanb]

For those who make great quick tomato sauce at home, do you find you need to skin and seed the tomatoes? This is time consuming (well not really, but it adds a few minutes) and sometimes makes me think twice about doing it, but most of the recipes call for doing so.

[Saucyknave]

I'll be real helpful. :) Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Actually, I ususally don't when making a quick sauce weeknights during the height of the tomato season. I think the bits of skin add something. If entertaining, I might choose to do otherwise.

Also what I often do is to take some cherry tomatoes and do a quick saute of them in oo with garlic and lemon zest added towards the end before tossing it over the pasta. --Especially as the cherry tomatoes are reasonably good much of the year.

[susanb]

thanks!

[Joe H.]

Can you taste a difference between a sauce made with cherry tomatoes and a sauce made with canned San Marzano tomatoes?

[Saucyknave]

I don't use the cherry tomatoes to make a "sauce" in the usual sense, I saute them til the skins pop, smashing some a bit, but they remain basically intact. It's comparable to using broccali rabe more than a sauce. When I make a sauce with fresh tomatoes, I use larger ones.

As for comparing with San Marzano tomatoes. I prefer using fresh when in season even if they are less consistent. For canned tomatoes I use a brand packed in 5 lb cans for Claudio's, a local Italian deli, by Badalucco. (They supply local restaurants as well as retail sales.) They used to be labeled SM, and continued to taste the same after the label no longer said SM. But recently they began being packed in puree and the quality is not as good. So if you have a good brand, please share. -- And I confess to the heretical practice of often adding a touch of sugar and lemon zest, sometimes juice, to sauce from canned tomatoes.

[DavidH]

This sauce is quick and easy once you have made the home oven dried tomatoes.

Fanny's Pasta Sauce

Note: I tried to duplicate this sauce which you can find in the frozen food section of the market. I still will play around with it some more but I think it is pretty good right now. I will double the sauce part next time as I like plenty of sauce on pasta. This is an oil based sauce.

1 pound pasta
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced (I use 1 tsp garlic powder most of the time)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano (if you have it) else 2 tsp dried oregano
2 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 /2 cup home oven dried tomatoes (use store bought if you must)
2 tbls tomato paste or tomato sauce
2 tbls butter + 1 tbl oil
salt & pepper
1 /4 cup dried onions (soak in hot water for 1/2 hour then drain)
1/8 cup carrots (shaved thin with pealer then diced)

Optional:

1 teaspoon red chile pepper flakes
Parmesan, to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. In a large sauté pan, heat the oil and butter. Add the other ingredients and cook and stir for a few minutes till combined and warmed through.

Drain pasta well and add pasta to the sauce. Toss well to coat the pasta. Plate the pasta into warmed pasta bowls. Sprinkle with Parmesan.

Oven Dried Tomatoes - Quick and Homespun

Note: This is a good way of getting some taste into tomatoes when they have very little like during the winter. I will roast them for 1 hour to use on salads, 2 hours for pizza and three hours to use in a manner similiar to sun dried tomatoes. I will freeze the extra tomatoes in small freezer bags with a little olive oil. Also do not store fresh tomatoes in the refrigerator as
they will lose taste. I use roma tomatoes most of the time.

Preheat oven to 250F. Cut tomatoes into 1/4 inch slices, remove the meat and seeds and then place on a baking sheet. Add a little salt and pepper. Add a little sugar if you want. Drizzle olive oil over
the tomatoes or better yet, pour some oil in a cup and then using your hands, pat some oil on the tomatoes. You save having to wash a brush. Sprinkle with the herb or herbs of your choice. I generally use taragon or basil. Bake for 1,2 or 3 hours. Start to check them
every fifteen minutes after 2 hours. Generally about 2 hours and 15 minutes are just right to use in the fanny sauce.

The tomatoes will reduce in size and increase in flavor. If you don't like the reduction then pull them out whenever you want.

[tigerwoman]

re oven roasted tomatoes:

I agree that roasting tasteless winter tomatoes gives you a great base with many uses but I have a slight variation which works well.

Cut tomatoes - any kind - into large chunks, toss with a scant amount of mayonaisse (that's my secret tip, chopped fresh garlic, dried oregano & basil. Bake in oven until tomatoes wilt and shrivel up but don't burn. For a large bowl of about 7-8 beefsteaks, I might use 1 tablespoon of mayo - the idea is to coat lightly but mayo should not be seen when you mix everything up and put on baking sheet.

Another great way to use these tomatoes is to toss with pasta, parmesan cheese, garlic sauteed in olive oil - can also add chunks of fresh mozzarella or smoked mozzarella. It makes a great pasta dish fast to

by the way - you can freeze the oven dried tomatoes and use as needed to make the above or to make a traditional red sauce with a bit more depth.

[sylvesterrussell]

Thanks for the heads-up on Consumer Reports. Can't really get that info unless one subscribes or hangs out at the Library alot.

To each his or her own taste, but it is a really sad state of affairs that it is virtually impossible to buy a pantry staple that is a quality item. This country is ConAgra'd and Nestle'd and Corp'd into food badness that has really not gotten appreciably better in fifty years. I too am looking for a good tomato sauce in a jar. I tried the Emeril's (against my better judgement, has anyone ever eaten at his restaurants?) and it wasn't too bad after I helped it along, but if this is "gourmet" what's all that corn-syrup doing in there? Of the others I have had Patsy's and that's ok, but really expensive. The less said about Paul Newman the better, send a check to the charity of your choice instead, the entire line is regrettable. One line I really liked was "Mama Rizzo's", good for mixing into chicken casseroles and even on pasta, my friendly A&P (aka Waldbaums, Food Emporium, SuperSaver, SuperFresh) manager told me they couldn't carry it anymore because they were filling the shelves with "Master Choice".

I guess what I am trying to say is that food just really isn't getting any better. I can't go around town looking for the best of the best, I can't always order the quince jams from Fortnum and Mason in London, but don't buy the Logenberry because Fauchons is better, I just want decent food. My job sends me a subscription to Food & Wine, and their recommendation for a good pasta sauce was Barilla Puttenesca...Vinegar in a jar...

FRUSTRATED!

[Dave Feldman]

Do you really think that prepared food hasn't gotten better? Do you remember how bad Ragu was when it debuted? Truly vile. I haven't tried any of the top-rated products, but Trader Joe's sauces are *so* much better than Ragu was 20 years ago, and for that matter, better than rader Joe's stuff 10 years ago.

Another example: salsas. They have improved substantially over time, although you can still buy some vile stuff.

What doesn't seem possible, though, is for the best of these prepared foods to equal an average-to-good freshly made sauce. I don't know to what extent this discrepency is caused by the quality of the ingredients or the need to create shelf-stable food for weeks/months. I suspect it is mostly the latter.