What's a Good Store-Bought Pasta Sauce?

[katya]

I need some suggestions for a good grocery store already made pasta sauce. If I have another boring jar of Prego I'm going to go insane. I'm good with jars or the fresh stuff.

I'd really like to know of some good options especially among non-marinara sauces, like a good vodka sauce, a good tomato/cheese sauce, a good something other than just plain tomato (which always looks good because it's marketed as having extra mushrooms, but always just tastes like tomato).

My faves so far:

Safeway Select pesto (fresh)
Classico spicy red pepper (really nice spiciness that I like with eggplant parmesan)

[Candy]

I like De Lallo imported from Italy and resonably priced too. I find Prego and Classico impossibly sweet.

[Al-B]

I like Rao's very much although the price is typically triple the cost of the other store bought options. Prego's et. al are much too sweet IMHO

[sivyaleah]

I love the Rao's - all of them are very authentic tasting, not cloying like most jarred sauces.

Laurie

[TrishUntrapped]

I like Rao's also and its sister company, Victoria's. Victoria's is less expensive.

[Karl S]

Agreed.

Never buy a sauce with corn syrup. Sugar, if used, should be one of the very last ingredients, but ideally not present at all.

Sweeteners mask the use of inferior tomatoes.

Also, sauces made with tomato puree as a lead ingredient (as opposed to tomatoes or diced tomatoes) tend to be inferior.

[Zaheen]

Don't people regularly add a bit of sugar or grated carrots to sauce to reduce the acidity? I understand that it is far more possible that the companies use sugar to cover up not-so-great ingredients, but to my knowledge, adding a bit of sugar is common, isn't it?

TIA

[Karl S]

I don't unless the tomatoes are too acid. The carrots, onions and tomatoes should be enough. In any event, if you avoid jarred sauces with sugar, you get to control how much you might want. But, generally, sweetened sauces are the bottom of the barrel. But the most popular, of course...people used to sweetened sauces tend to find better sauces too acidic.

[Dommy!]

My absolute favorite is Pomi from Italy... sadly TJ's no longer carries it and I have yet to find it elsewhere! Any L.A. Folks seen it around?

http://www.farawayfoods.com/pomimarin...

--Dommy!

[Westlake Jake]

I'm sure I've seen Pomi at Bristol Farms or Whole Foods.

My local Italian grocery, Bauducco's, carries it. I think you may find it at any Italian grocery.

[Lipps]

I think Mom's is a fantastic sauce - even better than Raos and tastes homemade.

[Chino Wayne]

Newman's Own, the Sockarooni and Marinara, because:

1. Tastes pretty good (but of course I "doctor" it up).
2. Newman and company do something good with the money they take in for this stuff.
3. I gotta buy any food item with Newman's mug on the packaging.

But, I am finally graduating to the "adults table", and am going to start making my own from canned tomatoes, its just too easy.

Link: http://www.indefatigable-indolence.or...

[ciaolette]

I like Amy's Organic Marinara, good tomato flavor.

[[e-mail]]

I like the Chateau Restaurant Tomato Sauce made by Pastene. It's suppose to be the same sauce made by the Chateau Restaurant in the Boston area. All natural, no preservatives. Ingredients are: whole tomatoes, tomato paste, fresh onions, soybean oil, olive oil, sugar and spices.

Not sure if it is distributed outside the Boston area. You could check their website: www.pastene.com or www.chateaurestaurant.com

I don't bother making sauce anymore because this fits the bill.

[ChowFun (derek)]

I like "Patsy's" from the New York restaurant of the same name...not cheap, but very very good!

[Erica]

I like Rao's marinara and Barilla green and black olive [puttanesca?].

[e.d.]

I like the white clam sauce from TJ's. A lot of clams, natural colors and flavors, decent taste, good price. It on a pile of angel hair pasta is my emergency dinner of choice. It's the only store-bought that I buy regularly.

ed

[jetlag]

Alessi's, three types available in Houston HEBs, as well as their jarred crushed tomato is the best I've ever tasted.

[Kelly Migliaccio]

I like Williams-Sonoma vodka sauce. It's not cheap,but it is tasty. I've also tried their tomato-garlic(?) sauce. It was tasty as well but I really like their vodka sauce.
Kelly

[Offbalance]

I like Five Brothers and Classico - they have some really nice varieties.

[Scagnetti]

Coppola's and Classico

[cap]

Bove's is very good for a store-bought sauce. Both the Marinara and the Vodka sauce.

[DanaB]

I used to buy the Classico Red Pepper Sauce all the time; I'd forgotten about it.

Now, if I'm not making homemade, I use "Marinara de Napoli" from Trader Joe's.

[sivyaleah]

My 2 favorites are Rao's and Mario Batali's - both are their basic pomodor style sauces.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find the Batali sauces any longer. Trader Joe's used to have it, and I found some at a gourmet shop in west NJ months ago (and bought whatever was on the shelf). I understand he's now marketing a "fresh" sauce instead? I believe Whole Foods carries it, but I haven't seen it yet in the one closest to my home.

I do think the Rao's has a slight edge of the Batali, however, and I now use that all the time, occassionally doctoring it up to add a bit more of my own flavors to it.

Laurie

[katya]

Thanks for all the suggestions! In fact I wrote them all down.

I tried Barilla's Four Cheese sauce last night (bought before I posted this) and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. It complimented my ravioli well.

[Norm]

I remember that America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated conducted a taste test of many supermarket pasta sauces. And Bertolli Pasta Sauces received the highest ratings.

[ChowFun (derek)]

As I remember...Patsy's got the nod for best "Premium" sauce (it's 2x times as expensive as mass market brands) and yes you are right, Bertolli came out on top for normal priced brands...

[flavrmeistr]

Bertolli's and Barilla. Especially the Barilla puttanesca.