Straight-up out of the jar onto your pasta, I think Raos is probably the best widely available option.
That said, I have yet to meet a jarred pasta sauce that didn’t benefit from a bit of tweaking, some extra herbs/spices, a splash of wine, some cheese, sauteing up some extras garlic & onions, etc.
In general, I don’t tend to think of jarred sauce as a totally finished product, it’s more of a shortcut that lets you skip most of the more labor intensive parts of making a sauce from scratch and skip to the finishing touches. Even the most lackluster bargain brand sauce can usually be dressed up to a pretty damn good sauce without too much effort.
My usual process is to finely chop up some onions and garlic, give that a good saute with some olive oil, maybe deglaze with some wine, add the sauce, then season to taste with some herbs & spices (normally oregano, basil, rosemary, black pepper, red pepper flakes will be a pretty safe bet, but I get a bit weird with it sometimes, taste as you go) finish it off with some Parmesan cheese, and of course a bit of the pasta water.
I usually do a meat sauce with a similar idea, I also finish my sauce before I start heating water for pasta. The new ingredients really benefit from time simmering with the sauce in my opinion.
Was coming here to post this. Rao’s Marinara Sauce is the best out of a jar.
Seriously, get some Italian bread, pour a little bit of Rao’s into a bowl, dip a piece of the bread in there, enjoy.
Ya, I agree, they all need a bit of personalized flavor profiles. I used to take out the jars, heat 'em up in a pot, spice them up, but it gets to laborious and the sauce pops all over the stovetop and now I have to do dishes.
Rao’s
Damn. You’re fancy. That was like over seven dollars a jar at Aldi. Been curious though.
It’s very good. Kenji Lopez-Alt swears by it, and if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me lol. I get it at Costco, and I don’t think it was that expensive.
IDK who that guy is, but if you trust him, I trust him.
Try arrabiata(sp?) version if they have it.
I have never tried it. I’ll look this weekend.
It’s basically ghe only brand not full of added sugar.
Ya. I hate that shit. I prefer my foods to be more acidic, and everything has so much damn sugar which cuts the acidity to me. Why is red pasta sauce sweet? idk I hate it though.
Rao’s is basically more sauce per jar than other brands because it’s not watered down to slime. I can sauce easily twice as many servings of pasta from a jar of Rao’s than Classico or Prego.
They did just get bought out so this is probably only true for another year or so.
Ya, I hate sauces that are watery and full of sugar. Give me the thicccc red sauce with a little bit of acid. Been wanting to try Rao, but it was expensive the last time I saw. Maybe I will get some this weekend before they fully transition to watery slop for that important bottom line.
Recently I’ve just been doing cento crushed tomatoes (canned). You need to season it (at least salt and pepper dear God) and ideally add some onion and garlic, maybe mushrooms or meat. But I’m also the type to add additional seasoning and ingredients to “finished” store bought sauces anyway, so maybe you’re looking for something more complete
That sounds an awful lot like cooking to me
Okay, forget the meat and mushrooms, I tried to imply that those were optional. Let’s say you use that jarred minced garlic (I don’t like the stuff personally, but it’s easy). You’re going to be letting the sauce simmer anyway I hope, so while you wait you season to taste. Yes that’s one or two minutes that you could’ve scrolled on Lemmy while you wait for your sauce to heat up, though I guess if you don’t like cooking you might be content mixing a ladle of cold sauce with the still warm noodles.
Throw a container of fresh deli salsa in it. Garlic, onion, tomato chunks, herbs, you’d be shocked how well it turns out.
Ya I think “more complete” would be accurate, but also low/no sugar content. I always open up good looking jars, and then upon tasting them, they are super sweet. Gimme that acid!
Same dude, stick electrodes in me and I could power a lightbulb
The acidity brotherhood is strong.
Kirkland brand from Costco is actually pretty good.
If not that, Rao’s though I prefer Kirkland.
It’s fairly plain on its own, so especially great if you are going to throw in anything extra, like fresh herbs or mushrooms or stuff.
Edit: Also, pro tip - the key to great sauce is saving a cup of the pasta water and throwing back in as you mix with the sauce.
I keep hearing Rao is good. Might need to try that one. Never tried Costco’s. They typically have decent products, so maybe I will try some. Do you know if the Costco one has added sugar? I hate sweet red sauce.
No. Here’s the only ingredients:
INGREDIENTS: organic tomatoes, organic onions, organic carrots, organic tuscan pgi extra virgin olive oil, organic basil, sea salt.
Ages ago, I read about a recipe by the ‘grandmother of Italian cooking’ for an incredibly simple pasta sauce. I can attest it makes a very tasty sauce and it’s so easy, even a cooking dunce like me can’t fuck it up (yet). And if you want to add extra spices or herbs as an experiment, that only increases the flavour.
Her main premise was… why waste time chopping an onion into little bits? As our old pal Kevin would say, everyone is going to get to know each other in the pot! You take an onion, peel it, chop it in half, chuck it in a pan with one or two cheap tins of tomato. Add a healthy chunk of (salted) butter. Stir occasionally, she recommends 30 mins but ain’t nobody got time fo’ that. I usually do 15 or 20. Add salt to taste, remove the onion (as an aside, the onion will now be sweet and edible on its own), et voila.
The secret ingredient of a shit ton of butter haha. That’s giving me some inspiration and motivation. Does it matter the tins of tomato? Crushed, peeled, ect.?
AFAIK it doesn’t matter which tinned toms you use. I prefer peeled to chopped as it feels like there’s more water in the chopped ones, but could just be deceiving myself!
Miss me with that excess water. I would have to reduce the sauce since I like it thiccc.
Anything that stands between me and tasty sauce can get in the sea. If I want water I’ll pour a glass haha.
I’m gonna assume you mean best cheap jarred sauce.
I think Newman’s Own and Classico are the best under $3 at King Soopers.
One jar of classico tomato basil sauce One yellow onion chopped One can of diced tomatoes A few cloves of garlic chopped lots more basil butter trace amounts: cayenne, cumin
Meanwhile you’re browning some 80/20 ground beef in another skillet, and mix all that in including the fat at the end
Agreed. Classico’s doctored is pretty good and cheap.
Hell ya bby, imma cheap-ass too. But also inflation or whatever…
But I didn’t want to put that cost restriction on it since I might be willing to fork out a bit more money if it’s actually really good.
I do like me some classico sauce.
Barilla FTW. But it actually depends on the country you buy it. I notice it tastes significantly better in Europe than Latinamerica for some reason…
Unfortunately, I am not in Europe. Please send me some! My American taste buds need some good read sauce.
Probably has to do with more (?) control over what goes into foods that Europeans eat.
In the realm of jarred tomato sauce available at your local mega Mart:
If you like actual chunks of veggie in your sauce,Bertolli rustic cut is outstanding but getting hard to find.
If you’re looking for something for a baked bread dish like pizza or as a marinara dip, Victoria White linen is really good.
Rao’s Ariabiata has a nice little kick that won’t kill your guests
That last one sounds perfect. I love me some kick, give it to me so that it burns going in and burns coming out.
I just make my own and freeze it.
Olive oil, carrot, onion, garlic, ground beef, pork sausage, nduja, canned peeled tomatoes, and red wine, plus herbs to match your preferred flavor profile (I prefer thyme, but rosemary, oregano, basil, even sage work too). Salt to taste.
I put in medium sized mason jars and throw them in the freezer, them pull out a jar and put it in the fridge a day before I know I’m going to use it.
Hmm this honestly is probably the best in terms of taste and cost, but I am a lazy-ass and hate cooking, and I hate doing dishes more.
Sounds delicious though. Maybe if a get a spurt of energy I will give this a try!
It’s expensive and probably not available in a majority of the country, but Michael’s of Brooklyn is a straight banger. I found it while I was living in Brooklyn and when I moved away I was sad I wouldn’t be able to buy it anymore, but a few months back my local store started stocking it lol.
Damn, sounds good! Can you send me some.
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You had me at spicy. Idk what Arrabbiata is though.
Bertolli
If they have it in your area, get Mid’s. It costs a little more than the Newman’s/Classico/Bertolli but it also comes in a bigger jar.
If not, one of those other three is fine. And even if you don’t care for the flavors you can always jazz up the plain marinara yourself in so many ways (add garlic, basil, a parmesan rind, dried mushrooms, a splash of white wine, etc).
I have never heard of Mid’s but I will check it out and hunt it down.
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Used to buy Classico when it was on sale. I make my own now, cheaper and tastier.
do you use different recipes each time or do you use the same one?
Same basic recipe with garlic, olive oil, and whole canned tomatoes. It’s flexible enough to use in a range of cuisines by adding others seasonings when preparing the final dish.
