Pasta Sauce : Ratings of Sources

Our AssessmentThe boundlessly enthusiastic David Rosengarten, a former Food Network host, gathered a whopping 500 pasta sauces (quickly culled to 125) for taste testing. In this review, he identifies the 15 best, which include Dell'Amore Premium Marinara, Rao's ("light, acidic, subtle, real, complex"), Anjon's Gourmet Marinara ("sexy and loose"), Giorgio Baldi and Jerry's. Rosengarten also covers a seemingly endless array of tomato-based sauces: basil, "fresh," garlic-intensive, puttanesca, shellfish, bell pepper, other vegetables, meat and vodka. We wish Rosengarten had listed the sauces that didn't make the grade, but no reviewer even approaches his level of thoroughness. Unfortunately, this article relies solely on Rosengarten's palate, which he admits favors the kinds of sauces served at Italian-American restaurants in 1950s and '60s Brooklyn.

Our AssessmentTwenty-four reviewers sample nine jarred pasta sauces, discussing ingredients and rating them based on flavor and texture.

Our AssessmentMonica Forrestall says that the testers she gathered tasted 35 sauces. Unfortunately, she doesn't tell us who they were or which sauces sank to the bottom in the ratings. Forrestall lists only the top four pasta sauces, which include Rao's Homemade Vodka, Dell'Amore Portobello Mushroom Sauce and Barilla Green and Black Olive Sauce. The latter contains "high-quality" olives, and the texture of the mushroom sauce approaches homemade.

Our AssessmentIn this lighthearted but outdated article, Kelly Alexander creates a taste test using NCAA College Basketball-style brackets of 12 "celeb" and "scrub" pasta sauces -- in other words, the fancy stuff and the supermarket brands. The other two testers were Peter, a food writer, and Alexander's husband, “a guy who will eat anything.” Curiously, Alexander overlooks Bertolli and Barilla. Helpful ingredient lists are provided. Once winners in each category are chosen, the two face off in the finals. In the end, Rao's pasta sauce went head to head with Prego and won handily. Although this article is a good read, we wish the contestants were rank-ordered. And, as Alexander acknowledges, $10-a-jar Rao's vs. Prego pasta sauce doesn't constitute a fair fight.

Our AssessmentIn this taste test, editors round up eight tomato sauces that contain cheese.

Our AssessmentEditors of Real Simple list their top three jarred pasta sauces in several categories, but don't say how many sauces were sampled, and fail to identify the losers. In the under-$3 category, Barilla Marinara earned praise for its "distinct herb flavor" and "abundance of garlic and tomato." Testers loved Victoria Marinara's simmered taste, and Mom's Spaghetti Sauce took first in the over-$6 category for its garden-fresh taste. If this article disclosed who tested the sauces and how many were tested, we would give it a higher ranking.

Our AssessmentAs travel becomes more expensive, Benton decides to put together a line-up of jarred sauces from what he calls "NYC destination restaurants" that he could enjoy in his own home. Patsy's "rich, chunky, and very garlicky" sauce is the champ. Rao's, which was "relatively fresh-tasting," places second, and Cleveland's Own Little Italy ("because Cleveland is a much easier potential getaway") pulls up the rear with its distinctly "cooked" taste.

Our AssessmentJulie Scelfo lists five tomato-based pasta sauces without preamble. We have no idea how many sauces, if any, were taste-tested. We're not even sure whether the sauces are listed in order of preference. Rao's Italian Pepper and Mushroom gets the nod, as do Dell'Amore Premium Marinara and Muir Glen Organic Italian Herb Pasta Sauce.