Decoding Pasta Sauces from the Supermarket: Your Ultimate Pasta Sauce Buying Guide
Let’s embark on a flavorful journey through the world of pasta sauces! Today I’m decoding the most popular pasta sauces that you can get from the supermarket. Which ones are good and which are bad – no sugar coating here. I’m not holding back. I have the 7 most popular pasta sauces that you can find all over the world.
Keep reading or join me on my YouTube channel as I spill the sauce and share my unfiltered verdict on each. I also go over the crucial factors to keep an eye out for when navigating the supermarket aisles because when it comes to pasta, the sauce makes all the difference.
- Natural ingredients:When buying pasta sauce, you have to check the ingredients. Is it natural? What is it made with? Are there excessive ingredients? Check the label and avoid additives that may compromise the sauce’s authenticity.
- Soffritto: A well-crafted soffritto, whether it’s a simple mix of onion and extra virgin olive oil, the classic duo of garlic and onion, or the winning combo of onion, carrot, and celery, lays the groundwork for an outstanding sauce.
- Oil: Stick to extra virgin olive oil only; avoid alternatives like plain olive oil, sunflower oil, or vegetable oil.
- Sugar: No sugar! This one is plain and simple – if sugar is an ingredient, do not buy it. True Italian sauces don’t need the sweetness boost.
- Thickeners & pastes: A quality sauce doesn’t rely on these two things.
Watch the video on my YouTube Channel here:
Decoding Pasta Sauces from the Supermarket Your Ultimate Buying Guide
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Barilla
Barilla is the only sauce in this lineup that I’ve eaten before. As a 20-year-old living in London, coming home late at night after a long restaurant shift, this was the way to go. With a more experienced and sophisticated palate now, it still has a good smell to me, but never let that trick you. Looking at the packaging, there are a lot of questionable ingredients – some that make me question why I even ate this. This fact combined with its thick consistency and texture, did not impress me. It’s okay if Barilla is the only option, but I personally would not choose this if there were other options.
Score 5/10
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Leggo’s
With a very runny consistency, like water, this organic pasta sauce has an ingredient line up I’m not sure about. There’s randomly sweet potato and too many oils added. The smell reminds me of Subway and the taste is just a no for me. It doesn’t taste like a proper pasta sauce. Give this to my Nonna and you’d be in jail.
Score: 3/10
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Mutti
If you watched my video on the best tomato sauces to buy, you’d know that Mutti ranked in the top three. While the list of ingredients is not the most impressive, it’s the best one we’ve seen so far. Not a strong smell – it is much more natural. It’s thick, has a fresh taste to it and overall very enjoyable. You can tell quality tomatoes were used. You can’t go wrong with Mutti. They’re a brand to trust.
Score: 7/10
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Don Antonio
Commercial but still artisan, Don Antonio is the most expensive out of the pasta sauces I’ve tried so far in this line up. Beautiful packaging, low sodium, low sugar, quality tomatoes, and a carrot and celery soffritto – what’s not to like here? While it’s quite runny, it’s not watery and it has a natural smell. With visible amounts of garlic, it’s a very nice, fresh, delicate sauce. I would say it needs more basil to bring the flavors out but overall, very good.
Score: 7.5/10
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La Molisana
La Molisana makes a good pasta. If you’re wanting to buy pasta like an Italian, you can’t go wrong with La Molisana. When it comes to their pasta sauce, it is very high in sodium and quite a few unnecessary ingredients were added. Reading the label, I would not buy it. Smelling it, it reminds me of a factory. With the initial taste, it’s sweet and thick but it’s too dense to be natural and the flavor just isn’t there. You can tell that the additives are filling the roll that fresh ingredients should be doing.
Score: 5/10 (but maybe lower)
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Saclà
I couldn’t find Sacla’s traditional basil sauce, so I’m decoding their whole cherry tomato and parmigiano reggiano pasta sauce instead. Though it’s high in sodium and uses tapioca starch, it has a nice, rich soffritto consisting of onion, garlic, carrot and celery and it does not have tomato paste. Tomato paste is something you never need in a fresh sauce. I found a whole cherry tomato in my jar, which is definitely a sign of freshness. It was not cooked long, I preferred my tomatoes cooked more and blended, but in all, it’s a beautiful, flavorful sauce that I enjoyed.
Score: 6.5/10
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Dolmio
If I’m being honest, I never wanted to bring this brand to my house. I’m trying it for you. The tomatoes aren’t fresh, there’s sugar, thickener, starch, among other things. I already knew it was bad before I opened it. It smells very unnatural. I have a lot of complaints about this sauce. Watch me suffer through trying Dolmio so you don’t have to, here.
Score: 0/10
After trying these 7 popular pasta sauces, the verdict is clear: investing a few extra dollars in high-quality sauce is worth it. Get a good quality pasta and sauce. You will get a good meal with fresh, natural ingredients at home.
Decode the labels, embrace authenticity, and elevate your pasta experience with a high quality pasta sauce. Your taste buds will thank you for it.
If you try multiple sauces like I did, don’t forget to clean you palette in between tastings… just how you would with wine. In this case, extra virgin olive oil.
Disclaimer: This is an honest opinion piece by Vincenzo’s Plate. These reviews were not sponsored.
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