We Tried 10 Brands of Jarred Marinara Sauce
Table of Contents
The Best Jarred Marinara Sauces at-a-Glance
Best Jarred Marinara Sauce
Runner-Up
Honorable Mention
Best Bang-for-Your-Buck
How We Tested
Through my dad, I inherited a very Italian American step-family — the kiss-on-the-mouth-hello, 🤌-emoji using, “You put WHAT in your gravy?” kind of family. I’m grateful to have them, because they’ve properly ruined me for jarred pasta sauces forever — especially a classic like marinara. But, as I’m sure you can relate, sometimes the jarred stuff simply must do when you don’t have a Sunday to devote specifically to sauce making.
Thankfully, the jarred pasta sauce aisle at the grocery store has exploded in the last few years, and there are even some that are chef-made (and chef-approved) that should solidly earn a spot in your pantry. For the purposes of science (and not leaving any future pasta nights up to chance), I ended up taste-testing 10 jars in total, which was just enough before my fridge shelf started to creak a bit too loudly.
In total, four of the jars were major winners, and, as you’ll find, each had their own selling points.
The Best Jarred Marinara Sauces at-a-Glance
Best Jarred Marinara Sauce: Rao’s Homemade Marinara Sauce
Runner-Up: Carbone Marinara Sauce
Honorable Mention: Michael’s of Brooklyn Marinara Sauce
Best Bang-for-Your-Buck:Trader Joe’s Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce
How I Tested the Jarred Marinara Sauces
As for my methods, I conducted the taste test blindly, as well, to keep things as neutral as possible so as to not get too distracted by the flashier, big-name-recognition jars or less well-known store-brand jars. I tasted each sauce right from the jar and at room temperature with just a spoon — any good jar worth its weight in sauce should taste good right out of the jar, whether it’s heated up or not.
In general, I judged each sauce on thickness, depth of flavor/complexity, and versatility (as in, is it best simply for slicking noodles or does it have baked pasta/soup base/breadstick dipping potential, too?)
Did your favorite jarred marinara make the list? Tell us about it in the comments below.
