The wrong jar of pasta sauce can make or break a meal. One that’s watery or overly chunky won’t stick to the pasta and often lacks depth. Additionally, those that rely on artificial flavor additives and stabilizers for texture can leave your baked ziti and stuffed shells tasting dull and metallic.
The best tasting pasta sauces rely on straightforward ingredients and strike a balance of sweet, savory, and fresh flavors, that elevate dishes rather than bringing them down. In our pasta sauce taste test, Rao’s took the top spot with Mezzetta coming in a close second. The two stood out from the rest for well-developed flavor and spot-on consistency.
The one that landed at the bottom of the list, however, immediately caught our attention. It’s a nearly 90-year-old brand that, for many, was a childhood staple. Unfortunately, this particular product didn’t impress our test panel.
Ragú Old World Style Traditional Sauce
Ragú has an impressive lineup of sauces that take up a good chunk of real estate on shelves. The company offers a range of products, including pizza sauce, alfredo sauce, and even cheese sauce you can use as a macaroni and cheese shortcut.
But it’s the brand’s tomato-based lineup that’s the most robust. With collections such as Kettle Cooked, Simply, and Chunky, there’s something for every preference. It was Ragú Old World Style Traditional Sauce, however, that came in last in our taste test.
Our test panel said it was more like tomato soup than pasta sauce, particularly because it was overly smooth and way too sweet. “There wasn’t much in the way of praise, but perhaps with a few adjustments of spice, it could be saved,” they wrote.
On the Ragú website, some of the most critical reviews called out the synthetic taste, lack of depth, and texture. While many shoppers feel it’s one to skip, others think the product was right on the mark. Those who gave it the highest ratings praised the brand for staying close to the original they remember growing up with. We couldn’t help but notice that even among the positive reviews, adding extra seasoning was mentioned frequently.
If you appreciate the nostalgia that Ragú Old World Style Traditional Sauce offers, but feel it needs a boost, you can easily enhance a jar of pasta sauce in just a few easy steps. Whenever I fix up less-than-stellar sauce, I like to start by sautéeing finely diced onion in a tablespoon each of salted butter and olive oil. The butter will cut through excessive sweetness and help to balance the sauce.
Once the onion has softened, add a clove of minced garlic. Then, pour in the sauce and add your preferred blend of fresh or dried herbs. The next step is the most important: Let it cook down. As the water in the sauce evaporates, it will thicken up, creating a more concentrated base you can use in all of your favorite pasta dishes.
So, if the price on Ragú is just too good to pass up, go ahead and grab a jar or two. We get it. But if you want a more rounded flavor right off the bat, we suggest you stick to our winner, Rao’s, which is the top pick among chefs, too.