{"id":1042,"date":"2023-03-23T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sporked.com\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2024-09-24T10:30:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T17:30:48","slug":"best-marinara-sauce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sporked.com\/article\/best-marinara-sauce\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Marinara Sauce: Our Updated Ranking of the Best Jarred Marinara Sauce"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The best marinara sauce is savory, fragrant, and deeply flavorful. It should never be too sour or excessively sweet, and it should, ideally, be made with high-quality ingredients while not costing a small fortune. If it does cost a fortune, it better taste good<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everybody makes it seem like red sauce can only be good if it\u2019s homemade, like it\u2019s a sin to even consider not making your own red sauce. But therein lies a falsehood. Say it with us: Homemade doesn\u2019t necessarily equal quality. How we cook (good) and how you cook (we don\u2019t know you) are very different. Maybe we don\u2019t want our friend Dave\u2019s \u201chomemade sauce\u201d that he\u2019s been tinkering with in his dirty kitchen where his cat hangs out. And, statistically speaking, not everybody\u2019s grandmother can be a good cook. It\u2019s just not possible, man!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know good sauce. Sporked contributor Danny Palumbo, who led our first taste test, even had a side hustle selling homemade pasta dinners. We\u2019re pleased to report that the store bought sauce landscape is promising. Sure, some brands we shall not directly call out still taste like a bunch of dried oregano and undercooked tomatoes. But, there\u2019s good stuff out there, too. Sauces with zip, bang, and bite. Savory, deeply flavorful sauces that go big on flavor and save you a ton of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We recently sourced some jars of sauce we hadn\u2019t previously tried in order to update this ranking of the best marinara sauce to buy. If your pasta could thank us, it would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/span>\"bertolli
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Best Budget<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Bertolli d\u2019Italia Marinara<\/strong><\/dt>\n\n\n\n
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Walmart<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Bertolli d\u2019Italia is a perplexing product. On one hand, it\u2019s made with a combination of tomato juice and tomato paste, which helps balance out texture without having to use more expensive ingredients. Tomato paste brings some nice sweetness to any pasta sauce; my personal opinion is that it\u2019s quite necessary. On the other hand, Bertolli also uses citric acid as a preserving agent, which is a potential red flag on an ingredient list for me. That said, the normally acrid taste of citric acid didn\u2019t come through as much as I thought it would. Even though Bertolli cut some corners that other companies didn\u2019t, this is a solid (and widely available) sauce. It might not be the absolute best jarred marinara sauce, but the flavor here is quite good. \u2014Danny Palumbo<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit: Liv Averett \/ Walmart<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n\n\n\n

Rating:<\/p>

7.5\/10<\/p>

Sporks<\/p><\/div>

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<\/span>\"cento
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Best Oniony<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Cento Marinara<\/strong> Pasta Sauce<\/strong><\/dt>\n\n\n\n
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Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Cento\u2019s sauce tastes like a true, homemade marinara. The onion flavor is really strong, so if you like a pungent bite Cento is the best jar of marinara sauce for you. Still, it\u2019s not too overpowering. Cento\u2019s marinara is basic, but the good kind\u2014understated, flavorful, and straightforward. I imagine this is what the prison sauce in Goodfellas<\/em> tasted like. Don\u2019t put too many on-jins in the sauce! But, also, if you do, hopefully it tastes as good as Cento. \u2014Danny Palumbo<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit: Liv Averett \/ Amazon<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n\n\n\n

Rating:<\/p>

7.5\/10<\/p>

Sporks<\/p><\/div>

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<\/span>\"rao's
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Best for Truffle Lovers<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Rao\u2019s Limited Edition Reserve White Truffle<\/strong> Marinara<\/strong><\/dt>\n\n\n\n
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Raos.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Rao\u2019s recently launched a Limited Reserve line of sauces and we had to try them. I\u2019m glad we did. These aren\u2019t as accessible as most of the sauces on this list, but after this taste test, we decided two deserved to be included, even if you have to order them directly from Rao\u2019s website<\/a>. If you love white truffles, you\u2019re going to absolutely flip out for this sauce, the best marinara sauce for truffle lovers. The flavor of white truffle lingers on your tongue after you take a bite, but still, the sauce itself is so outrageously flavorful, that it doesn\u2019t get overpowered by the truffle flavor. It\u2019s perfectly balanced, and if you\u2019re accustomed to eating foods flavored with truffles and truffle oil, you know that\u2019s not always the case. The consistency is perfectly oily and would cling beautifully to any pasta shape. Buy this while you can! \u2014Gwynedd Stuart<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit: Liv Averett \/ Rao’s<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n\n\n\n

Rating:<\/p>

8\/10<\/p>

Sporks<\/p><\/div>

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<\/span>\"carbone
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Best Basil<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Carbone Tomato Basil<\/strong><\/dt>\n\n\n\n
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Whole Foods<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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This is the most intimate sauce on this list. It tastes slow cooked, like the tomatoes have been simmering all day in a pot on nonna\u2019s stove. When tomatoes cook for a long time, some of the carbohydrates caramelize and release savory, \u201cbrown\u201d flavors that taste almost like meat. That\u2019s what\u2019s going on with Carbone. There is a tasty smokiness to this sauce that you\u2019ll keep coming back to. It feels meaty without meat; the umami factor here is strong. Plus, the tomatoes aren\u2019t too acidic, which is a problem with most jarred marinara. Carbone touts that they cook their sauce in small batches, and boy, does it taste like it. Spaghetti and meatballs, chicken parm, mozzarella sticks\u2014this is the best jarred marinara sauce for any of the Italian-American hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit: Liv Averett \/ Whole Foods<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n\n\n\n

Rating:<\/p>

8\/10<\/p>

Sporks<\/p><\/div>

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<\/span>\"best
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Best Garlic<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Michaels of Brooklyn Marinara Sauce<\/strong><\/dt>\n\n\n\n
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Vons<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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If you\u2019re the type of person who always doubles (or triples) the number of garlic cloves a recipe calls for, this is the sauce for you. A lot of Sporked <\/em>readers seem to think this is the best marinara sauce, so we gave it a shot. It\u2019s no Rao\u2019s, but it does have a raw garlic flavor we liked. Rao\u2019s is restaurant quality, but this is really, really good home-cook quality. Not for nothing, this sauce also happens to be pretty low fat with 2 grams per serving, versus 7 or 8 you\u2019ll find in a lot of these other sauces. \u2014Gwynedd Stuart<\/em><\/p>\n<\/dd>\n\n\n\n

Rating:<\/p>

8\/10<\/p>

Sporks<\/p><\/div>

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<\/span>\"best
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Best Chunky<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mezetta Napa Valley Homemade Marinara<\/strong><\/dt>\n\n\n\n
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Walmart<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Mezzetta is a textured, chunky sauce with plenty of bite. Open the jar and you\u2019ll notice a glossy sheen on top from the olive oil, which is deliciously fatty. Emulsifying olive oil into a red sauce is the move if you want to create a flavorful, decadent sauce. There\u2019s a red sauce joint in my hometown of New Castle, Pennsylvania. It\u2019s called Ladies of the Dukes and I love it. I asked a friend who used to work there what made their red sauce so good and he said, \u201cThose old ladies dump a ton of olive oil in there.\u201d So does Mezzetta.The brand also uses a mix of San Marzano and California plum tomatoes to achieve a thick, aromatic, brightly acidic bite that you can count on. It\u2019s got a slightly higher sugar, sodium, and fat content than Rao\u2019s\u2014but, in my opinion, that\u2019s a good thing. Plus, it\u2019s certified vegan and keto. This is closer than you might think to Rao\u2019s and much cheaper. \u2014Danny Palumbo<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit: Liv Averett \/ Walmart<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n\n\n\n

Rating:<\/p>

9\/10<\/p>

Sporks<\/p><\/div>

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<\/span>\"best
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Best Mushroomy<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Rao\u2019s Limited Edition Reserve Cardoncelli Marinara<\/strong><\/dt>\n\n\n\n
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Raos.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I am a mushroom person who is married to someone who can\u2019t stomach the things. This makes my life hard, but I like my husband a bunch, so we get by. He happened to be out of town when I brought this mushroomy marinara home and I housed the entire jar by myself. (It\u2019s kind of like my tame version of having an affair.) This sauce has a deep, savory flavor and so much umami from the mushrooms. Plus, chunks of cardoncelli mushrooms give it a nice consistency and a little chew. Weirdly, this sauce is almost creamy. This is one of the best marinara sauces you can buy if you\u2019re a mushroom lover. The next time my husband goes out of town, I\u2019m getting a jar of this, a bag of frozen cheese tortellini, and treating myself<\/em>. \u2014Gwynedd Stuart<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit: Liv Averett \/ Raos.com<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n\n\n\n

Rating:<\/p>

9.5\/10<\/p>

Sporks<\/p><\/div>

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<\/span>\"best
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Best of the Best<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Rao\u2019s Marinara<\/strong><\/dt>\n\n\n\n
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Target<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Rao\u2019s is still the best marinara on the market thanks to its quality ingredients and lack of preservatives. Tomato, olive oil, garlic, basil, onion, and oregano\u2014that\u2019s all you need for a quality sauce. The olive oil gives it a nice, healthy sheen and a savory, mouth-smacking quality. I also appreciate that the herbs are fresh, so you don\u2019t get that dry, leafy, herb flavor (lookin\u2019 at you, brand I shall not name). There\u2019s no added sugar (pasta sauce never needs added sugar), and it\u2019s just an overall lovely, consistent, flavorful pasta sauce. There\u2019s also something delightful about fresh oregano in any marinara. Most people opt for basil only, but oregano is the type of herb that our grandma\u2019s cooked with. Its subtle earthiness contributes flavor without getting in the way. This is homemade marinara in a jar. Pay the extra money and don\u2019t look back. \u2014Danny Palumbo<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit: Liv Averett \/ Target<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n\n\n\n

Rating:<\/p>

10\/10<\/p>

Sporks<\/p><\/div>

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Other products we tried:<\/strong> Rao’s Limited Reserve Balsamic, Rao’s Reserve Calabrian Chile, Buitoni Marinara Sauce, Whole Foods Rustic Marinara, Trader Joe’s Marinara, Trader Joe’s Tomato Basil, Bertolli Traditional Marinara, Great Value Marinara, Prego Marinara, Barilla Marinara, Victoria Marinara, Newman’s Own Marinara, Silver Palate Marinara, Organico Bello Marinara Sauce, Yo Mama’s Original Marinara<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prego<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

“Prego, you have done it once again,” exclaimed Link at the end of this blind pasta sauce taste test. “Not a sponsor, we just sucked them right through a tube and decided what’s best. That’s how it works,” added Rhett. The boys are esteemed flavor scientists, ya’ll. Prego won their taste test with its herby, tomato-forwardness. Heck, it beat out Emeril!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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