Major Pasta Sauce Brands Ranked From Worst To Best
- Peter Genovese | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Peter Genovese | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Pasta. Sauce.
You don’t have to be Italian to swoon upon mention of those words. Worldwide consumption of pasta increased for the second straight year in 2017, with the U.S. leading the pasta market – 2.7 million tons consumed last year.
And sauce? Most supermarkets stock dozens of kinds. Marinara. Tomato and basil. Tomato, garlic and onion. Tomato and herb. Vodka. Bolognese. Puttanesca. Pomodoro. Arrabbiata.
There have been rankings of pasta sauces – the Chicago Tribune sampled 12 Thrillist sampled 13. To which we say: Child’s play.
No one has come close to doing what we did – 129 sauces sampled, with every major sauce brand available in New Jersey ranked from worst to best. A total of 14 stores were visited – we were thorough if nothing else – with the sauces sampled over five days. Two sauces per brand were sampled several brands were represented by one sauce only.
This is the fourth of our epic supermarket showdowns we’ve ranked frozen pizza, snacks and breakfast cereal.
What is the best pasta sauce brand? The worst? Read on for the results, and tell us about your favorite sauce in the comments section.
Peter Genovese | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
How the sampling was done
One pasta was used throughout the sampling – De Cecco Linguine no. 7. Eight one-pound boxes in all were used. Each sauce was sampled two ways – on its own after being simmered in a pan, then over the linguine.