What's your favorite spaghetti sauce?

Prego. We rotate flavorsas there are lots, and also a chunky tomatoe. we use Italian sausage, or sometimes homemade meatballs (ground pork and ground beef). You can make a large batch of the meatball's and freeze for later use.

IBcarguy wrote:
Everyone loves spaghetti and it's a fast and easy meal to prepare when camping. I'm not willing to make the sauce from scratch and there are lots of choices at the grocery store...what's your favorite? I haven't found one yet that stands out as the best yet. Also, do you add anything to the sauce to make it better like spices or ground beef?
I'm already making myself hungry....all I need is toasted sour dough, a salad, and a glass of wine and I'll be happy.

Serious, i hate spaghetti i also hate it when the kids want it for dinner :M we have to battle it out with Rock-paper-scissors.

IBcarguy wrote:
Everyone loves spaghetti and it's a fast and easy meal to prepare when camping. I'm not willing to make the sauce from scratch and there are lots of choices at the grocery store...what's your favorite? I haven't found one yet that stands out as the best yet. Also, do you add anything to the sauce to make it better like spices or ground beef?
I'm already making myself hungry....all I need is toasted sour dough, a salad, and a glass of wine and I'll be happy.

Alright I won't lie; it's rare that I use or eat pasta sauce from the supermarket and unfortunately pretty much know when it's on my plate. Normally, that happens at the DIL's house said in my best stereotypical MIL manner but but errr I digress.

According to Cooks Illustrated these are the best tasting regularly priced national brands:

WINNER
Recommended
Bertolli Tomato and Basil Sauce


This sauce had a "good balance of flavors" and "a nice chunky texture." Because it wasn't overseasoned with dried herbs, tasters thought this sauce tasted "the most like fresh-cooked tomatoes."

$1.99 for 24 ounces*


RECOMMENDED
Francesco Rinaldi Traditional Marinara


This brand's "mild sweetness and spice" helped to bring out its "tangy," "bright and tomatoey" qualities. Tasters appreciated its "thick" consistency and "good texture."

$1.69 for 24 ounces*

Prego Marinara Italian Sauce


Our tasters didn't love this sauce's "too smooth" texture, noting that it "looks like ketchup." But they were impressed that it "actually tastes like tomatoes" and "doesn't have that fake herb flavor."

$2.79 for 25 ounces*


Barilla Marinara Sauce


Tasters liked the "chunkiness" of this sample, but they complained that it was "candy-sweet" and overwhelmed by too much herb flavor. As one taster noted, "Tomato flavor is lost to oregano."

$1.99 for 24 ounces*


Newman's Own Marinara


This sauce was praised for being "spicy" and "peppery" without too many dried herb "distractions." "Good texture," said one taster of this "thick and pasty" sauce, "but not much tomato flavor."

$3.19 for 24 ounces*


Muir Glen Organic Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce


Familiar refrains: "I like the chunky texture, but the dried basil is overwhelming" and "pleasantly chunky, but overpowering stale dried herb taste." Tomatoes "seemed more roasted" than other samples.

$3.69 for 25.5 ounces*

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS
Emeril's All Natural Italian Style Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce


Astute tasters noted that this sauce "tastes artificial and sweet" and had a "funky aftertaste that tastes artificial"; it is the only sauce in our lineup that contains corn syrup.

$4.99 for 25 ounces*
Not Recommended
Classico Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce


"Who can taste anything other than those terrible dried herbs?" bemoaned one wincing taster. "Major spice overload: I hardly detect tomato in here," said another.

$2.59 for 26 ounces*
Ragú Old World Style Traditional Pasta Sauce


"What did you do with the SpaghettiO's that came with this?" asked one taster about this "thin and flat" sauce. One of the few samples that tasters thought "could use more spice."

$1.59 for 26 ounces*

HTH!

prego

My DW said
Francesco Rinaldi Traditional Marinara

I've switched off to just butter, garlic and black pepper or a nice pesto.

Ragu roasted garlic. You asked about store sauce.

Well actually good spaghetti sauce, as it is made in Italy, is easy and very quick to make.

I take a large skillet and throw some canned or fresh chopped ripe tomatoes in it with some pressed garlic, a few red pepper flakes and saute quickly over med high heat. I add just a dash of Balsalmic vinegar ( for sweet and depth)and some dry red wine, throw in some either fresh (preferably) or dried oregano, basil and whatever else suits your taste, simmer for just a few minutes. Then add the pasta and a little of the pasta water for thickening.

Stir up the pasta with the sauce over med heat for a couple of minutes and you are done.

I spent a summer living in a friends Villa in Tuscany and this is the way his cook made it every time and it was the best and freshest tasting pasta one could wish for.

Mom's by far. Not cheap $7.99 at Publix.

For cheaper, Trader Joe's Arrabiat. Under $3.00.

Try the fresh pasta sauce in the fridge section. I find them a nice change to the canned. Might add sliced mushrooms and olives to the marinara/red sauce. They also come in smaller amounts, so you don't have to make a huge pot or have a 1/2 jar of sauce wasting away in your fridge.

Fresh or Jarred - I don't like any of the sauces with basil or garlic in the title - always too strong with the herbs for my tastes.

Jarred, I pretty much always go with a mushroom sauce:

Ragu Super Chunky Mushroom - the mushrooms are big enough to actually get bites of mushrooms (I've been known to add some sliced olives to this)

Classico Mushroom and Olive - mushrooms are hidden, but do get the occasional olive.

I've done the Ragu mushroom and green pepper - I don't like it as much as the chunky mushroom, but it works in a fix.

Occasionally add my morningstar crumbles (fake hamburger) to the sauce.


Another couple things I've done is used just butter and Parmesan cheese (if you can get Mizithra cheese, then you're in heaven); or used canned diced tomatoes (I like the Italian style) with chicken (or in my case, fake chicken) slices and melted cheese.

This coming from someone who was raised on jarred spaghetti sauce.