The Simple Advice For Spotting High-Quality Pasta Sauce

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If you don't have time to make homemade pasta sauce, there is an almost overwhelming array of different types of pasta sauce available at grocery stores. While some people consider store-bought pasta sauce low-quality or tasteless, there are great options available if you know what to look for. Our sister site, Mashed, recently interviewed renowned celebrity chef Fabio Viviani to get his tips for buying quality pasta sauce. According to Viviani, you should choose sauces made by "people that have done it for their whole lives." He goes on to recommend iconic brands like Rao's, Barilla, Buitoni, and Lucini.

Viviani also acknowledges that it ultimately comes down to personal taste. While some legendary pasta sauce brands have a long history, they may not be everyone's favorites. For instance, chef Ettore Boiardi, founder of the Chef Boyardee brand, began selling bottles of his pasta sauce in 1928, and Ragú has been making spaghetti sauce since 1937. As Viviani told Mashed, "Some of my friends, they love Prego sauce [...] I buy the Italian stuff."

However, Viviani's tip can save you from wasting money on sub-par sauces from your local grocery store. And he isn't the only Italian chef who admits that a store-bought sauce can be flavorful. Italian-American chef Giada De Laurentiis also recommends using pre-made sauces to save time and avoid stress in the kitchen. So the next time you're making pasta and just don't have time for homemade sauce, turn to one of these high-quality, store-bought pasta sauce brands.

Tasting Table recently ranked 15 popular pasta sauce brands from best to worst. Unsurprisingly, Bertoli, Prego, and Ragú were in the bottom three. Our number three choice was from one of the oldest pasta sauce brands in the U.S. Victoria Fine Foods has been making jarred pasta sauce since 1929, when the founders immigrated from Italy to New York. The brand's selections include traditional pasta sauce varieties as well as vegan alfredo red pepper sauce and alfredo sauce.

Our number two choice was from Buitoni, a company that originated in Italy in 1927 and eventually expanded to New York in the 1930s. Buitoni not only makes pasta sauce, but also a wide range of fresh filled pastas and flat pastas. Its pasta sauce options include classic favorites: Alfredo, marinara, meat sauce, and basil pesto.

Anyone who regularly uses store-bought pasta sauce will not be surprised that we ranked Rao's as the best store-bought pasta sauce. The Rao family immigrated to New York in 1896 and opened a small tavern, which was eventually converted to a restaurant in 1958. Rao's originally began serving its sauces in its restaurant, but began selling jars of its famous sauce in 1992 when owner Frank Pelligrino, Sr. got tired of telling people the restaurant didn't have any open tables. The company now carries a line of traditional and specialty sauces as well as soups, pastas, frozen pizza, frozen entrees, and even three fancy flavors of ketchup.

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and Mashed.