Pro Chefs Blind Taste Test Every Marinara Sauce

[Narrator] We've gathered three tomato sauce experts

to blind taste test every brand

of tomato sauce we could get our hands on

to see which ones meet their standards.

Because eating these sauces cold would be miserable,

we heated them all up.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

Ragu Old World Style Marinara Sauce.

It looks super smooth, almost like a baby food to me.

Like it came from a puree or from tomato paste.

The color's great.

It's really dark red. It's really dense.

This actually smells pretty good.

It kind of smells like a pizza sauce to me,

which means usually, it's cooked for a fairly long time.

It has a little more oregano in it.

I don't see any visible herbs in here.

This is a very basic tomato sauce.

When I look for a tomato sauce,

I want it to be tomato forward.

It's a tomato sauce, so it should taste like tomatoes.

The tomato should be the star of the show, not the herbs,

not the spices, not any sugar or salt or anything else.

It's tomato sauce.

The balance with the acidity and the sweetness,

something in the middle.

You don't want it to be like super acidity

like you're drinking or eating a lemon.

You also don't want it to be too sweet.

You don't want to put like frosting on your spaghetti.

While we want it to be well-seasoned,

we don't want it to be overly seasoned

with herbs and spices.

Having too many flavors in there

detracts from that tomato flavor.

And finally, we are looking for texture.

The chunk of the tomato and the smooth of the sauce.

We want it to be velvety.

It should coat your mouth in the most wonderful way.

That is not a bad tomato sauce.

It tastes like a tomato.

The acidity and the sweetness is really almost 50/50.

They added some sugar to it.

So it's a little on the sweet side for me.

This is well-seasoned.

It's not overly garlicy, not overly oregano or basil.

Salt is perfectly balanced.

Texture is good.

[Dan] It's kinda jammy.

[Frank] Like a baby food or a tomato puree texture to me.

I like that.

Probably not using the best quality tomatoes,

so they want to puree it up.

This seems to be a Prego type sauce.

Oh. Ah.

Old Style Marinara Sauce, Ragu.

I didn't hate this. I would eat this.

Marinara is basically a quick cooked sauce,

simple ingredients, tomatoes, olive oil,

some aromatics like onions of garlic and maybe some basil.

This one doesn't really hit the bill.

It should be brighter, fresher, not as reduced.

A little chunkier.

We don't say, Marinara sauce, we say, Tomato sauce.

The first ingredient is tomato puree.

Tomato puree isn't necessarily an inferior product.

It's just a way for companies to get sauce in a jar quicker.

So typically tomato canneries,

they take truckloads of tomatoes

and the absolute best tomatoes of that batch

go into their flagship products,

which is a whole peeled tomato.

The ones that aren't the best of the best

get ground up into tomato puree or tomato sauces.

And the worst of the worst get packaged as tomato paste.

For a product that you're going to eat a lot of like,

this marinara sauce, we want whole peeled tomatoes.

They add sugar here

because the quality of the tomato they used

is not a lot sweet.

So this brand is really made for the masses.

Consistent, reliable, not offensive in any way to anybody.

And I try not to frown on that.

It's just not my cup of tea.

Not so bad.

I'm very disappointed in myself

and how much I liked the Ragu.

[jar scraping]

[jar clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Classico Marinara Pasta Sauce

with Plum Tomatoes & Olive Oil

It's a little paler red.

[Giorgia] This one is less puree.

Look at that whole chunks of tomatoes,

which some people like, some people do not like.

[Frank] There's a little flex of herbs in there.

Maybe they have a garlic in this case

'cause I can smell right away.

It's mildly tomato forward.

Really high acid. This will give me heartburn.

The saltiness is great,

but the herbs really like kick in there.

I think the tomato

that they used in this marinara is really cheap

or doesn't have any taste, the tomato.

So they need to put more garlic

and oregano to just taste that.

Dry herbs are super powerful and potent.

Once it goes through the process of canning,

some of those flavors get muted and dulled,

so they tend to add more of those things.

And in this case,

I feel like it's a little more overpowering.

Definitely tastes like there's diced tomatoes in here.

It's firm and it really holds up.

Generally, sauces like this will use a plum tomato.

The oblong shape actually aids in the harvesting process.

The tomatoes run up this conveyor belt

and the oblong shape actually prevents them from rolling

off of this conveyor belt.

They have less water, thinner skins, less seeds.

And it gives us a higher flesh to water ratio.

Want that tomato meat.

I really don't like it, this one.

[jar scraping]

Classico.

Marina with plum tomato and olive oil.

But you can see it right away,

they put dried garlic, spicy.

This is why I taste a lot garlic.

There's like 20 ingredients in this,

so I automatically know

they're not using high quality tomatoes.

They have to cover up the deficiency and deliciousness.

They put olive oil on the label to like draw you in,

but it's less than 2%.

Yeah, there's some diced plum tomatoes,

but it's not the first ingredient, number one.

And they're treated with calcium chloride,

so they're really never gonna break down.

The texture's just off and it's not a great mouthfeel.

That tomato puree,

chances are it's not made with plum tomatoes.

It's made with whatever tomatoes the factory gets.

But it's branded like it's old world Italian food.

I'm sorry. This one, like, no, no, no, no, no.

I don't like it.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Great Value Marinara Pasta Sauce.

Bright red, simple.

It's lighter on the herbs,

but you can see some onion in there.

You can definitely see a little bit of oil separation.

I like that. I have high hopes.

This is really fresh.

I don't hate it.

It tastes tomatoey, but you do get a nice hit of basil.

The balance of the acidity and the sugar are equal.

The balance of the herbs is really nice in this.

Not overly oregano, not overly garlicy.

Seasoning is perfect.

The texture is pleasant.

Most of it is a puree.

They threw in a couple of chunks.

Firm, calcium chloride. Doesn't need to be in there.

I think this is my favorite.

It's got a lot of the characteristics

of a higher end brand.

Maybe a Rienzi or maybe a Pastene.

I think this is just a basic tomato sauce.

[jar scraping]

Great Value Marinara Sauce.

[Director] This is a Walmart store brand.

Oh, wow.

I'm not gonna lie.

I think this actually is a pretty good value.

For 1.67, you're not gonna get a fresh tomato flavor,

you're not gonna get a high-quality tomato.

But the formulation's actually not that bad.

Tomato puree, diced tomato in tomato juice, canola oil.

Wow.

They're using dehydrated onions and garlic and spices.

They're using a little citric acid and dehydrated parsley.

They're using a lot of the things

that I said might not be best,

but for some reason, they nailed it.

Somebody actually cared about how much garlic is in there,

how much of the herbs is in there.

It's meant to feed a lot of people

for a very inexpensive cost.

I am blown away that this is as good as it is.

Walmart, great job.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Rao's Homemade Marinara Sauce.

Looks a touch orange.

Really thick.

It looks like a natural chunk.

It doesn't look like there's any diced tomatoes in here.

It's good consistency, but it's really oily.

I'm definitely tasting more tomato

than the actual seasonings and flavorings in this.

The acid is way too high, so the balance is just way off.

[Frank] If you look at the edge of the bowl,

that actually looks like there's a little oil in there.

It doesn't taste like it's very high-quality,

but it's there.

And this is not well-seasoned.

It's way too much black pepper, way too much salt.

That sure is good.

[Frank] The chunkiness is really nice on this.

Not my favorite.

Lower quality.

I'm gonna guess this might be an Italian brand

like Bertolli.

Oh. [jar scraping]

Oh, my gosh, it's Rao's.

I think they're gonna be killing me.

I was surprised because, you know, it's really famous.

Rao's is supposed to be like the golden child

of tomato sauce, isn't it?

A jar.

It's a famous institution restaurant here

in New York City.

Great family, great restaurant.

This version of the sauce is not my favorite.

Eight ingredients, which I love.

Italian whole peeled tomatoes.

So if the tomato usually is coming from either

is more sweet than acid.

I taste like a bland taste of tomato.

They're really not that high-quality.

The second ingredient,

this is olive oil and you can see it.

Not extra virgin olive oil.

There's a bunch of different grades of olive oil.

I'm a big believer in only using extra virgin olive oil.

I hope I do go really soon to try inside the restaurant,

but I'm not really impressed on the jar one.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Prego Marinara Sauce.

This sauce looks like it has a little more liquid to it.

[Giorgia] So more puree.

It's kind of like weirdly translucent.

That smells like a zesty one.

That is a terrible tomato.

It's almost like a metallic taste

in the back of your tongue.

No, no, no.

This tomato has some defects to it.

Kind of like a chemically flavor.

It's more acidity than a sweet.

The herbs are definitely covering up

for how bad the tomatoes are.

It's really watering.

This oil doesn't have a lot of flavor.

Not my favorite at all.

It's something red to put on pasta. This is Prego.

Prego. [jar scraping]

Prego means you're welcome in Italian.

This is something, the sauce that I will not say Prego.

[Dan] Starts out with tomato puree.

In tomatoes juice.

This is really the big...

What I feel that this one is really watery.

Canola oil, which I'm not surprised about.

It's a neutral oil, cheap product, real cheap.

If they use fresh onions and garlic

and cooked it in the oil,

canola oil would carry those flavors into the sauce.

Whereas, they're using garlic powder and onion powder.

So they're not using the oil as a carrier flavor.

They're just using it as maybe bulk or mouthfeel.

And canola oil really just doesn't really do

much for flavor.

Less than 1% of dried onions, dried garlic.

Spicy, citrus and basil.

So everything dry, not fresh.

There's not necessarily anything wrong with dried spices.

Fresh herbs are delicate, they go bad quickly.

Dried herbs are super shelf stable.

It makes the production process a lot faster

and more inexpensive.

The Prego doesn't have sugar in it

and usually, that's the crutch of sauces like this.

Yeah, tomatoes are so naturally sweet

that if you just take a tomato puree and cook it longer,

well, that water evaporates,

you get a higher sugar content product.

It has a market,

but it's kind of the bare minimum of tomato sauce.

I don't think I'm gonna be buy this one anytime soon.

Prego, you're welcome.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Carbone Marinara.

You look on the edge here,

you can see that it actually has some oil.

Which is not a bad thing.

It always makes me kind of think of the sauces

a little bit better.

A lot of herbs.

This is definitely a little chunkier or home style.

You can see onions, garlic, chunks of tomatoes.

I see real pieces of onion.

Hmm, that's interesting.

You taste a little bit more the tomato.

So far, this is the best balance in acidity

that we've had.

It has some good seasoning.

With the amount of onion and garlic in here,

this might be homemade.

They fooled me.

I like the consistency because it's not just puree.

The texture is more like a marinara.

Like this consistency means they're using fresh tomato.

It's gonna hold onto that pasta,

but it also isn't so thick and so, like, jammy.

It has a little flow to it.

I think they're using fresh ingredients

because I can see a piece of basil.

This is probably the best sauce we've tasted so far.

I'd be very surprised if this is out of a jar

and if it is, like, they're doing good work.

[jar scraping]

Carbone.

So Carbone is a restaurant in Manhattan

and it's kind of a red sauce joint.

They have a sauce line, not dissimilar from Rao's

but by far, a much better product.

Onions, olive oil, garlic,

and there's no preservatives in here, no citric acid,

and that kind of really shines through.

I think the texture of it is closer to a marinara.

Imported Italian tomatoes.

Italian tomato are more sweet,

so this is why I don't taste a lot acidity.

It all depends on the process you use,

the supporting ingredients you use.

And they used fresh ingredients.

So this definitely has some really good branding

and I think as far as jarred sauces go,

it stands up to its reputation, right?

I really like it.

They fooled me. I thought this was a homemade sauce.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Good & Gather Marinara Organic Pasta Sauce.

Has that brownish, rusty orangey thing.

More puree part.

Lot of herbs.

Oregano, garlic.

It doesn't look like it's gonna be a good one.

So bad.

It has a little bit of tomato flavor,

but it's kind of flat.

Tastes fake.

Tastes way too acidic.

Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet. So much sweet.

You can see herbs, you can see garlic. I'm not tasting it.

Texture is, I don't like it because it is more puree.

It has a little of that baby food texture

with some chunks in it.

But the chunks are just there for visual, like, effect

less than flavor.

They haven't done too much to it.

So it might be like an organic sauce.

It's the worse one that I've tasted all day.

[jar scraping]

Good & Gather.

Organic marinara pasta sauce.

Good & Gather is a Target brand.

So you can get this at probably every Target in the country

and you should not.

It's non GMO and it is organic.

But it doesn't make it delicious, unfortunately.

They don't add any sugar, but what I taste is so sweet.

Maybe the type of the tomato they used.

These are really, really bad tomatoes.

I would never buy this again if I bought it one time.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] 365 by Whole Foods

Organic Marinara Pasta Sauce.

So we have more orange-ish sauce.

It looks more like a salsa than a marinara sauce.

Smell like garlic.

So it's not super tomato forward, I taste herbs first.

All you feel over here is just the garlic.

Tons of oregano, probably other spice in there too.

Lot of acid, no sweetness.

I like the texture.

Really watery.

It's definitely gonna have tomato puree

as its first ingredient, I would be shocked if it wasn't,

but this has a lot more chunkiness to it.

I think this is Whole Foods 365 Organic

extra zesty tomato sauce.

Oh. All right, so-

I was right.

365 Whole Foods Market marinara.

And it's their organic one too.

It has extra virgin olive oil, is no sugar added, right?

And it's a marinara sauce.

I think that it's closer than a lot of the other ones

to that texture of a marinara sauce.

Organic garlic puree is probably a shelf stable processed

form of garlic

and it's probably a step up compared to dried garlic.

I really like it.

This is certainly not my favorite.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Bertolli Traditional Marinara Sauce.

There's a little bit of that kind of oil staining

on the sides

Also looks more like salsa.

This tastes like a tomato soup

you might get on an airplane in 1992.

You don't taste a lot, the tomato.

It's not about the tomato,

it's about covering up how bad the tomato are.

This is really acid.

Even though there's big chunks of herbs in there,

it's more for looks.

It has looked like a little bit of oil.

It's more watery.

I don't like the color. I don't like the flavor.

I don't like the texture.

[jar scraping]

Oh, Bertolli.

Bertolli.

Doesn't say where they come from, the tomato.

Their tomato puree is water and tomato paste.

That means their number one ingredient was tomato paste,

which is bottom of the barrel tomato product

mixed with water

to thin it out into what's considered a puree.

Tomato paste is one of my favorite ingredients to cook with,

but not when you want to make a marinara sauce.

So this sauce,

as with a lot of the sauces we've seen today,

uses citric acid.

Is help to maintain the color of the tomato.

Any jarred tomato product

needs to be a certain amount of acidity.

The pH has to be below 4.6, which is pretty acidic

in order to prevent botulism.

If the tomato cannery gets very ripe tomatoes

that are perfect,

they're not gonna be below that threshold.

So they use citric acid.

No for me.

This would take a little bit of work to make it good.

Bertolli, call me, we'll make this product better.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Barilla Marinara Sauce.

This is definitely cooked at a lower temperature.

[Giorgia] Red, red color, so no orange.

It has the right texture for marinara

where it's not too reduced.

The tomato is not in the center of this marinara sauce.

Like it's sweet.

But it's overloaded with garlic and oregano.

The texture of the sauce is really, really kinda nice.

It's not too liquidy. It's not too, like, dense or firm.

I'm gonna say Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's basic marinara sauce.

Oh, this is the Barilla. Ah.

Barilla.

Italian brand pasta, Italian brand sauce.

When it comes to the jarred sauces, always heat them up,

bring them to a gentle simmer and you're in a pinch.

Take the lid off, throw it in the microwave.

You don't wanna just take cold sauce

and put it on your pasta.

When something cold is, like, doesn't have a lot flavor.

One thing that you're always taught as a chef

is that the sauce waits for the pasta.

Really cook that pasta.

Finish cooking it to al dente in the pan

so that the sauce has time to really be absorbed

by the pasta.

You don't throw away the water that you boil the pasta.

You want every noodle to be coated

and married with that sauce.

So one of the ways that we control moisture

and change viscosity is by loosening it up

with a little bit of of pasta water.

Natural flavor is nothing. [laughs]

Natural flavors are plant or animal derived products

that are made in a laboratory

and there's very little regulation on what it actually is.

They belong in perfumes, not in food.

As far as jarred sauce goes,

I think this is kind of mid range.

This is made for everyone, I think, but not for me.

Yeah, don't buy it. This one's terrible.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Newman's Own Marinara Pasta Sauce.

What do we got here? More tomato sauce.

It's more dense, puree.

It's a little more reduced

than the past two sauces we tried.

Lot of herbs, smooth texture.

It's kind of a medium tomato flavor

Is not right in the center, but almost.

Better balance of sweetness and acidity.

I think that it could use a little more on the herb side.

I'm not really fan of this texture.

It's not like heavy on the chunks,

it's just they're visually for a visual appeal.

Tastes like they're using the scraps of something else.

Oh, is this Paul Newman?

Newman's Best?

Is that what it is? [jar scraping]

Yep, it is Newman's Own.

Not Newman's best.

How do you hate on Paul Newman, right?

Like, he was great. He gets a lot of charities.

[Giorgia] 100% profit help kids.

How do you hate that?

As far as tomato sauces go, like it's okay.

Italian style herbs like, I don't know.

Like, what does that even mean?

Extra virgin olive oil is the third ingredient.

That's good. I can't taste any of it though.

[Giorgia] Carrot puree.

I've never seen carrot puree on a jar of tomato sauce.

Carrots have a ton of sugar in them.

So this is why it's really sweet.

If you just buy a really good tomato,

you actually don't even need to add the carrot

or anything else because they're naturally so sweet.

I don't want bash on Paul Newman. I can't.

But, you know, little less carrots, a little more sauce.

It's like not really bad, bad.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Trader Joe's Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce.

The color, I like it. Really dark red.

Come on, that's some chipotle red salsa.

I can see chunks of vegetables, chunks of herbs.

Tomato is in the center.

So it's a little on the tinny side or metallic side.

The flavor of sweet and acid are really strong.

I can taste basil on this one.

But if it is, it's definitely dried basil,

not fresh basil.

A lot of herbs covering up the fact

that these are really bad tomatoes.

I don't think it's olive oil, if there is oil in this.

This one's pretty bad.

I would use this as an ingredient in cooking

if I absolutely had to.

Trader Joe's.

This is probably Trader Joe's salsa.

[jar scraping]

Oh, Trader Joe Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce.

Putting basil on the label,

it needs to be a little more basil forward.

I taste herbs, but I'm not, like,

Oh, my gosh, there's basil.

They're using dried basil here.

Try and use fresh herbs if you can.

Especially if you can say, it's a tomato basil,

there should be some basil leaves in there.

Basil is so volatile.

If it's not stored properly, if it's not handled properly,

it immediately goes bad.

I prefer to use the basil almost in the end.

So it's still gonna get cooked.

But you're gonna get that nice hit of fresh basil.

And then when I'm serving the dish

that I'm preparing with it,

I might sprinkle a little bit of fresh basil on

right before a guest enjoys the plate of food.

Not the best one we had today, but pretty good.

I liked the taste. I liked the, mm, consistency.

Mm, not when you use dried basil. No bueno.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Mutti Marinara Pasta Sauce.

This looks homemade.

[Giorgia] Red, orange color, a lot oily.

So I get it, tomatoes have skins,

so inevitably there might be a tomato skin or two,

but this is like...

At least, we know that there's fresh tomatoes in here.

No, no, no, this is not for me.

The garlic dominate all the flavor in this tomato sauce.

Acidity, very mild.

It's too acidic.

The acid sweetness balance is spot on.

This is well-seasoned.

Texture is the best part of this sauce.

The viscosity is incredible.

I think this is a home style sauce.

This feels like a mid to high tier

just for the fact that it has some oil in it.

I'm gonna say, Victoria.

Ah. Mutti.

Mutti is an Italian tomato brand.

I used before, but never marinara.

Good job, guys. They had me fooled on this one.

Tomatoes are good. Everything was in balance.

This is by far the closest thing to homemade tasting sauce.

Yeah, they're using olive oil.

There is actual oil separation.

Tomatoes are 90% water and water and oil don't mix.

You'll see the oil start to float on the top.

That's not a bad thing.

They're not meant to be completely emulsified

for long-term shelf stability.

All you do is heat it up in a pan,

add a little bit of your pasta cooking water,

swirl it around and the emulsion is back

and it's gonna be better than ever.

Oil carries flavors, especially from aromatics,

especially from herbs.

Chopped tomatoes first and then rossoro tomato puree second.

Rossoro tomato is a tomato that they grew up in Tuscany.

Same kind of profile as the San Marzano tomatoes

just from a different region.

The color is phenomenal on that.

When I go in Italy

and maybe I use, you know, some product

are totally different.

Mutti or other brand, Barilla, Bertolli,

create some recipe just for American palate.

This is a premium quality tomato sauce and it shows.

I'm sorry, I don't like your marinara, Mutti.

I do think it could have some more tomato flavor.

These are really good ingredients on this ingredient list,

and the proof is in the product.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Yo Mama's Original Marinara.

Brown, rusty red.

I can smell tomato and I do see a little bit of oil.

It does not look appealing.

It does not look remotely like a tomato.

That's mildly offensive.

I don't taste a real tomato.

That just tastes fake.

The only thing I taste is oregano and garlic.

It's kind of really flat in the mouth.

It could definitely use a lot of salt.

Too much oil, water also because it's puree.

Texture is not pleasant.

Needs a little more like chunks to it,

especially if it's gonna be a marinara.

There's no redeeming qualities.

[jar scraping]

[laughs] Yo Mama's Tomato Sauce.

I've never actually heard of this one.

It just makes me sad. I'm sorry, guys.

Tomato sauce marinara, fresh ingredients,

premium, no added sugars.

With love, Yo Mama.

My mama might smack me if I gave her this sauce.

Fresh tomatoes.

I'm not sure the fresh tomatoes are doing them

a great service here.

And a lot of that probably has to do with

they're using fresh tomatoes that are not in season.

Canned tends to be more reliable,

more predictable at the end of the day.

So you say low in sodium.

Sodium is one of those things

where salt is one of the things

that make your food taste good.

So unless they are high blood pressure,

I think that they need a little more salt on this.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Victoria Marinara Sauce.

This looks promising.

Really good smell.

Texture looks nice.

More of that kind of like puree with small chunks in it.

Really good. Tomato in the center.

I wouldn't say, it's in balance by any means.

I'd say, it's more on the sweet side.

You don't taste any garlic, any onion, but good.

Good taste.

I love the texture.

You have more body structure.

This one might be the Victoria.

That's the only one I have left in my brain.

[jar scraping]

This is the Victoria brand, okay.

Where ingredients come first.

You go into Italian shops, you see this.

100% imported Italian tomato.

From where in Italy though?

There's no getting around the fact

that these tomatoes are not very high-quality.

But I think the process that they're going through

is actually a very high-quality process

'cause the texture is phenomenal.

Just the quality of the tomatoes is not that great.

Seven ingredients.

No preservatives, no water, no paste,

which is also really good.

Seems like this is a very well-executed sauce.

The only missing piece is a higher quality tomato

and a higher quality olive oil.

I will buy this one. One of my favorite.

[jar scraping]

[jar cap clacking] [sauce sloshing]

[Narrator] Cravings Spicy Thai Basil Marinara sauce.

Texture looks nice. It's glistening.

It's glossy. It's velvety.

I can see the way, the basil.

Which again, tends to be an indicator

that we're getting a sauce that's a little bit better,

but who knows?

I tasted really deliciousness up front

and then the back, acid and heat.

This one has a decent tomato flavor.

It tastes like fresh basil.

Spicy and acidity,

it's too strong.

I can't really taste much after the heat kicks in.

I don't think that marinara need to be spicy.

I like spicy food, so I'm not mad at it.

I was not expecting spicy tomato sauce right now.

The tomato need to be the star, the king of the sauce.

On this case, it's not a king.

Heat's covering up the tomato a little bit too much,

but it's pretty good.

I'd eat this.

Consistency is good. It's not really puree, puree.

It has some of the markers

of what people might charge a lot of money for.

A little bit heat's great

and this is probably marketed towards that.

They wouldn't just call this marinara sauce.

It's probably spicy something.

[jar scraping]

Cravings by Chrissy Teigen.

Oh, my gosh.

This ain't bad.

Spicy Thai basil marinara.

Thai basil and Italian basil are two,

like, completely different flavor profiles.

Is more spicy, is more bitter.

Has more of that fennel or that licorice flavor to it.

This is the first time we're seeing tomato pulp

on a label, which I think is really interesting.

It's one of the things I commented about is the texture.

The viscosity is incredible. It's shiny.

It's an ingredient that you see in both Italy and in Spain,

but you don't really see that in the United States at all.

It's different marinara. You remember this marinara.

For what this is, which is a spicy Thai basil marinara,

it's very well-produced.

If that is what she want, be spicy,

she created perfect spicy marinara.

Perfect marinara for her.

I wouldn't normally go outta my way

to buy a product like this,

but I'm glad I tasted it and respect.

[Narrator] Now let's see which tomato sauces

our experts liked the most and the least.

My favorite out of all of them was Carbone.

The best tomato flavor. It was well-rounded.

It had some oil in it.

[Dan] Texture was great. The balance was great.

It hit a lot of the hallmarks

of what I would consider a good jarred sauce.

I thought they tricked me

into thinking that was homemade.

I also, surprisingly enough enjoyed the great value.

The ingredients are fresh. Tomato are in the center.

It was kind of nicely balanced. I'm shocked as you are.

I really appreciate Cravings with a spicy Thai basil.

Thought that was phenomenal.

They used fresh ingredients. They used good ingredients.

[Dan] Texture was extraordinary.

For the spicy people, they love spicy,

I think that is perfect.

The clear winner for me was the Mutti.

It was real ingredients, tomato flavor,

texture was spot on.

The acid sweetness balance was spot on.

I would feed that to my family.

As for the ones that I didn't like.

[All] Prego.

[Frank] It tasted for lack of a better term processed.

It doesn't have any balance.

It was overly sweet.

I think it didn't have a good tomato flavor.

I don't want feel just garlic or have acidity.

The Good & Gather is just really weak ingredients,

not thoughtfully put together.

Seems like a product was just rushed out.

My least favorite today is Classico Marinara.

You just feel acidity, garlic, onion.

The tomato was not in the center.

So we tasted a lot of tomato sauces today.

All in day's work.

A lot of these sauces

are actually a pretty good starting point.

Like, add little bit of the extra joint that you like,

or salt or basil.

Loosen it up with some pasta water

and add lots of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

But making it fresh is always gonna be better.

Good extra virgin olive oil,

whole peeled tomatoes crushed by hand, pinch of salt.

It's almost as easy as taking off the lid

of a pre-made sauce and pouring it into a pot.

Enjoy your marinara. Buon appetito.

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