Straight-up out of the jar onto your pasta, I think Raos is probably the best widely available option.
That said, I have yet to meet a jarred pasta sauce that didn’t benefit from a bit of tweaking, some extra herbs/spices, a splash of wine, some cheese, sauteing up some extras garlic & onions, etc.
In general, I don’t tend to think of jarred sauce as a totally finished product, it’s more of a shortcut that lets you skip most of the more labor intensive parts of making a sauce from scratch and skip to the finishing touches. Even the most lackluster bargain brand sauce can usually be dressed up to a pretty damn good sauce without too much effort.
My usual process is to finely chop up some onions and garlic, give that a good saute with some olive oil, maybe deglaze with some wine, add the sauce, then season to taste with some herbs & spices (normally oregano, basil, rosemary, black pepper, red pepper flakes will be a pretty safe bet, but I get a bit weird with it sometimes, taste as you go) finish it off with some Parmesan cheese, and of course a bit of the pasta water.
I usually do a meat sauce with a similar idea, I also finish my sauce before I start heating water for pasta. The new ingredients really benefit from time simmering with the sauce in my opinion.
Ya, I agree, they all need a bit of personalized flavor profiles. I used to take out the jars, heat 'em up in a pot, spice them up, but it gets to laborious and the sauce pops all over the stovetop and now I have to do dishes.
Straight-up out of the jar onto your pasta, I think Raos is probably the best widely available option.
That said, I have yet to meet a jarred pasta sauce that didn’t benefit from a bit of tweaking, some extra herbs/spices, a splash of wine, some cheese, sauteing up some extras garlic & onions, etc.
In general, I don’t tend to think of jarred sauce as a totally finished product, it’s more of a shortcut that lets you skip most of the more labor intensive parts of making a sauce from scratch and skip to the finishing touches. Even the most lackluster bargain brand sauce can usually be dressed up to a pretty damn good sauce without too much effort.
My usual process is to finely chop up some onions and garlic, give that a good saute with some olive oil, maybe deglaze with some wine, add the sauce, then season to taste with some herbs & spices (normally oregano, basil, rosemary, black pepper, red pepper flakes will be a pretty safe bet, but I get a bit weird with it sometimes, taste as you go) finish it off with some Parmesan cheese, and of course a bit of the pasta water.
I usually do a meat sauce with a similar idea, I also finish my sauce before I start heating water for pasta. The new ingredients really benefit from time simmering with the sauce in my opinion.
Was coming here to post this. Rao’s Marinara Sauce is the best out of a jar.
Seriously, get some Italian bread, pour a little bit of Rao’s into a bowl, dip a piece of the bread in there, enjoy.
Ya, I agree, they all need a bit of personalized flavor profiles. I used to take out the jars, heat 'em up in a pot, spice them up, but it gets to laborious and the sauce pops all over the stovetop and now I have to do dishes.