Every time someone pours premade tomato sauce out of the jar and right onto their pasta, my heart breaks! I'm begging you, pleading with you, to just take a few ingredients already in your cupboard and 10 extra minutes to make your sauce taste as good as any Italian grandma's Sunday sauce.
Choosing a Premade Sauce
Stay away from tomato puree! If the ingredient label says the sauce is made with tomato puree or from tomato paste and water – stay away! While the tips in this post will help with any sauce, lets try to pick the best option available.
Choose tomatoes. Seems simple but companies will fool you. If the sauce says its made from tomatoes or whole peeled tomatoes, now we are talking.
Nothing natural about natural flavoring! Just say no.
Herbs are optional. Other than basil, my grandma’s Sunday sauce did not contain herbs like oregano or parsley.
Sauce Brand Suggestions
- Rao’s Marinara (Go to Costco for a deal!)
- Victoria’s Marinara (Go to Costco for a deal!)
- San Marzano’s Marinara (Hard to find. If you do, grab it!)
- Carbone’s Marinara
- Botticelli’s Traditional
Quick Fix to Premade Sauce
Every time someone pours premade tomato sauce out of the jar and right onto their pasta, my heart breaks! I'm begging you, pleading with you, to just take a few ingredients already in your cupboard and 10 extra minutes to make your sauce taste as good as any Italian grandma's Sunday sauce.
Yield: 3 people
Equipment
- 1 sauce pan or pot
Materials
- 1 25-28oz jar premade sauce I used Rao’s Marinara 28oz.
- 1 small yellow or white onion
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1-2 tbsps wine Red is preferred.
- ½ tsp sugar OPTIONAL - If all of the ingredients above don’t naturally sweeten your sauce up, try adding sugar.
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Saute the chopped onion in olive oil until soft and translucent.
- Add the tomato paste to the onion and let the tomato paste sear a bit. Be careful not to let it burn!
- Add the sauce and stir. Shake the jar with a tablespoon or two of water, and pour the water into the sauce.
- Add the wine, and the sugar as needed. (Your sauce may already be sweet enough at this point.
- Let the sauce simmer on low for five to ten minutes.
