Favorite canned spaghetti sauce?

[Babywhite]

I like to take a canned spaghetti sauce and "doctor" it. (I usually let it cook in the crockpot.) Anyway, I would like to find a better sauce. What is your favorite canned spaghetti sauce?

TIA

R.W.

[nfowife]

We use Prego with mushrooms. I like it because it is sweet and thick. DH likes it even more, funny because he doesn't like mushrooms! Whenever I switch flavors to try something new he says "what happened to the regular sauce?". I used to use prego mushroom and olive for seafood pasta, but they discontinued it so now I use the target brand of mushroom and olive for seafood pasta, but otherwise I stick with pregro mushroom.

[kelly ann]

Either Barilla or Bertolli...I get them both mixed up in my head, but I think we favor Barilla a little more.

[DebbieJ]

Classico makes a sausage sauce that I really like.

~ deb
DS born at home 12/03
2 year check up: 25 lbs with clothes on and 35 inches!
BFARed for 20 months and 6 days
(Breastfeeding After Reduction is possible! www.bfar.org)

http://www.bfar.org/members/fora/style_avatars/Ribbons/18months-bfar.jpg

[Mommy_Again]

we love Prego too. It is a sin to use sauce from a jar in my family, and I think I've given my entire Italian family a heart attack every time I've mentioned it. But I just can't deal with the mess in cleaning a cuisinart.

The secret IMO is to add meat - ground beef or sausage. I find that the grease in the meat breaks down the thick, paste-y taste that a lot of the jar sauces have.

I also love Via Russo's A La Vodka sauce - it is great for tortellini.

[ctmom]

I actually use Barilla Tomato and Basil as a base for red sauce and Bertolli Vodka sauce straight up...

Mary
dd#1 2/01
dd#2 12/03

[kimbe]

We like the Francesco Rinaldi sauces.

[Babywhite]

I'm not familiar with that brand name. Is it at local grocery stores?

Thanks! :)

[dhano923]

We like the Ragu Robusto sauces. They have bigger chunks of veggies and more spices than the regular version. We like the Super Chunky Mushroom and the Mushroom and Green Pepper sauces.

[bostonsmama]

Same here! I like a thinner sauce with big chunks of tomatoes and garlic. My fav jarred sauce is Ragu Robusto Chopped tomato, garlic & olive oil. I also like the sundried tomato flavor. It's the only sauce I could eat out of the jar with chips (like salsa)!

I recently made pasta sauce from scratch using 12 organic tomatoes and 10 basil leaves, both picked from my garden, plus white wine, fresh garlic, EVOO, chopped vidallia onion and organic tomato paste & crushed tomato in puree. It was SO MUCH WORK!! Plus, it didn't even taste decent until I added a 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 2 tsp salt and let it simmer for 3.5 hours. Plus, it gave me such horrific heart burn that I think I'm just going to make salsa from the rest of my garden's tomatoes. Yikes! Anyways....Ragu is my fall-back sauce. I love it...and it needs no doctoring.

My mom actually buys the Hunts and Del Monte canned sauces (both are fine) and doctors them herself w/ brown sugar, fresh garlic sauteed in olive oil, and some ground beef. It turns out pretty good, but in general I don't use pasta sauce for just spagetti w/ sauce...it's usually an ingredient in a larger dish, and not having to doctor the Ragu saves me time.

Larissa
All systems go! Mr. Follistim & Mrs. Repronex, meet thigh. Next appt 8/2.

Proud Aunt to Jack Dorian, born to my bro & SIL 3/06

[shilo]

larissa,

you could try throwing some of those tomatos into your favorite plain sauce chopped up. let it simmer for 20ish minutes and they'll cook down a little and add great textue to a plain sauce (will probably make it similar to your robusto). it's one of my favorite ways to help doctor up a jar or can of sauce.

to the OP, i like the stuff that comes in a can at trader joes. sorry i don't remember the brand off of the top of my head. it's just a simple tomato basil base, but doesn't have a lot of extra sugar (oh, but i do miss the preggo traditional, but then i look at the nutritional info and can't bring myself to use it anymore - sigh). i doctor it up with pretty standard fare... ground beef, a little sweet italian sausage, fresh basil, garlic, tomatos and onion. sometimes olives or mushrooms too if we're in the mood.

lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[bostonsmama]

I might try that when some more fruit turn red on the vine since the reflux is outrageous w/ all those fresh goods!

thanks,

Larissa
All systems go! Mr. Follistim & Mrs. Repronex, meet thigh. Next appt 8/2.

Proud Aunt to Jack Dorian, born to my bro & SIL 3/06

[Jo..]

This recipe starts with canned tomatoes (not sauce), but is just as easy, cheaper, and tastes MUCH better than any jarred sauce IMO.
We've gotten spoiled to the point where we can't even eat the jarred stuff anymore.
This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen) and is DELICIOUS.

Try it, I promise you won't be sorry.

It only takes about 15 minutes to make, and freezes nicely too!


Simple Tomato Sauce with Basil and Garlic

2 medium cloves garlic minced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
table salt
ground black pepper


In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat garlic and oil together over medium-high heat until garlic starts to sizzle. Stir in tomatoes, basil, oregano, sugar, a pinch of salt, and a couple of grinds of pepper; bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer until sauce thickens a bit and flavors meld, 10 to 12 minutes. Taste sauce, adjusting salt if necessary.

[Jo..]

Larissa,

last year I got a zillion tomatoes all at once, so I dehydrated a ton of mine. You just cut them in half, salt the cut side (if desired), and dry cut side up until leathery. VOILA, "sun dried" tomatoes. I froze several ziploc bags full and cooked with them all year. No artificial ingredients, and they were FREE (unlike pricey store-bought ones). You can also dry them outside (google to find out how to avoid bugs) or in the oven. Delicious!

[kimbe]

Yes. Here we have Wegmans, Price Chopper, Topps, and a few local stores and they all carry it!

Their page tells you which stores carry it --- here's a link!
http://www.francescorinaldi.com/locations/locations.asp#

[kimbe]

I am going to have to give this a try. It is so simple! (AND you know that only good things are in it!)

Thanks!

[kboyle]

dh is VERY picky when it comes to sauce so i try a new sauce recipe every month and we've only got about 3 winners, 2 i make homemade with just plain contadina tomato sauce that i doctor up, and the other sauce we love (i keep about 2-3 jars in the kitchen "just in case") is made by Mid's http://www.mids.cc/index.html i don't know exactly how far they sell it, but i think it's mainly an ohio or pa thing. it is the most FABULOUS sauce, the meat is SOOO meaty, & thick with just the right amt of spices & herbs, the meatless is great for cooking ziti, or lasagne, or whatever, and there is a spicy green peppery one that is awesome with hot sausage in the crockpot...WE LOVE THIS SAUCE!!

i used to do ragu, but then i found this stuff...amazing!!

if i decide to make my own sauce i have 2 recipes that i use, one is a sweeter sauce and one is a saltier sauce, both get dh's approval, so i normally make the easier one which is...

2 big cans of contadina tom sauce
1 tiny can of dei fratelli's sauce
1 soup can size of contadina tom paste
some sauteed onions
salt & pepper
parm cheese
worstechire sauce
mozz cheese
T of sugar, or to taste

saute onions in oil in big pot till clear
add sauces & paste, stir
let it simmer a bit
add sugar, s&p, stir
add a swirl of worchestire sauce, stir
simmer
add some shakes of parm and a handful or two of mozz, stir till melted

i keep it simmering for a while, watching that it doesnt burn.
i also make it in the crock pot from time to time

i'll have to try that simple recipe from pp !

[bostonsmama]

Thanks for the rec! We did just that...hoping to pack them in oil when we get home. For now they're in the fridge in a ziplock. Yum!

Larissa
26 follicles averaging 13-20mm with 2 days of stimming to go!
Tentative retrieval now Aug 9.

Proud Aunt to Jack Dorian, born to my bro & SIL 3/06

[SJ mom]

I have gone through phases, and making my own sauce with tomatoes-fresh, canned, crushed, whole etc...it was very good but working full time, having the baby left me very little time so...I discovered Prego-loved it doctored up until i found some Francesco Rinaldi meat sauce on sale I gambled since i needed a lot of sauce.

I put garlic, onion, red pepper flakes and ground meat (my staples) and ...it was the best sauce with awesome flavor yet.

[Tondi G]

we like Francesco Rinaldi when I make meat sauce and I also like Trader Joes organic Marinara sauce!