3 Food Experts Told Us Their Favorite Brand Of Pasta Sauce

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A good pasta sauce is one of those things that makes life so much easier. If dinner plans go wrong, all you have to do is heat up the sauce and boil some noodles, and you're all set. Sure, the best sauces are the ones you make yourself, but a good Sunday gravy (every Italian family has its recipe) can take hours to make. Even food professionals may opt to use a store-bought product now and then if they don't have a stash of homemade sauce in the freezer.

The Takeout spoke with three different people who work with food for a living: a recipe developer, a specialty grocery seller, and a restaurant chef. All three of them picked the same type of sauce — unsurprisingly, this was marinara, which seems to be America's most popular pasta sauce. Not only does marinara work as a stand-alone, but you can also use it as the base for other sauces. Dried chiles can transform it into arrabbiata sauce, while adding a shot of booze and some heavy cream can make a super simple shortcut vodka sauce.

Each of our experts had a different pick for the best store-bought marinara brand, though, and none of them went with Rao's — nor did they opt for our selection, Carbone. Depending on where you shop, some of their chosen sauces might be a bit difficult to come by in-store, but all should be available to purchase online.

Rachel Kirk, who shares recipes on the food blog Laughing Spatula, is a fan of the marinara sauce sold by the Sprouts Farmers Market grocery chain. Both the flavor and the ingredients list appeal to her. As she told us, "I love that it is low-sodium in nature, so I can season it myself." It has just 50 milligrams of sodium per ½ cup serving, and the organic version of the same product has 30 milligrams. 

She enjoys the taste, too, saying, "It has a super fresh tomato flavor that serves as a great base, not only for pasta but also for soups. I use it as a base in my minestrone often."

If you live in one of the 24 states with a Sprouts Farmers Market, this marinara sauce should be easy to come by. If not, you may need to go on a road trip or fork over an upcharge to buy it on eBay since Amazon doesn't carry Sprouts products.

Chris Whitehair sells food brands from Rochester, New York, on his website Flower City Flavor Company, so naturally, his favorite sauce comes from a local producer. One reason he's a fan, he said, is tradition: "The recipe is a true family legacy, passed down from Grandpa Pete and lovingly preserved by owner Paul Guglielmo, whose side hustle to honor his grandfather grew into a thriving business rooted in homemade Sunday dinners." He's also a fan of the taste, enthusing, "Its bold, sun-ripened flavor comes from fresh, handpicked tomatoes and garden herbs — real ingredients that honor decades of Italian backyard garden tradition."

The Country Max grocery chain in central and western New York state stocks several Guglielmo's products, including the marinara sauce. This item is available from various online retailers as well. Whitehair's website carries Guglielmo's entire lineup, which also includes pizza sauce, pumpkin sauce, and vodka sauce.

Emily Brubaker is the executive chef at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa and winner of NBC's "Yes, Chef!" Although she prefers homemade pasta sauce, she admitted that Mutti Marinara is her go-to when things get busy. "I like this sauce because it is really simple and straight to the flavor point; it's not overpowered with extra spices or other ingredients, very clean," she told us. She enjoys the simplicity of the ingredients, which consist of nothing more than tomatoes, onion, olive oil, garlic, salt, basil, black pepper, and oregano. "Mutti products are my number one product because they don't overcomplicate the sauces," she says. Even so, she usually tweaks this jarred marinara by adding parmesan cheese and extra basil.

Mutti products are carried by major grocery chains, including Hy-Vee and Safeway. You can also purchase Mutti Marinara Sauce on Amazon, along with other Mutti products like tomato paste and canned tomatoes.