Historically, Trader Joe’s pasta sauce is pretty hit or miss. A couple years ago, my talented (and dedicated) colleague Justine Sterling once tasted and ranked 16 TJ’s pasta sauces and some of them were downright bad. Like, why the hell does the Calabrian Chili Spicy Pasta Sauce taste like old mayo mixed with peppers? How does that even happen? Regardless, when new Trader Joe’s pasta sauces come out, we’re still excited to try them, because when they do things correctly, they can be really good. TJ’s vodka sauce rules—and their bolognese is pretty damn good, too.
Enter the new Trader Joe’s Italian Tomato Pasta Sauce Trio. The three flavors are roasted vegetable, puttanesca, and roasted garlic marinara, and the tie that binds is that all three are made with “Italian tomatoes.” As the website says, “This handpicked selection of sauces comes to us from Puglia, Italy, from a supplier who not only specializes in sauces, but also grows the very tomatoes that form their tasty base!” Sounds good, right? Well, we tased tall three to find out for sure.
New TJ’s Pasta Sauce!
- Italian Tomato Puttanesca Pasta Sauce
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Pros: Well, if you love salty foods, you’re going to go nuts for this stuff. The bright, tangy tomato base is absolutely loaded with olives (kalamata and green chalkidikis, which are new to me). There are anchovies and capers in the mix, too. Surely, there are people out there who want a pasta sauce this briny—and I’m happy for them!
Cons: Okay, confession, I’m not one of the people who wants a pasta sauce this briny. This stuff is wildly, almost comically salty. The olives and capers overpower those Puglia-grown tomatoes TJ’s is so proud of. I think the anchovy might be my favorite part of the flavor profile; it’s subtle, but you can definitely detect that little something extra, if you can get past the olives.
Credit: Liv Averett / Trader Joe’s
New TJ’s Pasta Sauce!
- Italian Datterino Cherry Tomato & Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce
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Pros: This sauce will definitely be too acidic for some people (more on that in a sec), but it’s also very fresh tasting. And you can really roll it around in your mouth and appreciate the different elements: basil that tastes fresh rather than dried, the smooth, round flavor of roasted garlic, and those Italian-grown tomatoes. Oh yeah, this is also a good time to mention one of the main pros about all three of these sauces: They come in 10.23 oz jars, which in my household of two humans, is precisely the amount of sauce we want for a dinner without having to store a half-empty jar of pasta sauce in the fridge for future use. I’d LOVE if more pasta sauces came in this size.
Cons: This is a very tangy, very acidic tomato sauce. The extra virgin olive oil in the mix definitely tempers the acid a bit, but this stuff will hit you on the sides of the tongue and make you wince a little on first bite.
Credit: Liv Averett / Trader Joe’s
New TJ’s Pasta Sauce!
- Italian Tomato & Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce
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Pros: I absolutely love the texture of this sauce. It’s chunky and a little bit oily in precisely the same way as a sauce that’s been simmered on the stove for hours. The roasted vegetables in question are zucchini, eggplant, and bell peppers, and I like that they make sense by contributing to the texture rather than taking away from it. It’s a real pleasure to eat (I heated it and ate it off a spoon and couldn’t stop taking bites). And it definitely has that “roasted” vegetable flavor without tasting weirdly burnt or smoky. The veggies add some richness and depth to the sweet, tart cherry tomato base. It’s delicious.
Cons: Some people have an aversion to the wet, seedy texture of veggies like eggplant and zucchini—this is not the sauce for them. Everyone else will love it. Also, it seems that some Trader Joe’s stores are only selling these sauces as a set, and I don’t know if I would be compelled to buy all three since the puttanesca is such a salt bomb. (Our TJ’s was selling them individually, though!)
Credit: Liv Averett / Trader Joe’s
Gwynedd Stuart
Matt Crowley
Tyler Bowers
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!