4 Jarred Pasta Sauces Good Enough To Skip Homemade

I absolutely get the allure of making pasta sauce at home. You can tailor it to fit your taste so you know it’s going to be good. There’s also a tempting aroma that a simmering pot of pasta sauce fills the house with. It’s just that life can get a little busy. You have errands to run. You can’t sit at home all day and wait for those flavors to develop.

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It’s absolutely okay to swing by the grocery store and get a jarred pasta sauce in a pinch. In fact, our whole reason for being here is to help you find the right jar to grab. The one that’s good enough to skip all the hassle. Here are the four jarred pasta sauces that are still worth getting even compared to their homemade versions.

Rao’s Marinara

This should come as no surprise to any avid Sporked reader. Or anyone who’s had Rao’s before for that matter. Rao’s is just too damn good. It’s suspiciously good. As we outlined in our review, “Tomato, olive oil, garlic, basil, onion, and oregano—that’s all you need for a quality sauce. The olive oil gives it a nice, healthy sheen and a savory, mouth-smacking quality. I also appreciate that the herbs are fresh, so you don’t get that dry, leafy, herb flavor (lookin’ at you, brand I shall not name).”

It’s a lovely and flavorful pasta sauce. This is homemade marinara in a jar so you don’t have to babysit a cooking pot all day long. Its unbelievable taste is only rivaled by one other jarred marinara sauce out there.

Specially Selected Premium Marinara

Surprise, there’s another marinara sauce! I may have used rivaled a little too loosely back there but you get the point. This jar of sauce from Aldi is not an exact dupe for Rao’s classic marinara. It’s just a tad off. It does however gain enough bonus points to put it into true contention because it’s significantly cheaper than Rao’s. It’s savory and oily and thick. It clings to pasta. It’s probably even cheaper than making pasta sauce from scratch at the rate that groceries cost these days!

Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto

I’ve talked about Costco’s pesto ad nauseum. That doesn’t take away from the fact that this stuff is damn worth your money. It is probably the only pesto we’re even go so far as to say is worth buying over homemade pesto. As Sporked’s Danny Palumbo described it, “It’s just so rich, cheesy, earthy, and sebaceous. The olive oil is high quality, so it’s got that nice bit of fruity bitterness to it. The flavor of the pine nuts really shines through, and the Pecorino Romano adds such a lovely sharpness, too.” It has a pure nutty, cheesy, oily, and herby flavor that is incredibly hard to beat.

Cento Vodka Sauce

Cento makes a lot of quality products, including the canned tomatoes that a lot of people use to make homemade pasta sauce. Skip a few steps and get their vodka sauce straight out of a jar. It’s the best pasta sauce if you want penne alla vodka that tastes like you made it at home. It’s brightly acidic, bitey, and rich, just like a pasta sauce your nonna would make. Skip the viral TikTok spicy tomato pasta recipe and just buy a jar of this instead. It’ll be cheaper and easier.