The best pasta sauce is flavorful, made with high-quality ingredients—and it’s sitting on the shelf in your grocery store! You don’t have to go to a fancy Italian trattoria to enjoy a delicious pasta dinner.
Whether you prefer a rich, creamy sauce or a thick, tomato-y sauce, we have the best store bought pasta sauce for you. The Sporked crew has taste tested every variety of pasta sauce you can think of, and we’ve compiled the best of the best in a list that even your Nonna would love. These are the best pasta sauces.
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- Rao’s Homestyle Bolognese
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Rao’s Homestyle Bolognese is our best jarred meat sauce we tried during our in-office taste test and it’s no surprise. Not only are we big Rao’s fans, Rao’s is simply the best. Danny Palumbo, former Sporked staff writer (and very Italian man) calls their bolognese “warm, inviting, and deeply savory.” Rao’s uses ground beef and pancetta in this sauce, which sets it apart from lots of other bolognese sauces on the market. Plus, it has the biggest chunks of meat of any meat sauce we tried by far. Rao’s just gets it!
Credit: Merc/Amazon
- Cento Vodka Sauce
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I love vodka sauce. It’s the best pasta sauce if you want something that’s creamy and tomatoey. Cento makes the best jarred vodka sauce you can buy at the grocery store. We were Cento fans before this taste test, and this sauce solidified that even more. Danny thought this sauce was like “homemade, jarred marinara made with cream and real vodka” and loved “its brightly acidic, bitey, and rich” flavor. Skip out on any viral TikTok spicy tomato pasta recipe and just buy a jar of this instead. It’ll be cheaper and easier.
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Cento
- Kirkland Basil Pesto
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Kirkland Basil Pesto is the pesto you should be buying. This tastes like restaurant-quality pesto. Like, from a nice Italian restaurant. The taste is unbelievably fresh and there’s no weird acidic taste like most store bought pestos. Danny loved that it’s “so rich, cheesy, earthy, and sebaceous.” Not impressed yet? This pesto uses D.O.P (Protected Designation of Origin) Genovese basil. It’s so fancy and so cheap! I don’t think you could make better pesto at home.
Credit: Merc / Costco
- Giovanni Rana Alfredo Sauce
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Giovanni Rana is the best store bought alfredo sauce we’ve ever tried. To be honest, most store bought alfredo sauces are pretty bad! But the taste and texture of this sauce are both on point. Plus, we love the fact that Rana uses a combination of Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano cheese, which, Danny points out, “[gives] this sauce a well-balanced, pungent, salty bite.” Rana was the clear winner of our best alfredo sauce taste test, and it’s one of the best pasta sauces you can buy.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart
- Rao’s Homemade Marinara Sauce
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Rao’s Homemade Marinara Sauce is our favorite marinara and one of the best pasta sauces in the world. At first, I didn’t want to buy it. It’s way more expensive than most other marinara sauces. Plus, I typically make my own marinara sauce. After trying Rao’s, I immediately knew I was wrong. It is so delicious. Danny firmly believes that you should definitely “pay the extra money and [not] look back.”
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
Best Meat Sauce
Best Vodka Sauce
Best Pesto
Best Alfredo
Best Marinara
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Alessi sauce is the best but assume only available in the Tampabay Florida aea
Everyone is sick of hearing that Rao’s marinara is the best. It almost seems like they buy every contest. They don’t need this publicity. They have weird pieces of skin and garlic and seeds. Have you ever tried some of the smaller less known brands? Like Ooma Tesoro’s? So smooth and pure and flavorful and authentic,
Agreed. I don’t get it. Raos sauce is just ok to me. Carbones marinara sauce is a million times better
Victoria Marinara far surpasses Rao’s any day!they do buy every contest Victoria Marinara is the very best!
Agreed. Raos is an upscale ketchup
Antonio Carlo Gourmet Sauces are actually authentic Italian and amazing
Have you ever tasted Dell’Amore Marinara sauces? Born in Italy, Made in Vermont. In my opinion they are the best! Worth checking out. It is my husband’s family recipe.
You missed the mark by a country mile
Antonio Carlo Gourmet Sauces blows any and all others away by a wide margin
Do your research better!
Carbone marinara sauce is absolutely legit.
Have you ever tried Hoboken pasta sauce??? Thats better than Rao’s and I love Rao’s too. Give it a try. Hoboken farm stand pasta sauce. It’s out of New Jersey where I live. Google it, you’ll absolutely love it. Joe G.
I have always made my own sauce but found one I like very much. Barilla marinara. It’s very good. I add some onions and garlic along with herbs, it is great in a pinch.
The best jarred sauce that you will ever eat is Casa Visco. There are several flavors, all delicious. The sauce is produced in Rotterdam New York. It’s not available everywhere but it should be. Please try it.
Good job. Right to the point. No unnecessary B.S.
The first time seeing your site, I really like the feedback from other people I’ve been in the food business since 1979 still in the food business how did Italian restaurant bagel stores catering business and I do think Reyes is one of the better sauces I’ve ever tried out of a jar. Haven’t tried the other ones though I will try don’t like to cook much for just me and the wife, still cook in the stores though and I’ll have other ones to try from the people with feedback. Thank you.
I have tasted much better jarred pasta sauce than Rao’s. Just because it’s more expensive doesn’t mean it tastes better.
Michael’s of Brooklyn has the best red sauce in my opinion, “Homestyle Gravy”. Fresh and delicious and no garlic, which I love as garlic makes me sick. Try it, it’s very good. Comes in a large jar. Expensive but worth it.
Could not agree more. Michaels of Brooklyn is the best on the market and worth the price.
$12 for a 32oz jar of expensive and pretentious bland water.
I would like to see the full list of all contenders, that way we can see where our favorites lie and if they were included at all. I’ve tried Rao’s twice now, and both times I’ve been disappointed personally.
Doesn’t anyone make their own sauce anymore??… I’ve read many if the ingredients in some pasta sauces, why is sugar in there? I never use sugar. Then I find soy, and carrot juice, and I don’t like oregano. Just asking. Agree with assessment of Roa’s.
Victoria & Mezzettte also make a really good jarred sauce. Rao’s is expensive but here’s a good tip. Costco sells 2 jars for $11 and they’re bigger than the one jar you pay $9 for in a regular supermarket.
I found Rao’s sauce to be very salty. Not what I’m looking for.
Michael’s of Brooklyn has the best
It is the best. Because it’s from Brooklyn. And it’s $12 a jar.
I’m just here to beg y’all to never use the word sebaceous to describe food ever again unless it’s a pimple popping cupcake.
when i saw that i just hoped and prayed they meant herbaceous 😭
Of so many different pasta sauces, my choice is The Mezzetta brand sauces from Northern California.
I love Rao’s.
Reasonably priced at Costco.
Thank you for this review. I enjoyed the read. I’ve a few of these products and really enjoyed them. Rao’s is fan freakin tastic!!!
Alessi’s has an online store that sells their sauces, soup mixes, and many other items.
Victoria Marinara far surpasses Rao’s any day!
Any sauce not cooked with meat (pork, beef, chicken) for several hours is not a real Italian sauce.
You have no idea what you are missing and not reporting on Jordan
Check out Antonio Carlo Gourmet Sauces and be amazed how a true Italian Marinara Sauce SHOULD taste