Sensitive marinara is basically marinara sauce made without garlic and onion, which are common triggers for digestive discomfort. Often, it qualifies as something befitting a low FODMAP diet. And we here at Sporked believe that sensitive marinara, like all diet-friendly foods, should still taste just as good as the non-diet-specific versions. Just because garlic and onion do make things taste really good, doesn’t mean a sauce omitting them should be let off the hook when it comes to flavor.
So, we gathered together eight jars of sensitive marinara sauce (yes, including Rao’s Sensitive Marinara) and had ourselves a belly-friendly taste test. While a few of the sauces tasted like unseasoned tomato puree and nothing more, four stood out as flavorful sauces worthy of your spaghetti. Here’s the best sensitive marinara sauce and low FODMAP marinara to buy.
- Sprouts Organic Sensitive Recipe Marinara
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Sprouts’ sensitive marinara sauce is bright and heavy on the herbs, which makes up for the lack of garlic and onion. It’s rich and sweet, and it tastes like fresh tomatoes. My one quibble with this sauce is the texture. I like my marinara sauce to be thick and oily so it can cling to the noodles. This sauce is definitely on the looser end of the spectrum. But it’s a couple bucks cheaper than our other picks on this list, so if you don’t mind cooking the sauce down just a bit to thicken it up, then I think you’ll be real happy with this sensitive marinara sauce.
Credit: Merc / Sprouts
- Fody Spicy Marinara
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We tried three Fody low FODMAP marinara sauces, but the spicy version was by far the best. It’s really oily, which we love—you’ll see that come up again. It’s extremely vibrant and red. And the heat isn’t too crazy but it’s definitely there and it’s more integrated than if you just sprinkled some red pepper flakes into some sauce. It’s very, very savory with lots of concentrated, roasted tomato flavor. So many FODMAP-specific products are bland; this is not.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Carbone Marinara Delicato
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Good news for all you Deuxmoi girlies who want to partake of Carbone’s marinara sauce but have sensitive stomachs. The trendy sauce brand makes a really good sensitive marinara. It’s very, very oily in the best way. This jar will make a deluxe bowl of pasta, worthy of the celebs who frequent brick-and-mortar Carbone. The tomato flavor is gentle—it’s not too acidic—but it’s still rich enough to balance out the punch of the basil and oregano. It’s the most expensive sauce on this list, but it might just be worth it if you want your sauce to really cling to every noodle.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Rao’s Sensitive Marinara
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You’ve waited patiently, so now here’s our Rao’s sensitive marinara review: Like so many other Rao’s products, it’s great. Yes, even now that they are owned by Campbell’s, Rao’s still makes delicious sauces, and their low FODMAP marinara sauce is no exception. Out of all the sauces we tasted, Rao’s sensitive marinara was the most flavorful. It’s packed with intense tomato flavor—almost like sun dried tomato. It has a good glug of oil in the mix, but not as much as Carbone. It’ll still stick to your pasta, though. Rao’s makes the best marinara sauce, sensitive marinara sauce included.
Credit: Merc / Target
Best Budget
Best Spicy
Best Rich
Best of the Best
Other sensitive marinara sauce brands we tried: Fody Marinara, Prego Sensitive Recipe Traditional, Mezzetta Sensitive Marinara, Fody Tomato Basil
Just a heads up for people looking for another jar of sensitive that doesn’t call it out on the jar, the Four Cheese Rao’s is also made with no onions or garlic. So, if you are able to handle a small amount of lactose from the cheese, then this jar will also work and tastes better than the regular Sensitive Marinara.