If you were shopping by packaging alone, you couldn’t go wrong with a Trader Joe’s pasta sauce. They all look like they taste incredible. They all sound like something you’d happily order at a restaurant. But they ain’t all good. Like so many Trader Joe’s products, some are huge finds that you can get for a steal, and others are abysmal failures. Lucky for you, we can tell you which are which, so you don’t suffer on pasta night.
For this taste test, we tried the sauces straight out of the jar on warm pasta (fusilli, specifically). We judged each sauce by how well it clung to the pasta, but primarily we were simply looking for delicious flavor. I think the best pasta sauce at Trader Joe’s should be so good you want to just eat it off a spoon, no noodles needed.
We opened 16 jars of Trader Joe’s pasta sauce, ranging from multiple varieties of Trader Joe’s pesto, to many types of Trader Joe’s tomato sauce, to a few examples of Trader Joe’s spicy pasta sauce. Here’s all those Trader Joe’s pasta sauces, ranked from a big old no thanks to a resounding, seconds, please!
- Trader Joe’s Calabrian Chili Spicy Pasta Sauce
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A lot of people seem to really like Trader Joe’s Calabrian Chili Pasta Sauce. And I really thought I would, too. I like spice. I like spicy pasta. I like the taste of Calabrian chilies. But this Trader Joe’s spicy pasta sauce tasted like old mayo mixed with peppers. I appreciate that this is a unique offering from the Trader Joe’s pasta sauce section. But it’s not executed to its highest—or even its middling—potential.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Giotto’s Organic Tomato Basil Marinara
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If you want the best marinara sauce, this ain’t it. It’s flat and watery and the herbs taste like the old dried stuff you find when you’re moving. (And, if you’re like me, you probably pack it up and take it with you for some reason.) If you’re looking for some basic Trader Joe’s spaghetti sauce, check out the Trader Joe’s tomato sauce in the number six spot.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Joe’s Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce
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Another Trader Joe’s pasta sauce, another mix of tomato and old, dried herbs. It’s not bright. It’s not sweet. It’s not salty. It’s a saucy shadow of flavor. And that’s too bad, because the idea of creamy tomato sauce is so tempting, even though shelf-stable dairy makes me nervous.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Joe’s Rosatella Pasta Sauce
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If you’re looking for a creamy Trader Joe’s tomato sauce, this one is slightly better than the last. The creamy flavor is pretty good and the texture is lovely. But Trader Joe’s once viral pink pasta sauce (a mix of cream, milk, tomato, onion, garlic, herbs, and cheese) tastes off. It tastes like, perhaps, it was supposed to be refrigerated. The cheese in it tastes funky—but not in a classic cheese way, in a suspect way.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Joe’s Lemon Pesto Sauce
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Okay, when you say lemon pesto, here’s what I’m thinking: regular, basil pesto with some preserved lemon. Yum. Sounds great. Sign me up. Here’s what Trader Joe’s made: a sweet (???) lemon curd that ends on a bitter note of lemon rind. They say it’s a blend of sunflower oil, Grana Padano cheese, almonds, pepper, and whole lemons. There’s no sugar, so why is it so sweet? It’s a very, very odd sauce. That said, I do think it would be good on some ricotta toast. But on pasta? No.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Joe’s Basil Pesto
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I like a few pine nuts in my pesto for texture and a hint of nuttiness. But Trader Joe’s pesto treats pine nuts as being as important as basil. This is extremely pine-nutty pesto. It needs more basil. It needs more cheese. At the moment, it’s mostly a pine nut pasta sauce. If that’s your dream, then you’ve found the best pasta sauce at Trader Joe’s for your warped (though still valid) preferences.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Joe’s Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce
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Remember Lunchables pizza sauce? This Trader Joe’s marinara sauce is like its slightly more grown up cousin. It’s sweet and savory—but in a fake way. It doesn’t channel fresh tomatoes and basil. It’s too engineered.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Giotto’s Organic Marinara Sauce
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This Trader Joe’s marinara sauce is about as standard as you can get. It tastes like jarred tomato sauce. No more. No less. If you’ve had Prego or Ragu, you’ve had this Trader Joe’s tomato sauce.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Joe’s Cacio e Pepe Pasta Sauce
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Cacio e pepe is one of those deceptively easy dishes. All you do is mix some cheese and black pepper with pasta and just the right amount of pasta water. You get perfect, silky, cheesy, peppery sauce every time, right? Wrong. More often than not, you end up with spaghetti in spicy cheese water. Trader Joe’s has solved that with this jarred version of the sauce. At least, that was the idea. But it’s too thick and dairy-forward (it’s made with milk) to be a true cacio e pepe sauce. Instead, it’s more like an extra peppery alfredo sauce. And that’s okay! It really coats a piece of pasta and you get a ton of fresh black pepper flavor. There’s a slight acidic twinge in the mix, but I’m not sure you’d notice it if you weren’t looking for it. Of course, now that I’ve mentioned it, you will be looking for it. Just cover it up with more cheese.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Giotto’s Three Cheese Pomodoro Pasta Sauce
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Do you prefer powdered parm over freshly grated parmesan? Do you particularly love the nostalgic appeal of the stuff that comes out of a green can? Then this might be the best pasta sauce at Trader Joe’s for you. It tastes like standard, store-bought marinara mixed with that powdered parm. You’ll get a totally acceptable bowlful of standard spaghetti with this Trader Joe’s pasta sauce. But it’s nothing to write home about.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic Marinara Sauce
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From here on out, we’ll be talking about Trader Joe’s pasta sauces we actually think you should buy. This is where the good stuff starts. This is the best Trader Joe’s marinara sauce we tasted. It tastes like sweet, rich tomatoes and real roasted garlic. But the best thing about it is how oily it is. The best pasta sauce is made with a lot of good quality oil (we prefer olive oil, but this one is made with soybean oil). That gives it the best texture and makes it taste luxurious. This Trader Joe’s tomato sauce isn’t the most unique, but if you’re looking for a classic marinara, it’s your best bet.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Joe’s Alfredo Pasta Sauce
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Trader Joe’s alfredo sauce is actually one of the best store bought alfredo sauces you can buy. It’s creamy and buttery and so cheesy. A lot of jarred alfredo sauce tastes bland or like old butter. But Trader Joe’s alfredo sauce tastes homemade. If cheesy, buttery pasta is what you want, then Trader Joe’s alfredo sauce is what you should get.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Joe’s Organic Roasted Red Pepper and Almond Pesto Sauce
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Made with roasted red bell peppers, Pecorino Romano cheese, almonds, onions, garlic, and a selection of herbs and spices including marjoram, basil, and paprika, this chunky Trader Joe’s pesto is a totally unique offering. It’s not at all like Aldi’s red pesto, for example. It’s almost like a romesco sauce—just without the tomato. It would be great on a pasta salad, but you can also use it on spaghetti, perhaps with some dollops of ricotta. Or use it as a bruschetta spread or even veggie dip. Put this Trader Joe’s pasta sauce to work!
Credit: Merc
- Trader Joe’s Olive and Basil Pesto Sauce
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This stuff totally slaps. It’s super thick with big chunks of olive. And I guess there’s some basil in there too—enough so it can pass as pesto. But mostly, this is a sauce for olive lovers. It’s another good candidate for a pasta salad, but it’d also be good spread onto a sandwich or served as a dip. We really loved this stuff, even though it’s not the most pasta-friendly Trader Joe’s pasta sauce out there.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Joe’s Bolognese Style Tomato & Beef Pasta Sauce
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Pasta with meat sauce was a staple at my home growing up. And this Trader Joe’s spaghetti sauce brought me right back to my childhood dinner table. It has a super meaty flavor, but there’s not a ton of big chunks of meat in the mix. And that’s okay because shelf-stable meat in a jar is weird. (This sauce is 9% meat, though! So it is there!). There’s also a hint of fennel seed flavor, which gives this sauce an Italian sausage flavor. It’s savory. It’s filling. It’s a Trader Joe’s pasta sauce I’ll be buying again.
Credit: Merc
- Trader Giotto’s Organic Vodka Sauce
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Trader Joe’s vodka sauce is the best pasta sauce at Trader Joe’s. It’s creamy (but not, like, cream creamy), and it has a really nice, bright tomato flavor. It’s thick and substantial, but still easy to mix into pasta. And there’s just a soupçon of earthy vodka flavor on the finish. You could easily add some meat or veggies to the sauce. You could use it on noodles or in lasagna or chicken parm. This is a quality pasta sauce for not very much money. It’s the Trader Joe’s pasta sauce that belongs in your pantry.
Credit: Merc
Calabrian Chili
Organic Tomato Basil
Creamy Tomato Basil
Rosatella
Lemon Pesto
Basil Pesto
Tomato Basil Marinara
Organic Marinara
Cacio e Pepe
Three Cheese Pomodoro
Roasted Garlic Marinara
Alfredo
Pepper & Almond Pesto
Olive and Basil Pesto
Bolognese Style
Organic Vodka Sauce
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!