This Is The Best Jarred Pasta Sauce, According To Chefs

In an ideal world, we’d make our own pasta sauce from scratch. In this ideal world we’d also get eight hours of sleep and wine wouldn’t cause hangovers. Well, at least there’s an easy fix for one of these—and it comes in the form of chef-recommended jarred pasta sauce. Yes, you read that correctly. Chefs, the people who make food for a living, actually recommend using Rao’s Homemade pasta sauce. This helpful tidbit comes to us from Insider, who asked four chefs—Rocco DiSpirito, Tony Mantuano, Nate Whiting and Carmine Di Giovanni—and they all listed Rao’s as their number-one favorite grocery-store pasta sauce.

“It has a pure, direct tomato flavor, full of umami, and the acidity is well-balanced,” said Nate. “The texture of the sauce is still somewhat rustic because it’s made from whole tomatoes as opposed to a puree.” The other chefs agreed, saying they enjoy the “bright” flavor and that it’s lower in sodium and has a clean label of ingredients.

We’re sold. You can find Rao’s Homemade in markets across the nation, including Whole Foods and Target.