#1 Carbone PLAIN marinara
#2 Carmine’s
#3 tied: Lidia’s and Trader Joe’s Calabrian
Best: Rao’s Homemade
FWIW… personally, I prefer a sweeter sauce so I utterly reject both Rao’s and Hazan’s canned tomato, butter, hint of onion sauce. I stick with Ragu Chunky Garden Style. Not sure I ever tried Ragu’s main competitor, Prego.
So, based on your comments, I bought jars of both Carbone’s and Michael’s of Brooklyn when I saw them both at Wegmans a couple of weeks ago.
Used the Michael’s tonight in a bolognese-type meat sauce. But I tasted it first as-is. WOW. This was excellent! Very fresh tasting, and tomatoey. Price for a 32 oz jar was $8.49, vs the Carbone’s, which was $7.49 for 24 oz. Haven’t yet tried the Carbone’s.
Can’t recall the Rao’s price I get at BJ’s for two 22 oz jars, but what hit me me was when my sister asked about “the sugars”. Michael’s has them beat hands down on sugar, sodium, total fat, and calories. AND fresh tomato flavor! I think I have a new Marinara Sauce!
MICHAEL’S
4g sugar
320mg Sodium
2g total fat
45 Calories/serving
CARBONE’S
5g sugar
410mg Sodium
7g total fat
90 Calories/serving
RAO’S
4g sugar
420mg Sodium
7g total fat
100 Calories/serving
I’ll check out Michael’s!
I’m so glad you liked it. I’m tired of all,the Raos hype
I’ll peep up for TJ’s Arrabbiata. Cheap and good.
Uh oh! I have another contender. In a recent Serious Eats supermarket marinara taste test, the winner was Mezzetta. When I opened the jars a saw a bit of oil on top, and a chunky sauce. It wa s delicious .
Sugars 5
Sodium 520
Fat 8
Calories 100
The one that started this thread, you mean? 
Mezzetta is higher in sugar, fat & sodium than Rao’s.
Oh yes, I meant to say I’ve got Mezzetta on my list to search for in Market Basket, but haven’t been there in several weeks.
But yikes on the sodium and calories. But will still check it out. Hopefully the have small jars at MB.
It’s been a while!!
LOL. I had forgotten that it started this thread too!
I swear this April feels like it’s been a whole year 
haven’t seen small jars at mb. i love alone, so what i do is split it up. into 3 or 4 servings that i freeze — if you use glass jars (as i do), just made sure you leave some headroom.
Since I live on my own as well, ditto on using what I need, if not the entire jar, and freezing in 1 or 2 cup increments for later use.
I’m an unabashed fan of Mezzetta’s for my jarred pasta sauce needs. What I haven’t seen in this discussion so far (and if I overlooked it, I apologize in advance) is that Mezzetta has two lines of pasta sauce. Their “regular” which was part of the Serious Eats taste test and their “Artisan Ingredients” line which differs by using only Italian San Marzano tomatoes and EVOO instead of “imported olive oil” and a mix of Italian and American tomatoes . To my dubiously sophisticated palate, I think the Artisan line is more flavorful and definitely worth trying if you haven’t already. The retail price point is a little higher, however it’s regularly on sale in my area (Southern California; So I’m engaging in a little bit of West Coast Bias, and Mezzetta is a Californian company, as opposed to America’s Test Kitchen which has a strong East Coast bias in many of their product comparisons IMO).
At $3.99 it is a bargain. I would stock up if it was my fave and i saw that price. I generally have 4 or 5 jars of sauce in the pantry.
just realized thed double entendre my typo created:)
the first mezzetta i had was the reg-parm, which, at the time, i didn’t was the artisan. my supermarket stopped carrying it, but, i’ve found the three-cheese a more than adequate substitute.
I’ve not seen the artisan line, but I’ll be on the lookout for them.
Quite frankly, if I liked it AND saw it on sale for $3.99/24 oz. jar vs $10.49? I’d buy out the lot of it. 
Well, I wasn’t going to point it out, but… 
