Tag: Mezetta

Sometimes non-natural is tastier

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m currently in a cooking strike. Meanwhile, my youngest daughter has been doing a lot of cooking for herself. This means that commercial pasta sauce has reappeared in our kitchen.

In the last few years, a number of premium pasta sauces have made their appearance at the supermarket, led by Rao’s, named after the famous pasta restaurant in NYC. What characterizes premium sauces are that they are made with actual whole tomatoes and olive oil. Regular pasta sauces, on the other hand, are made with tomato puree and soybean or canola oil (Ragú, Prego) or a combination of tomato puree and diced tomatoes (Barilla, Bertolli and Classico).

Mezetta is the premium bland that most often goes on sale at Safeway, so I’ve now tried several of its flavors. I reviewed the roasted garlic one before. The ingredients for the basic sauce include “Italian Plum Tomatoes from Italy’s San Marzano Region, California Plum Tomatoes, Imported Olive Oil, Fresh Onions, Sea Salt, Fresh Garlic, Fresh Basil, Black Pepper, Spices,” plus whatever flavoring the particular sauce has. This one had cheese. It tasted exactly like would expect: tomato sauce with cheese. It’s actually pretty good as a dipping sauce. it has a very fresh, bright flavor and the cheese adds even more umami. I like it less on top of pasta. Served on ravioli, it was too acidic to compliment rather than overwhelm the filling. Even on just plain spaghetti, the acidity of the flavor is a bit too much. It needs something more substantial and absorbent, such as bread, to truly shine.

This, btw, has been my general complaint with the premium sauces – they are just not as good on pasta as the more cooked down, old-style and cheaper red sauces. Premium pastas tend to win taste tests when they are tasted on their own – and I can totally understand that – but it’s different to eat a whole bowl of pasta than taste a spoonful of pasta sauce.

Meh

I’ve been trying to up my game as far as jarred pasta sauce goes, and try some of the more “gourmet” sauces, which are made with actual tomatoes, rather than tomato paste, and more natural ingredients. So far, I haven’t really been impressed with any of these sauces, though perhaps I will need to do my own blind test to see which ones I actually prefer.

I bought Mezzetta roasted garlic sauce when it was on sale, but it’s usually around $9 at my local Safeway. The tomato flavor is pretty bright, and I did like the relative chunkyness. The roasted garlic flavor was a bit off putting, but that’s my fault for ordering roasted garlic sauce when I’m not the hugest fan of roasted garlic. Mostly, though, I felt it tasted very generic. I’m not sure I’d be able to tell it apart from a cheaper brand.

I tried it both on gnocchi and by itself with bread, and I definitely preferred it on its own. I may try another flavor to give it a real chance.