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Tag: pasta sauce

De Cecco Potato Gnocchi & Rana Alfredo Sauce Review

October 28, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Both are good, but not together

I love gnocchi, but only when they are light and fluffy, with the right proportion of potato to flour. Because it is hard to get it right, I never make gnocchi – so it’s usually something I eat at restaurants. You can, however, buy pre-made, ready-to-boil gnocchi and once in a while I get them. They are OK, but not great.

De Cecco potato gnocchi ($2.50 on sale from $4) are among the best of the bunch. They are pretty light, though still heavier than I would like. Flavor wise, they are a little too bitter and in need of another pinch of nutmeg, but they are not bad. They do cook very fast (mine are overcooked in the photo).

Ingredients are dried potato flakes, potato starch, flour, rice flour, spices, salt, lactid acid.

I served the gnocchi with Rana Alfredo Sauce ($3 on sale from $6), sold refrigerated. I have liked this sauce before, but it didn’t really vibe well with the gnocchi, the combination had an unpleasantish bitter flavor. The sauce is pretty good as a dipping sauce, and I would buy it again, but not serve it with gnocchi.

It’s made with cream, parmigiano reggiano, onions, pecorino romano, food starch, natural flavors, salt, autolyzed yeast extract, garlic and spice.

See other reviews of pasta & pasta sauces

Mezetta Three Cheese Sauce Review

April 20, 2026 / / 0 Comments

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.

Mezzetta Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce Review

December 7, 2025 / / 0 Comments

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.

Carando Meatballs + Signature Reserve Pasta Sauce Reviews

October 3, 2021 / / 1 Comment

Won’t buy again

Last time I made ravioli, I paired them with Signature Reserve Tomato, Porcini & Black Truffle Pasta Sauce ($6, on sale for $4 for 21 oz jar at Safeway) and Carando spicy Sicilian meatballs. I suspected the combination wasn’t going to work and it didn’t – but I also tasted each ingredient separately and I was not impressed with either the sauce or the meatballs.

Signature Reserve Pasta Sauce Tomato Porcini & Black Truffle - 21.2 Oz

Signature Reserve appears to be a premium version of Safeway/Albertson’s store brand. They cost more than twice than regular Signature pasta sauces and this one, at least, was imported from Italy and claimed to be made from a “Porchettini family recipe”. I’m not sure who they are, but a recipe needs to come from someone or other.

This particular sauce wasn’t bad, if you really like the flavor of artificial truffle. Basically what you get is a pretty fresh, tomato forward sauce, immediately followed by an intense black truffle flavor that lingers on. Now, I learned last year that the flavors of actual truffles and artificial truffle is quite different, and what most of us understand as black truffle is artificial – so I was expecting this sauce to taste that way. Perhaps not as intensely as it does, however. It’s not bad, but the truffle in the sauce will obfuscate any other flavor that surrounds it.

While I wouldn’t order this particular pasta sauce again, I might try one of the other ones – they have at least five other flavors.

Carando Meatballs Italian Style Sicilian Recipe Hot - 16 Oz

I am a huge fan of meatballs but I don’t make them often enough because if I have ground beef and I’m going to eat it with pasta, I end up making a meat sauce instead and then it feels redundant. I figured that if I buy the meatballs already made, I could would just eat them with pasta and store-bought tomato sauce for a very quick dinner. I have yet to find a good brand of refrigerated or frozen meatballs however and these, despite its fancy packaging, weren’t them.

The main problem is that they are too dense and heavy. Indeed, these meatballs only contain ground pork, cheese and spices. They don’t have bread to make them light and airy. Baking them as per the instructions, doesn’t contribute to making them any lighter.

I wasn’t thrilled by the flavor either, but that’s my fault for buying spicy meatballs. Who knows what prompted me to do that. Still, having tried them their dense consistency is enough of a deterrent to try any other flavors.

Creamy Pesto Sauce Recipe

September 14, 2021 / / 0 Comments

My basil has been incredible this year – at least the one I keep by my kitchen window. It started from a small pot I got at the supermarket in the spring and since then it’s grown, grown and grown. It’s done significantly better than the basil we’re keeping on a pot inside.

And what better to do with basil than to make creamy pesto? The recipe below is very basic but it works. You may need to use less Parmesan-Romano cheese if you use a high quality one – I just went with a pre-shredded supermarket brand because it’s cheap and easy. I used walnuts, as I already had them, and they’re far cheaper than pine nuts – but, of course, pine nuts are tastier and more traditional.

If you are looking for a vegan version, try this one.

Creamy Pesto Sauce

  • 2 cups basil leaves
  • 5 garlic cloves, 3 whole and 2 minced
  • 3/4 cup grated Parmesan-Romano cheese
  • 1/2 cup olive oil plus more for sautéing
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream

Using an electric food processor, puree the basil leaves, whole garlic cloves, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, pine nuts and salt and pepper.

Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a small saucepan. Add the chopped garlic and sauteé for 30 seconds. Add the pesto sauce and sauteé for another 30 seconds. Add the cream and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes.

Cucina & Amore Arrabbiata Pasta Sauce

July 28, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I got this pasta sauce at Grocery Outlet ($2 for a 17.6 oz box) because I was looking for a higher-quality pasta sauce to go with a dish I was making for dinner.  This sauce, made in Italy, contains all natural ingredients: tomatoes, tomato paste, sweet red peppers, evoo, anchovy paste, salt, parsley, garlic, sugar and chili powder.   The results is a very nice and fresh tasting sauce, with a strong (but pleasant) red pepper flavor.  My daughter found the sauce too sour, and I have to agree with her though that wasn’t a problem with me.  It didn’t go well with the dish I made, the flavor of the sauce is too strong to mix in with other ingredients, but I think it’d be pleasant enough by itself.  At $2 for basically 2-cups worth of sauce it’s a pretty expensive for a place like Grocery Outlet, but I think it’s worth it.

Note, because the sauce comes in a box rather than a jar, you can’t actually reseal it so plan to use it quickly.

Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes and Cream

February 24, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I got this recipe for Farfalle with Sausage, Tomatoes, and Cream from epicurious.com (where else?) and quite enjoyed it. This is comfort food at its best, nothing out of this world or fancy but it can really hit the spot.

  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 lb sweet Italian sausage, loose
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup whipping cream
  • salt & pepper

Heat oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ausage and saute until it’s no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion is soft and the sausage has browned, about 3 more minutes. Mix in the tomato and cream, reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper if needed.
Serve on pasta with Parmesan cheese.

Marga’s Best Recipes

Pasta with Gorgonzola sauce

October 30, 2009 / / 0 Comments

I made this epicurious.com recipe for Linguine with Pears and Gorgonzola Cheese using spaghetti but otherwise faithfully following the instructions. We found the sauce pretty good and appreciated the texture element that the pears brought to it – but all in all we found it an unnecessary element. Next time I’ll just skip them. I’m typing up the recipe because 1) epicurious.com has this habit of changing the urls of their recipes and 2) after the closure of Gourmet I’m concerned about how long epicurious.com may be around.
Pasta with Gorgonzola sauce

  • 12 oz pasta
  • 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 5 oz Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
  • 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup whipping cream
  • salt & pepper
  • 1/3 cup chopped roasted pecans

Boil water and cook the pasta. Drain.
Meanwhile, melt butter over medium heat in a large, deep skillet. Add the rosemary and cook for 1 minute, stirring.
Add the chicken broth, Gorgonzola cheese, Parmesan cheese and cream. Mix well. Simmer until the sauce is somewhat thick, about 6 minutes, whisking occasionally. Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the pasta and the pecans. Mix well and cook for about 3 more minutes.

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