The Best Store-Bought Tomato Sauce? Why Everyone Loves Rao's

If there’s a single Italian recipe that generations of cooks fuss and disagree over with equal relish, it’s tomato sauce. Do you use fresh tomatoes or canned? Olive oil or butter? Let it simmer for an hour or a day? It always depends. If there’s any agreement among foodies about marinara sauce, it’s probably this: Don’t use the stuff that comes in a jar. Except if it’s Rao’s. While serious foodies may turn up their noses at the likes of Ragu or Prego, a startling consensus emerges when it comes to the brand that sits alongside them on supermarket shelves: It’s good. It’s very good. In 2021, New York Magazine asked a group of renowned chefs to recommend a brand of sauce in a jar. They chose Rao’s. The Today show called Rao’s “the boss of the sauce.” Lifestyle influencer Camille Styles ranked Rao’s at the top, as has Martha Stewart. Then there’s Bon Appétit magazine, which proclaimed in 2018: “Rao’s is the best jarred pasta sauce there ever was.” The Exclusion Zone The Rao’s Homemade recipe hails from Rao’s restaurant, which opened as a tavern in 1896 and still serves up traditional Italian fare in its original (very tiny) space. While the restaurant is no longer corporately affiliated with the sauce, its very existence is like free advertising. The eatery has just four tables and six booths (capacity: 60) and it doesn't take reservations. Instead, Rao’s assigns tables to regulars, which reportedly include the likes of Martin Scorsese, who show up faithfully on designated nights of the week. Tables are even passed down through generations as an inheritance, which means the buyers of Rao’s Homemade are actually getting more than they realize. It’s not just a jar of marinara sauce—it’s the closest thing to dinner at Rao’s that most of us will ever have. No mean feat, that. But since tomato sauce is relatively straightforward stuff (famed food writer Marcella Hazan’s legendary recipe had only four ingredients), how exactly does Rao’s distinguish itself? “What sets Rao’s Homemade apart is that our sauces use whole Italian tomatoes and are slow cooked in open kettles to unlock the most delicious taste and texture of true Italian cooking,” Risa Cretella, evp of Rao’s Homemade owner Sovos Brands, told Adweek. That’s not just bravado. Rao’s sauce really is made in Italy, with tomatoes grown in the San Marzano region. Other jarred sauces contain powdered spices while Rao’s uses the fresh stuff. But what’s missing from the batch is just as important as what’s in it. “Rao’s Homemade contains no tomato blends, paste, water, starches, colors or added sugar,” Cretella added. Let's Get Sauced The restaurant began bottling the marinara sauce used in Rao's kitchen (top) for retail sale—a wholehearted attempt to give a taste of the place to diners who couldn't get a reservation. Today, Sovos Brands sells a full line of Rao's pasta sauces (bottom). It probably doesn’t hurt that there’s a genuine legacy behind Rao’s Homemade, too. The brand takes its name from Rao’s restaurant, the 127-year-old legend in Manhattan's East Harlem. Rao’s was an insider place until New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton gave it three stars in a 1977 review. Suddenly, everyone in town wanted a table. To assuage the masses he turned away, co-owner Ron Straci decided to start bottling the restaurant’s signature marinara sauce. That was 1992. Rao’s Homemade has won plaudits ever since. The restaurant eventually extended its name to an entire line—Rao’s Specialty Foods—snapped up in 2017 by Sovos Brands, which also owns Noosa Yoghurt and the Michael Angelo’s line of frozen Italian entrees. Sovos runs its business out of an old bank building in Montclair, N.J. But the sauce—and this is the point to remember—is still made in Italy. Keep It In the Family For decades, co-owners Frank Pellegrino Sr. (who died in 2017) and Jr. (l.) have been a visible presence at Rao's, whose iconic corner storefront still anchors the center of the sauce jar label (center). The secret of Rao's secret sauce are the tomatoes (r.), which are still grown in San Marzano, Italy, where the sauce is also made.

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The Best Store-Bought Tomato Sauce? Why Everyone Loves Rao's Homemade

Chefs and foodies rave about the brand, named after an iconic Italian Manhattan restaurant

Robert Klara

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Robert Klara