We Taste-Tested 24 Marinara Sauces—Here Are Our Favorites

Though I make my own marinara sauce most of the time, I have a soft spot for the jarred stuff because I grew up on it. Even today, despite my preference for homemade, I still like to keep a jar of marinara sauce in my pantry: Whether you’re using it as the base for chicken or eggplant Parmesan, baked ziti, or simply tossing it with pasta for an easy dinner, a jar of premade tomato sauce is especially handy in a pinch. Today, there are an overwhelming number of marinara sauces to choose from. But which is worth buying?

To find the very best marinara sauces, our editors sampled 24 different marinara sauces you’re likely to find at your local supermarket or online. We placed each in bowls, then sampled them in random order without knowing which sauce was which. After tasting our way through 24 marinara sauces (and suffering some serious heartburn), we tabulated the results and crowned two winners that we’d be happy to keep in our own kitchen.

The Criteria

Marinara sauce should be well-seasoned and balanced. It should have a natural sweetness and acidity from the tomatoes, but taste neither aggressively sharp nor overly sweetened with additional sugar. There should be savory depth and a hint of herbaceous flavor from oregano and/or basil. It should also have a nice, thick texture that’s neither too watery nor too chunky, with some noticeable pieces of tomato and specks of herbs or alliums.

Overall Winners

Mezzetta Marinara Sauce

Every single one of our tasters loved this marinara sauce, which was well-balanced and flavorful in all the right ways. Our senior social media editor Kelli found it pleasantly tangy, and our associate visuals editor Amanda thought it had a nice tomato flavor. This sauce had just the right texture, too: “A little chunky in a nice way,” Amanda wrote. Similarly, our associate editorial director Megan, found it “nicely thick but not pasty.” Our editorial director Daniel enjoyed this sauce so much he decided that the two best sauces should be tied for first. (See below.)

Rao’s Marinara Pasta Sauce

Like Mezzetta’s marinara sauce, Rao’s had great tomato flavor and just the right amount of chunk. “Fruity, fresh tomato flavor,” Daniel wrote. “Classic marinara vibes.” (He correctly clocked this as Rao’s.) Megan described it as “nicely salty and not too sweet,” and appreciated that there was “no weird aftertaste.” Our editors liked the sauce’s crushed texture, which had an appropriate amount of chunks without being too thick. “Good crushed/puréed texture with some tomato-y bits,” Daniel wrote. 

The Contenders

• 365 by Whole Foods Market Organic Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Bertolli Traditional Marinara sauce
• Bionaturae Organic Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Botticelli Marinara Sauce
• Carbone Marinara Sauce
• Cento Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Classico Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Franceso Rinaldi Marinara Sauce
• Kirkland Signature Organic Tuscan Marinara Sauce
• Matriark Gentle Marinara Sauce
• Mezzetta Marinara Sauce
• Michael’s of Brooklyn Marinara Sauce
• Muir Glen Classic Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Newman’s Marinara Sauce
• Paesana Marinara Sauce
• Pomì Marinara Sauce
• Prego Classic Marinara Sauce
• Ragú Old World Style Marinara Sauce
• Rao’s Homemade Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Target Good & Gather Marinara Sauce
• Trader Joe’s “Trader Giotto’s” Tomato Basil Marinara
• Victoria Marinara Sauce
• Wegman’s Smooth Marinara Sauce
• Yo Mama’s Original Marinara

In Conclusion

Many marinara sauces are made with tomato purée, a cooked and strained tomato product. Both our winners start with whole plum tomatoes, according to their ingredient lists: Mezzetta’s from Italy and California, and Rao’s from Italy. As we touched on in our guide to canned tomato products, whole peeled tomatoes are often made from the ripest fruits, and allow manufacturers and home cooks to have more control over the final texture of whatever they’re preparing. 

Other common ingredients in marinara sauce are sugar, dried flavorings like alliums and herbs, as well as calcium chloride to help the tomatoes keep their shape and citric acid for additional tartness. Our editors' ratings indicated that marinara sauces with added sugar were often described as excessively sweet, while those made with citric acid were often described as unpleasantly tart (keep in mind, the tasters didn't know which sauces they were tasting nor their ingredients). 

Neither of our winners contain sugar, calcium chloride, and citric acid, and are instead made with just a handful of ingredients: whole peeled tomatoes, olive oil, onions, salt, garlic, basil, black pepper. The only difference between the two is that Rao’s contains oregano and Mezzetta’s contains “spices,” which according to the Food and Drug Administration, could refer to any “aromatic vegetable substances.”

The takeaway? For the most balanced and flavorful marinara sauce, look for one that’s made with whole peeled tomatoes and contains a short ingredient list, with no added sugar or citric acid.

Our Testing Methodology

All taste tests are conducted with brands completely hidden and without discussion. Tasters taste samples in random order. For example, taster A may taste sample one first, while taster B will taste sample six first. This is to prevent palate fatigue from unfairly giving any one sample an advantage. Tasters are asked to fill our tasting sheets ranking the samples for various criteria. All data is tabulated and results are calculated with no editorial input in order to give us the most impartial representation of actual results possible.