Wilder Shaw / Cheapism
Pasta is a cheap meal at most grocery stores, but with Trader Joe’s slinging high-quality bags at 99 cents a piece, you’ve probably wondered what sauce to grab off the shelf to accompany it. There are far more options than you’d expect, ranging from organic and spicy to creamy and cheesy. To help you make an informed decision during your next TJ's visit, here are 10 Trader Joe’s tomato sauces, ranked.
Prices and availability are subject to change.
$4.99
I adore this. It’s spicy, but measured. It’s creamy, but not too rich. It’s sticky enough to cling to pasta or meatballs, but still delicate enough to be a good sauce. Calabrian chilies have such a beautiful flavor. The flavor profile here is actually more like a traditional vodka sauce than the actual vodka sauce. I’m ready to make chicken parm out of this beautiful stuff.
Related: Target, Walmart, Aldi: Which Cheap Pasta Sauce Is a Winner?
$1.99
You probably don’t need me to tell you that this is the closest thing to a traditional marinara sauce. It’s the most standard, basic pasta sauce you can get at Trader Joe’s. It speaks volumes that even against sauces made with Calabrian chilies, cheese, and cream, this lands at No. 2 on the list. The consistency is great, speckled with pepper, garlic, and basil, and there’s a richness to the tomatoes that I really love. This has to be one of the best standard-flavor pasta sauces you can eat. It’s got the ability to elevate any pasta dish it may touch.
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$2.99
I love a vodka sauce, for the most part. My favorite version, unfortunately, is the kind that uses a lot of cream, and I’m not feeling those flavors here. This is thick and full of olive oil-soaked chunks of tomato, but it’s not creamy. Though it may not be what you have in mind, I like it a lot.
$1.99
This is essentially the tomato basil sauce with a lot more garlic in it. That would normally be the recipe for an improved version in my eyes, but with the addition of garlic it seems like the basil might have fallen away. If there was a more herbaceous flavor from an extra dose of basil, this would soar a lot higher.
$2.99
There’s far more flavor here than I’d ever have expected. It’s perhaps a little bit too salty, but pasta’s starchiness will surely help with that. I like the thick tomato chunks. My only complaint? Cheese it up a bit, Joe. I’d love some more cheese in this alleged three-cheese pomodoro.
$3.49
This is spicy, alright. Tomato and pepper are certainly here, but I have to tell you, this sauce tastes a lot more like bean-based chili than tomato-based pasta sauce to me. Stick this on some spaghetti and you’ve basically got Cincinnati-style chili. Though I do love the spice, I wish it wasn’t the only flavor. This could use a lot more depth.
$3.99
My word, this is salty. If we could tone the salt down a bit, we’d have ourselves a killer bolognese. There’s plenty of beef, which helps add heartiness, but this 500mg-of-sodium-per-serving bomb is hard to handle in large quantities.
$3.79
Like every other Bourdain-worshiping millennial, I like cacio e pepe a lot. It’s the best way to trick me into eating a creamy, white pasta sauce. I love the Trader Joe’s frozen cacio e pepe meal, but for some reason, this sauce doesn’t hit as hard. You really need melty cheese to complete the experience, and this sauce has none of that. If you’re in the market for cacio e pepe, I’d say just grab the pasta meal from the freezer section.
$3.49
This is so unbelievably weird. Calling this “pasta sauce” feels like a leap. There’s no way you’d pour this on top of some rigatoni and feel like you were correctly eating a meal. This is more like pesto or tapenade, full of chunky artichoke and whole black peppercorns. It’s thick, salty, and as briny as an olive. I can see a world where a dollop of this on top of another pasta sauce might be delicious. Otherwise, it’s a gigantic mystery to me.
$3.79
Alfredo sauce is a tough one. It’s one of the most aggressive things you can consume. Every time I eat it, I feel like I’m playing a game of chicken with my own body. The Trader Joe’s Alfredo sauce is no less intense than anybody else’s, but the liberal amount of lemon that’s been added here is interesting. I can’t tell if it helps or hurts the Alfredo experience, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. If you want Alfredo, you’re getting Alfredo. Fun fact: I used to work for an Italian restaurant where many people would order chicken parmigiana, except they would request to sub the marinara sauce for Alfredo sauce. That concept still haunts my deepest nightmares.