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Jars of Pasta Sauce

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Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Apr 19, 2022 11:39 pm

I make most things like sauces from scratch, but over the years I’ve often bought good Marinara sauce - the basic tomato sauce made from slow simmering of tomatoes with a bit of onion, garlic and herbs.

My reasoning, as suggested by the late Barbara Kafka, is that if you are going to start by opening three cans of tomatoes, and add little apart from the time taken to reduce them down to a thick sauce, you might as well just open a jar and not waste time and fuel

I used to buy the Barilla brand, which I can’t get any more, it’s on their US site but not the UK one
Ingredients:
DICED TOMATOES IN TOMATO JUICE, TOMATO PUREE (WATER, TOMATO PASTE), ONIONS, GARLIC, SEA SALT, BASIL, EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL, OREGANO, CITRIC ACID (ACIDITY REGULATOR), NATURAL FLAVOR.


I’ve been looking around and the only other brand easily available is Seggiano which I’ll try though it’s quite expensive

I was surprised, and so looked at a few other pasta sauces and discovered that ‘Bolognese” sauce in jars is remarkably similar (no meat, vegan)

Here’s Napolina
Chopped Tomato (53%), Tomato Paste Double Concentrated (17%), Water, Onion (7%), Sugar, Cornflour, Garlic, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Red Wine Vinegar, Salt, Black Pepper, Oregano, Acidity Regulator: Citric Acid, Basil, Bay Leaves, Paprika Extract

Here’s Mr Organic, which I think I might try
Italian Sun Ripened Tomatoes (89.5%), Onions (7.8%), Basil, Garlic, Lemon Juice, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Sea Salt*, Parsley, Black Pepper, Thyme, Oregano, Fennel Seeds, All from Organic Agriculture, *= Permitted non-organic ingredient

So two questions
1 how do they get away with calling it “Bolognese”?

2 any recommendations for this sort of thing?

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Suffs » Wed Apr 20, 2022 12:03 am

1. Not a Scooby … or is it that a Bol Sauce isn’t a ragù and vice versa?

2. Just avoid any of the jars with Lloyd Grossman on them … they taste of little more than raw flour.

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Apr 20, 2022 12:13 am

For comparison, here’s Felicity’s inevitable review of Bolognese recipes, definitely meaty
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... -bolognese

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Rainbow » Wed Apr 20, 2022 12:37 am

I thought the jars of Bolognese sauce were just meant to be added to your meaty ingredients.
I never thought they had meat in them, but I've never bought them because the other ones sound better for a vegetarian meal!! Obviously no different, though :lol:

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Earthmaiden » Wed Apr 20, 2022 1:23 am

Like Rainbow, I thought they were added to meat to make 'Bolognese'. A bit like a cake mix where you still have to add butter and egg.

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Suelle » Wed Apr 20, 2022 7:45 am

As others have said, I thought the idea was that the 'cook' added their own meat or vegetables to make the sauce into a substantial meal.

That doesn't necessarily make a jar of sauce labelled 'bolognese' much like one made from scratch, but I don't suppose people using them bother that much.
Traditional home baking, and more:
http://mainlybaking.blogspot.co.uk/

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Apr 20, 2022 10:43 am

Earthmaiden wrote:Like Rainbow, I thought they were added to meat to make 'Bolognese'. A bit like a cake mix where you still have to add butter and egg.

I thought that at first but
A there are no instructions on the jar that mention using it as base, the implication is that they are complete sauces. I have found a couple of brands labelled as “tomato sauce for [making] Bolognese“

B the “Bolognese” is in ranges in which all the other matching varieties are finished heat and eat sauces like puttanesca or arrabiata

C you can in fact buy meaty Bolognese in jars, sometimes actually labelled as meat or beef Bolognese as if meat wasn’t a required ingredient - M&S make one labelled Sugo di Bolognese Meat Bolognese sauce for example

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Earthmaiden » Wed Apr 20, 2022 11:24 am

Well, in that case it's a bit poor!
The only 'Spaghetti Bolognese' ready made with meat I've seen is the Heinz tins (but I haven't been looking). I'm secretly quite fond of them on toast but it's hardly a decent Bolognese sauce!

You are certainly right about having to read labels carefully.

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Apr 20, 2022 11:47 am

I’m coming to the conclusion that Bolognese is now shorthand for “pasta sauce *nos”

*nos = not otherwise specified

Will try to find a good one, otherwise it’s a trip to the Turkish supermarket for a big can of good tomatoes and try to do something creative in the Instant Pot

I like to have little tubs of sauce in the freezer for instant sprucing up of leftovers or pasta

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby liketocook » Wed Apr 20, 2022 11:49 am

1. I suspect it's in the same camp as the jars of carbonara sauce ......
2. My sister swears by the Mutti brand https://groceries.asda.com/product/toma ... 20Products and I've used the Seeds of Change one for a quick meal with stuffed pasta https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/p ... /255714243 . I find the Seeds of change sauce quite sweet but nothing a quick dash of lemon juice or red wine vinegar doesn't balance.

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Apr 20, 2022 11:56 am

Ooh LTC - I wondered about Muti, they are in my local deli, never heard of them before yesterday
They also do cans of pizza base sauce which could be handy

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby liketocook » Wed Apr 20, 2022 12:03 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:Ooh LTC - I wondered about Muti, they are in my local deli, never heard of them before yesterday
They also do cans of pizza base sauce which could be handy

The pizza base sauce is very good Sue.

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Amyw » Wed Apr 20, 2022 6:31 pm

Mutti are OK. Some of the staff at work buy pre made bolognese sauces but none of them have meat in . They’re just to be added to the meat /veg etc . Mind you the likes of Dolmio etc are worlds apart from a decent tomato sauce with no nasties in .

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby miss mouse » Thu Apr 21, 2022 12:26 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:Ooh LTC - I wondered about Muti, they are in my local deli, never heard of them before yesterday



Mutti tomatoes showed up in Waitrose two years ago approx, they are very good, better than Cirio I think, I look for the discounts. I don't know about the sauces.

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Apr 21, 2022 1:19 pm

I’ve had a look at Muti online - they don’t in fact seem to sell pasta sauces, just tomatoes, passata, purée and the pizza sauce

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby liketocook » Thu Apr 21, 2022 2:48 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:I’ve had a look at Muti online - they don’t in fact seem to sell pasta sauces, just tomatoes, passata, purée and the pizza sauce

They do sell pasta sauces Sue, you can get them in Asda and Tesco (and no doubt others) that I know of https://groceries.asda.com/product/toma ... 20Products and in bulk from Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mutti-Tomato-P ... 07130&th=1

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Apr 21, 2022 3:20 pm

Thanks, I was looking at the Muti website, pasta sauces are there but they seem to be something of an afterthought and I didn't find them first time round

No ingredients list

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby MagicMarmite » Thu Apr 21, 2022 5:25 pm

These days I often buy jarred tomato sauce, I know it's lazy but with just me eating I'm ok with that.
At around 70p for a supermarket brand I can't be bothered faffing with ingredients either.


It's funny because I learned to cook so as not to feed my daughter rubbish, and to instill a love of cooking and good food in her, but now she's left home, I rarely cook properly, it's why I don't post must, I still read often, but have little to add, no one wants to see or hear about me eating toasties/cheese/noodles/cheese/pasta with a jar!

As for nutrients, I figure if I eat a reasonable amount of fruit and veg I'll be fine.

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby liketocook » Thu Apr 21, 2022 8:17 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:Thanks, I was looking at the Muti website, pasta sauces are there but they seem to be something of an afterthought and I didn't find them first time round

No ingredients list

How annoying Sue! From the Asda website the ingredients for the tomato & basil version are
Chopped Tomatoes 81%, Tomato Paste 12%, Olive Oil, Sugar, Basil 0.9%, Onion, Celery, Salt, Natural Flavourings with 5.6g carbs and 0.6g salt per 100g which probably compares fairly well to homemade.

MM if it works for you then I'm not going to knock it, as you say plenty of F&V for the nutrients. :) I know when it was just me I found it hard at times to be motivated and tbh if it wasn't for the often high salt content (and sometimes cost depending on item) I probably would have used more pre-prepared stuff.

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Re: Jars of Pasta Sauce

Postby herbidacious » Fri Apr 22, 2022 8:17 am

The Sauce Shop do a rather good ‘mother’ sauce but I’ve not seen it in supermarkets - have had to buy it online. (Otherwise I have a favourite brand I stock up on when in France.)
https://www.sauceshop.co/collections/cook-in-sauces#

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