Are Any of the New-School Tomato Sauces As Good As Rao’s?
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I feel confident in saying that if you ask pretty much anyone what the best jarred tomato sauce is, they’ll answer, “Rao’s.” The product originated out of the elusive East Harlem–based restaurant that opened in 1896, hitting shelves in 1992 (it was acquired by Campbell Soup Company in 2023). The point: It’s been around and has stayed consistently good, even through widespread growth, the introduction of nearly two dozen flavors, and said acquisition. It’s apantry staplefor more than ten of my colleagues.
But over the last several years, quite a few tomato sauces have hit shelves — including ones from other New York restaurants. I was curious to know how they stacked up against Rao’s. Is the brand’s popularity a case of blind loyalty or ease of purchasing (it’s readily available in most grocery stores, as well as at Costco, whereas newer ones tend to be more difficult to buy in person)? Or does it really still stand out as the best?
To figure this out, I tapped two of my most discerning, food-loving colleagues: senior editorWinnie Yangand senior writerMichael Zhao. They came over to my Brooklyn apartment, where we taste-tested five other sauces I had picked out: Carbone, Rubirosa, Monte’s, Ciao Pappy, and Alison Roman’s A Very Good Tomato Sauce, all of which have been released at some point in the last six years. I suppose I should state the obvious, which is that this is not an exhaustive lineup of every jarred tomato sauce on the market but rather one selected by researching newer brands and picking out a handful with a good reputation.
We started with Rao’s, then bracketed the others, tasting each at room temperature, then hot, and then with a bite or two of al dente pasta. First and foremost, we considered the taste, taking into account how salty, tomatoey, sweet, and acidic each one was, as well as whether there were any other distinct flavors. We also paid attention to texture. Our final two picks got a more legitimate dinner treatment: I tossed the pasta in some sauce on the stove, and then we topped each bowl with cracked black pepper and a bit of Parmesan cheese.
Update on May 28, 2026
We made sure all these sauces are still available and correctly priced.
We started with Rao’s
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To get going, we wanted to remind ourselves exactly what Rao’s marinara tastes like and to establish a baseline, and to do so partially sans pasta, which is not generally how it’s eaten, of course. Our initial reaction — a consensus — was pretty much,Yeah, this is indeed quite good.
It’s on the thicker side and not watery. We could literally see this when we decanted a few tablespoons of each sauce into small bowls straight from the jars, as some had more liquid collecting around their perimeters than others. The consistency was uniform and relatively smooth, though once we tried some, we noticed small actual tomato pieces — a good thing, as otherwise it can feel like you’re eating purée straight out of a can or tomato soup. There were no noticeable skin or seeds. As for the taste, it was nicely tomatoey and not especially herb-forward. But the two notes that came through most immediately and strongly were acidic and salty. Any fear that it was too much of either of these was quelled when we dipped pieces of pasta in. It was tasty on its own but more well rounded with its intended pairing.
Then we created a bracket for the others
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Ciao Pappy Marinara Classico
First up in the bracket was Monte’s. Unfortunately, and despite its quite cute branding, we didn’t love this one. It pooled a decent amount of liquid when decanted, which came across in our mouths, too — more soupy than saucy. In fact, the brand does start with whole tomatoes, but that just didn’t come across for us (we even posited that it starts with purée before we looked at the ingredient list). We also all agreed it was a bit on the sweet side.
Then came Ciao Pappy, which, even more unfortunately, wereallydidn’t love. Before I could even consider the texture in my mouth, I pretty much instantly eliminated it for its completely overwhelming taste of basil. Both of my fellow taste testers had the same reaction. Winnie even called it “tisane.”
In a not very strong first round, Monte’s prevailed.
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Carbone Marinara
Next up was Carbone, which (thank goodness) took us to the opposite end of the spectrum. This tomato sauce also comes from a much-beloved New York City restaurant — though both the establishment and its consumer-goods line are more recent on the scene. The marinara is on the looser side but not at all watery. The top note here was, indeed, tomato — the most in-your-face we had tried thus far. And there was an underlying freshness we all agreed on. It was less acidic and salty than Rao’s, and therefore a bit more sweetness came to the forefront, but it wasn’t intensely so. There was a nuanced herb presence that helped balance the whole thing out, too. A very strong contender had emerged, and it subsequently moved on to the next round.
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Carbone Marinara
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A Very Good Tomato Sauce is cookbook author and recipe developer Alison Roman’s first consumer-goods product, the newest of the bunch and sold only in her small grocery store in upstate New York and online. It’s also the only one we tried that wasn’t branded as “marinara” — though, aside from the exclusion of any herbs, the ingredients were roughly the same as the others. The texture of this one was distinctly good. There were true chunks of tomato, as well as visible thin slices of garlic cloves, which made it feel very Alison-coded and more like a homemade product than a mass-produced one. When it came to taste, we weren’t quite as impressed (honestly surprising, given how much we all love her recipes). You could certainly taste the garlic, but even more than that the onion — which we felt dominated to the point of make it overwhelmingly allium-forward. The tomato got lost in its wake. In the end, we preferred the Carbone and moved that one along.
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Carbone Marinara
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Rubirosa Marinara Sauce
The penultimate round was our now two-time champ Carbone versus Rubirosa — yet another NYC institution. Ultimately, we deemed its marinara to be inoffensive yet lackluster. The taste was balanced enough — by which I mean not predominantly sweet, or salty, or acidic, or tomatoey. Fine, if a bitmeh. Winnie did give this one a “salsalike” descriptor. For me, it was the consistency that left much to be desired. Like Monte’s, it felt too smooth. So yet again, Carbone moved along, this time to the final round.
[Editor’s note: Rubirosa’s marinara is currently available for preorder and will ship in two months.]
The winner
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Carbone Marinara
For the last test, we tossed a bit of pasta in each remaining sauce — Carbone and Rao’s — on the stove. Then we plated both side-by-side, topping each with a bit of cracked black pepper and grated Parmesan cheese — akin to how most people would actually prepare them at home.
At the end of the day, both were truly tasty, and we deemed it pretty much a tie (Michael even happily ate them for lunch after we reached our conclusion). Both my taste testers said they would happily go for whichever one was cheapest at the grocery store (often Rao’s, but not always). If forced to choose in general, we perhaps all leaned slightly toward Carbone. Rao’s has a more in-y our-face impact, but Carbone coated the pasta especially evenly — “restaurant-like,” as Winnie put it. (You could thin out the Rao’s a bit with pasta water if needed, though it’s already quite salty, so beware of that if you salt your pasta water — which you should.) Even with the addition of toppings, the tomato-forward flavor came shining through — deeply savory and with that perfect background harmony of salt, tang, and sweet.
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