Split on cheap vs quality ingredients after a friend called me out on my pasta sauce

My buddy watched me dump a $1 jar of pasta sauce over some bargain noodles and said I was wasting my time cooking because the sauce was awful. I argued that budget meals mean budget everything, but he said the sauce is where you spend $3 more for real flavor. Now I'm torn, does saving on the main ingredient but splurging a little on seasoning or sauce actually stretch your dollar further? Anyone else get called out on a specific ingredient choice that changed how they shop?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavin_reed29d ago

Food science articles always say the same thing - you can get away with cheap noodles but crappy sauce is a dealbreaker. Read somewhere that store brand crushed tomatoes are fine if you season them yourself, but those pre-made jars with corn syrup and citric acid just ruin everything. Your buddy's right that three extra bucks on a decent sauce makes the whole plate taste better, even with the cheap pasta. That dollar jar is basically tomato colored sugar water, not real sauce.

charles67829d ago

I read on Serious Eats once that the difference between a $1 jar and a $4 jar of pasta sauce is basically just sugar and salt content, plus maybe some real olive oil instead of vegetable oil. They tested a bunch of brands and the cheap ones all had that weird sweet aftertaste from the corn syrup. I tried a cheap jar once and just added my own garlic and dried oregano, still tasted off because the base tomatoes were watery and bland. That's why I stick with a plain can of San Marzano tomatoes and do the seasoning myself now. Have you tried that kind of thing or are you loyal to any particular brand of sauce?