The 5 Best Jars of Pasta Sauce You Can Buy at the Grocery Store

OK, our grandma was a native New Yorker who didn’t know how to boil water, butsomeone’sgrandma probably makes a sauce just like this. Celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich has bottled her famous sauce recipe, and she doesn’t skimp on the high-quality ingredients (ooh, Italian plum tomatoes). But warning: It’s a little garlicky, so you might want to chew some gum afterward.

While you’re watching Netflix on the couch with a bowl of ravioli, you could also be helping kids in need. This tangy, hearty sauce is delicious enough to stand on its own, but it gets extra bonus points because 100 percent of the profits are donated to the Newman’s Own Foundation, a charitable organization created by the late actor Paul Newman.

Buy the Sauce ($3)

You know when it’s Wednesday night, and you know you really should be eating chicken breast with steamed vegetables, but you really, really want spaghetti? Cook some whole-wheat noodles in this totally-good-for-you sauce, made with organic tomatoes and extra-virgin olive oil. It’s basically a salad.

Honestly? We havea gigantic crushon Trader Joe. So naturally, his Italian alter-ego’s tomato sauce is up there on our list. Best of all, it’s really, really cheap. So don’t feel bad about filling a whole cupboard with this rich, no-frills pasta sauce. It’ll be your reliable standby.

Buy the Sauce ($2)

If you ever see this stuff on sale, stock up. It’s our favorite overall in both taste and consistency, but it’s definitely more than we’d like to pay for a jar of sauce. Still, this slow-cooked gravy from the iconicinvite-only restaurant in New York Cityis last-meal good. The depth of flavor is so complex (mmm, sweet, salty, basily), you could easily fool anyone into thinking it’s homemade. So on a special occasion, it’s definitely worth the splurge.