Spent $40 on fancy pasta sauce vs making my own with canned tomatoes for $2

The jarred stuff was watery and sweet, but my homemade version actually tasted like real tomatoes after I let it simmer for 20 minutes. Has anyone else tried doctoring up cheap canned tomatoes instead of buying the expensive stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

richard1106d ago

Yeah I feel you on the Rao's thing, I used to buy it too but man the price just got ridiculous. @noah_rivera57 nailed it with the hand crushing tip, that really does change the texture. I tried the $10 jarred stuff and it was like eating sweet ketchup, I couldn't believe how much sugar they dump in there. My trick is to add a tiny bit of tomato paste to the canned tomatoes, it gives it that deep rich flavor that takes hours to get otherwise. Once you realize how EASY it is to make good sauce from a $2 can, you'll never waste money on the fancy jars again.

noah_rivera577d ago

Oh man, I've totally been there. I used to drop like $8 on a jar of Rao's and still feel like it was missing something. Then I started just getting the big 28oz cans of Cento San Marzanos for like $3 and throwing them in a pot with some garlic and olive oil. The key for me was crushing them by hand first and letting it cook down for like 30 minutes until it gets thick and the sweetness comes out. I also add a pinch of sugar and some dried oregano, makes a huge difference. Honestly, once I figured that out I never looked back at the expensive stuff.

-1