Up front: I am not a spaghetti sauce snob. My Mom and grandmother used both, especially Ragu, all the time, and we always ate it happily.
In a pinch, I’ll still use either. But even with MY low standards, I know very well that nowadays there are MANY jarred sauces much better than either.
I don’t remember what these sauces taste like, because there was never enough of it (nor mozzarella) at any place where I was served spaghetti growing up – no wonder the 'getti was known as a cheap meal when you skimp on the sauce and the cheese!
I use Gia Russa myself (and as much of it as I want!) these days when I have pasta because it has the least added sugar.
I think I was the snob because I objected to:
Truth was that Dad could make a better sauce much cheaper (important when a family is feeding two growing boys who considered a pound of pasta a single serving*). Make a huge, slow-simmered pot on Sunday with the meatballs, or pork, or whatever, portion and freeze it, and it was convenient weeknight food. Or, when you had the protein on the side, the sauce could literally be made in the time it took the water to boil. So I guess being the cheap bastard that my father was, and taught me to be, equals snob.
*Exaggeration - maybe 3/4 of a pound
I don’t buy either anymore, but jarred spaghetti sauce was a money-stretching constant when I was first married. I would definitely go with the Prego. Ragu is watery and much thinner than Ragu. It tends to slide off the pasta where Prego will stick to it a little better. I don’t want tomato noodle soup, I want pasta and pasta sauce.
I grew up with Ragu so that’s what I voted for. My mom is a picky eater, so she likes bland stuff, and her “homemade” spaghetti sauce is basically unseasoned tomato paste and water. But she often made Ragu because we all hated her spaghetti sauce.
But I don’t remember the last time I had Prego or Ragu. Once I moved out and realized you could buy far tastier stuff for a dollar more (Classico and Paul Newman are brands I recognize, but we’ve tried almost all of them), that’s what I use. When it comes to bottled sauce, that is. I have made tomato sauce from scratch, and it is much more labor intensive. The jars are great for quick after work meals, and also for homemade pizza and dipping toasted ravioli in.
Neither. Both are disgusting. If my mother bought jarred sauce, it was usually only for pizza. (Mostly Classico, or from a few local restaurants that sell their stuff)
My mother makes a plain red sauce that takes all day, but that’s because she uses a pork chop for flavor. (And damn, her spaghetti sauce is heaven!) Sometimes she’ll skip the chop and just throw the sauce together. But it’s not as good.
I’m not usually one of those, “Oh, I only eat homemade!” But truely, homemade sauce is almost always the best. Some jarred stuff is okay, but it’s not the same. And even if you’re not up to making your own sauce, there are waaaaay better choices than slop like Ragu or Prego. I mean, if you like it, that’s your thing. But they still suck.
Homemade was the money-stretching constant for us. Imagine if you will, a young d_odds fascinated with the commercials on TV and wanting to try this ‘Ragu’ (before Prego was introduced), bugging daddy d_odds in the grocery store to get some, and daddy d_odds looks at the price and goes on a rant about how much it costs compared to buying the tomatoes and cooking it yourself, and asking if I thought he was a Rockefeller. And right after that, we’d go to the expired bread and Entemann’s cake store to stock up on those.
You’re not.
Yes, of the mainstream brands that’s the one I tend to pick up when shopping. Silver Palate is decent too but overpriced. Most supermarkets up here have a handful of more artisanal type sauces that are nicer, I’ll often get one of those.
If I’m making a more serious dish I’m also making my own sauce, but there’s nothing wrong with a shortcut. Sometimes you want to put something on the table with < 15 mins prep time.
Neither of the two, my choice of pasta sauces for the past 10+ years has been Classico.
Years ago, some researchers discovered that dog owners prefer Ragu, and cat owners prefer Prego. Anyone else heard of this?
(No, I don’t think they prefer their respective sauce on their pets.)
Neither. It’s DelGrosso’s or nothing. You just HAVE to support any sauce maker who owns an amusement park.
I love Prego and use it for ‘special’ dishes (Sunday spaghets and meatballs). Mr. Sally Barry prefers quantity over quality and is perfectly content with a can of Hunts or a can of Del Monte (99 cents) for mid-week goulash, plain old hamburger and sauce over macaroni. I see so many jars of sauce on the shelves ranging from $1 to $8, but the cheap stuff is good if you put lots of extras in it. Someday I’ll spring for the $8 jar and see if it’s all that. I have made my own sauce in the past, but it was deemed ‘not as good’ as a can of Hunts that his mommy cooked with all his life. So why bother.
Reminiscing- my grandmother was a wonderful woman, but she was Irish and knew nothing about Italian cooking, and was only vaguely aware there were things you could do with food besides BOIL it.
When she made spaghetti, she’d boil it, dump the hot spaghetti on a plate, then pour on cold Ragu, figuring the hot spaghetti would heat the sauce.
Needless to say, we loved it!
Both are terrible. A real sauce is not too hard to make starting with cans of crushed tomatoes and some basic seasonings but if you want to go with jars try Newman’s if it is still made, Classico was OK. Ragu is too sweet and acidic so I guess I would settle for Prego but as I recall is was garbage also.
Oh, I am Italian American and grew up on homemade sauces.
I love a good homemade, simmer-all-day, Italian sausage based pasta sauce that I make myself.
I also love a good plain old jar of Tomato Garlic and (something…Basil?) Prego sauce. We went through a stage where both time and money were at a premium, and we ate spaghetti with Prego several nights a week. I never got tired of it, and I still like it.
FWIW, I used to care for an older Italian gentleman, and he liked Ragu. He said Prego was too chunky and wasn’t “real Italian.”
My mother used to make her famous awesome homemade sauce too. It involved canned tomato soup, a packet of spaghetti sauce seasoning, and a pound of hamburger. That’s what I grew up on, and I loved it as well.
Cat lover here who favors Ragu, so I don’t know that the research mentioned above is all that valid. As a public service I will note that, if you go with Ragu, do yourself a favor and strain it before cooking. Get a big bowl, drop a good sized strainer in there, and pour the sauce in there and let it sit for a good 10-15 minutes. You’ll get a fairly amazing amount of red water in the bowl–all the complaints above about Ragu being watery are spot on–and you’ll be left with a tighter, thicker sauce that works pretty well as a base for your favored improvements.
I prefer Ragu, even though I agree with the assessments here that it’s not a particularly good sauce, because I much prefer a smooth sauce to something ‘chunky’. Inevitably, ‘chunky’ on a jarred sauce label means random pieces of tomato that have been sitting in the sauce for god knows how long and have turned squishy and gross. (I like everything made from tomatoes, but not the actual meat of the fruit itself. Go figure.) Prego tends to have more of those offending red blobs in it.
Fresh sauce made by a talented cook beats both hands down, but since that’s not always an option, Ragu gets the nod.
Yeah, we tend toward Classico or Barilla, and then doctor it up from there. Usually with sauteed onions and/or peppers, and sometimes some kind of meat- Italian sausage, chicken, etc… and sometimes olives or capers.
Generally though, we make our own from canned tomatoes of some kind along with fresh vegetables and either fresh or dried spices.
Ragu’s generally too sweet, although Prego’s better, it’s not better by very much in that regard.
You aren’t. I don’t eat either of the above - I just make big batches of my own, freeze them and thaw when I want spaghetti.
Husband eats the jarred stuff - he eats what’s on sale usually.
To be honest, I wouldn’t recognize any major brand in a taste test, even the ones I buy regularly (which is most often Hunt’s spaghetti sauce). I just never eat them in their store-bought form.
I give whatever I’m starting with a taste and then add things: most often onion, mushroom, garlic, meat, a little red or white wine or sherry. Sometimes sage or thyme.