Unfortunately after a trip to Whole Foods two weeks ago I had forgotten to look for the sauce while we were there. Luckily, a trip to the local Giant Food Store the next day had us finding Rao's ... and it was on sale. It was $6.99 on sale and I was a little sticker shocked. But I couldn't pass it up. So off we went with a bottle of the Rao's Tomato Basil sauce as they did not have any of the Sensitive version left on the shelf. My Mom, luckily found it at her local Giant still at the sale price and brought it to me last weekend.
Jump to today, the start of the three day Memorial Day weekend, and a taste test of Rao's Tomato Basil, Rao's Sensitive Marinara and Wegmans Tomato Basil (my current favorite sauce). I used Schar pizza shells and longhorn cheese to top the pizzas.
I followed the directions to a T on the pizza shell box so that all the pizzas would be the same except for the sauce. I used a colored toothpick to symbolize each sauce so that we would know which pizza was which and then carried the toothpick matching through to the pieces of pizza too so we wouldn't get confused.
12 minutes later, we were ready to eat pizza. Mmmmmm
I'm not sure I can move right now after all the yummy pizza but here is my take on the three sauces.
1) Rao's Tomato Basil - thick, "spicy", tasty but less tomato taste than the other two
2) Rao's Sensitive Marinara - excellent taste, a little thinner than the Tomato Basil, it tastes exactly, I mean EXACTLY, how I remember my Mom's homemade pizza tasting
3) Wegman's Tomato Basil - in between the thickness/thinness of the two Rao's, sweeter taste, I called it a childish version of tomato sauce unlike the Rao's but I still really like it
My order of choice:
1) Rao's Sensitive Marinara
2) Wegmans Tomato Basil
3) Rao's Tomato Basil
Mind you, they are all very good and I would not turn any of them down. Please also note I do not like a lot of spice nor do I like overly chunky sauces. All three of these fit my criteria without an issue.
Another huge reason for this test, in addition to wanting to compare taste, was cost. Rao's brand on sale was $6.99 at Giant. Wegmans' brand has all the time pricing of 3 bottles for $2.99. I am happy that if I could not afford Rao's brand that Wegmans' brand is more than an acceptable option for me.
What are your favorite tomato sauces? Maybe I will have to do another taste test if offered intriguing choices.