It’s All in the Sauce

Ragu vs. Publix

One of my and Brandon’s favorite meals is spaghetti. Not the “stay in the kitchen all day, homemade Italian” kind of spaghetti, but the “hurry home and want a delish meal” kind of spaghetti.

Those of you who know me know that I doctor up EVERYTHING in my kitchen. Nothing comes out “store-bought”. I take a quick “semi-homemade” approach (thanks for the show Sandra) and make it my own. My huge kudos moment goes to the meat I use in my spaghetti – hot Italian turkey sausage. It makes the dish. In addition to the sausage, I do tend to spruce up whatever kind of sauce I buy, but not too much… well, that is if I buy the BEST sauce.

Today, more than ever, it is important to save a few bucks when grocery shopping. Although coupon clipping is a must, most of the time I buy Publix brand items to add to my savings! Last week when sifting through my “coups” I found one for Ragu spaghetti sauce. Thinking that there might be an advantage to this, (buy the name brand and get a better tasting sauce) I decided to go for it and purchased two jars of Ragu.

The ultimate test came last night when spaghetti night rolled around. Using all the same ingredients – minus the sauce of course – I whipped up our bi-weekly spaghetti fix. My sauce review was a must after the meal…

Ragu vs. Publix – The Review: Hands down the winner is Publix brand. With a simple outside, the jar of sauce flowers with flavor. The rich tomato and spices excite the taste buds with Italian flair. Using two different flavors, which is a trick of mine, only adds to the grandeur of aroma that erupts from the spaghetti. The thick sauce envelops each noodle and perfectly coats the sausage to complete the full perfected spaghetti experience.

The Ragu sauce is far behind even others – Publix, Classico, Barilla, etc – in taste, smell, and texture. The sauce has a sinfully sugary taste causing one to think of desert rather than the main course. The smell emits no aromatic stateliness as it is covered by the smell of a burning candle and the cooking sausage. The texture is a watery mess that runs along the noodles instead of draping it with excellence.