Pasta Sauces

Pasta sauces are the jarred tomato sauces, pestos and cream sauces made to dress cooked pasta, along with the canned tomatoes and passata that cooks build their own sauce from.

How to choose Pasta Sauces

  • Passata, puree or concentrate. Italian passata is pressed straight from fresh tomatoes and sits between 5 and 12 degrees Brix, a measure of dissolved solids. US puree runs 8 to 24 percent tomato solids, and anything thicker is sold as paste.
  • What is in the pesto. The Genoese recipe is basil, extra virgin olive oil, Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano, pecorino, garlic, pine nuts and coarse salt. Cheaper jars swap in cashews, sunflower oil or potato flakes, so read the ingredient list.
  • DOP San Marzano. DOP is the EU mark for foods with the strongest tie to where they are made. These tomatoes are long, 60 to 80 millimeters, grown in the Agro Sarnese-Nocerino near Salerno and Naples, and canned whole and peeled with no more than 3 percent salt.

About Pasta Sauces

Pasta sauces start with tomatoes for most cooks. For concentrates, the tomato liquid is strained to remove skins, seeds and hard bits, then cooked down to the thickness the label promises.

Traditional Genoese pesto is a sauce of basil, pine nuts, garlic, cheese and olive oil worked at room temperature, with no cooking step. Jarred tomato sauces are already cooked and only need warming, while plain passata and whole tomatoes are starting points that want garlic, oil and time in the pan.

Warm jarred sauce gently in a wide pan, add the drained pasta with a splash of its cooking water, and toss until glossy. Stir pesto into hot pasta off the heat, loosened with a spoon of the cooking water.

At a glance

Main types
Tomato sauces, passata, whole tomatoes, pesto, cream sauces
Label terms
DOP, passata, puree, concentrate
Once opened
Refrigerate; tomato sauce about 5 days
Serve with
Dried and fresh pasta, gnocchi, polenta

Pasta Sauces questions

How long does an opened jar of pasta sauce last?

Plan on about 5 days in the refrigerator for an opened tomato sauce, the guideline extension services give for opened canned tomato products. Move leftovers to a clean jar and keep the lid tight. Throw out any sauce that shows mold or smells off.

Why does pesto turn brown?

Basil contains an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase. When the leaves are cut, bruised or blended, the enzyme turns colorless compounds in the leaf brown, and contact with air keeps the change going. Acid slows it, which is why a little lemon juice helps, and a thin layer of oil on top of the jar shields the surface.

Sources: Italian ministerial decree on passata; US Code of Federal Regulations, tomato concentrates; EU register application for Pomodoro San Marzano DOP.

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