Earlier this month, in a fit of laziness and perhaps temporary insanity brought on by the approaching holidays, I bought some jarred pasta sauce, something I almost never do, and will probably never do again.The culprit was Trader Joe's Bolognese "ragu di carne" sauce, described on the label as a "hearty meat sauce." Not true. It is primarily tomato puree with some micro-bits of ground beef just to justify the "meat pasta sauce" description. A true ragu' (and that has an accent, Joe) is more meat than tomato sauce (see picture). And I hate people who add sweeteners to their tomato sauce; in this case, cane juice. Not to mention that when you buy a jarred sauce, they usually don't make it with a quality olive oil. Here they used canola oil.
This may be adequate quality for some, perhaps on gnocchi or used to make a quick lasagna. The price is right at 2.99 for 24 oz., however, I had to add my own butter and parmigiano-reggiano to make it palatable, which brought up the cost-per-serving. All in all, a definite pass if you enjoy authentic Italian food.
Maybe Joe will make it his 2011 resolution to get his ragu' (with an accent) act together. Soon I'll be posting my own ragu' sauce recipe so he can see how it's done.
