Which New York Italian Restaurant Sells the Finest Marinara Sauce?

There comes a time within the historical past of a preferred Italian restaurant when the proprietors — to increase the model and make more cash — determine they need to bottle and promote their purple sauce. And so cooks, co-packers, and advertising and marketing execs spring into motion, formulating sauces and designing seductive labels as promoting for his or her eating places.

I made a decision to collect a number of bottled marinaras from well-known institutions and check them, not solely to see which is finest, but additionally to evaluate how they mirror and lengthen the model. The contenders are Rao’s, Carbone, Patsy’s, Michael’s of Brooklyn, and Carmine’s. Along with tasting the sauce out of the jar, I additionally used every in a dish to see the way it complemented different flavors. I’ve listed the sauces in ascending order.

5. Carmine’s Marinara

32 ounces, $13

The sauce from this Instances Sq. and Higher West Facet chain was flat and bland, with little flecks of tomato and a processed style. The dish: I slathered it on Raffetto’s superlative cheese-and-spinach ravioli. Does a excessive tide carry all boats? On this case, no.

4. Rao’s Delicate Marinara

24 ounces, $10

The restaurant based in 1896 is East Harlem is known for being inconceivable to get into, until you purchase a desk — or know somebody who has one. That is the Rao’s sauce I noticed most regularly, noting the absence of onions and garlic. On the chunky aspect, forthrightly oily, and sweeter than most, the sauce, which claims to be a product of Italy, derives its taste from aromatics, carrots, and celery. It’s extra like a pizza sauce than a pasta sauce in its excessive simplicity. The dish: Thick dried fettuccine (additionally made by Rao’s) with fennel pork sausage (from Sopranos favourite, Satriale’s) labored effectively with the sauce.

3. Carbone Marinara Delicato

24 ounces, $9

For a restaurant identified for its exclusivity, Carbone’s marinara is commonly cheaper than others by a greenback or two, although the label means that by shopping for it you may “convey elevated eating house.” The sauce is shiny purple, thick, and maybe just a little too candy, with carrots contributing to its brightness. Oil seeps across the edges, and the oregano promised on the label is undetectable. The dish: It excelled with poached squid and fusilli, a reminder that marinara means “sailor,” and marinara sauces are particularly good with seafood.

2. Michael’s of Brooklyn

32 ounces, $13

This sauce, from Michaels of Brooklyn, a well-regarded Marine Park Italian American restaurant, was not disappointing, although too candy and depending on garlic for taste, with a tartness that was nearly lemony. It bested the three earlier sauces in that it was extra assertive, which works in its favor, in my view. This, at the least, is a sauce you would merely pour over pasta and be pleased with. The dish: This sauce paired with onion-y lamb meatballs: Served with recent cavatelli, it made an agreeable supper.

1. Patsy’s Marinara

24 ounces, $10

The sauce from Midtown veteran Patsy’s appears born for the bottle: It doesn’t style very similar to what’s ladled over spaghetti within the precise restaurant. The sauce is chunky and piquant: This can be a sauce with terrain. The dish: Tossed with ziti, eggplant, and mozzarella right into a free-form Sicilian casserole, the sauce wailed on its opponents.