Supermarket Sleuth: Choosing the Healthiest Pasta Sauce
The healthiest of all pasta sauces is made with fresh ingredients: whole, crushed or stewed tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, fresh onions and garlic, and fresh spices. Some have a touch of lemon juice concentrate and use dried spices, garlic, and onions instead of fresh.
Tomatoes contain the antioxidant lycopene, which has been linked with reduced risk of cancer and heart disease, and cooking tomatoes retains the lycopene. Tomatoes also are a good source of fiber. Pasta sauces have vitamins A and C, calcium, and iron. The healthiest brands of pasta sauce have no added sugar and are lower in sodium.
Watch the Saturated Fat
The percentage of saturated fat is more important to watch than the total fat. For instance, Ragu Rich and Meaty Classic Italian Meat Sauce has 8 grams (g) of fat, but of that, 6 g are saturated fat, so 80 percent of the total fat is saturated fat, which is too high. Conversely, Progresso’s White Clam Sauce has 10 g of total fat, but only 1.5 g are saturated fat. That’s just 15 percent of total fat. The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggests that saturated fat should be no more than 10 percent of your daily caloric intake.
Check Sodium Content
It’s not easy to find a pasta sauce low in sodium, even in the “healthier” versions. For instance, Ragu’s “Simply” line advertises 100 percent olive oil and no sugar added, but the sodium content ranges from 520 milligrams (mg) for garden vegetable—which you would think is the healthiest of the bunch—to a low of 460 mg for the traditional marinara, all well above our suggestions in the chart below. Conversely, Francesco Rinaldi’s No Salt Added version has just 50 calories and only 40 mg of sodium.
Note that most brands’ Nutrition Facts labels are based on a serving of a half cup. However, some flavors we checked had quarter-cup servings. At first glance, one brand that listed sodium as 330 mg appeared to be lower than the others, but it was for a quarter cup, so a half cup was more than a quarter of your daily sodium allowance of 2,300 mg (one teaspoon)—or nearly half your daily allowance (1,500 mg) if you have high blood pressure.
MAKE YOUR OWN
There are a hundred ways to make pasta sauce: thick or thin, spicy or mild, creamy, meaty, or vegan. But it all starts with tomatoes. Canned tomatoes come in peeled, crushed, paste, and sauce versions, with paste being the thickest. A typical recipe uses four 15-ounce cans. If you use fresh tomatoes, peel and de-seed them first. You’ll need about 5 pounds of fresh tomatoes to make 4 cups of pasta sauce. Traditional spices include bay leaf, basil, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, and onion powder, but add what suits your palate, and leave the saltshaker in your cabinet.
Start with two tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of your pan. Saute diced onion for about 5 minutes and diced garlic for about 3 minutes. Cook your meats half to three-quarters of the way in a separate pan, then spoon them into your sauce, first draining the grease. Bring your sauce to a boil; then simmer it slowly for about 2 to 2½ hours. Stir every few minutes. Cool on the stove until it reaches room temperature; then divide into meal-sized containers and freeze what you don’t plan to use within the next 3-4 days.
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