Every couple of months or so, I go through this pasta craze. When this craze occurs, I can eat the same pasta dish for a whole week, maybe longer. Sometimes it’s for lasagna with roasted wild mushrooms, sometimes it’s for linguini with red clam sauce. On other occasions it’s for orecchiette with broccoli rabe and Italian sausage. Recently it’s been arrabiata with chicken. Arrabbiata, what’s that? No it’s not a social disease. It’s basically a marinara sauce spiked with chili peppers for heat. The literal translation has been described as “angry’, “furious” and “in a rage” supposedly from the heat of the chili peppers.
What’s the Cure?
I could pre-medicate for obsessive-compulsive disorder, I do work in a pharmacy after all. I could do take-out whenever this craze hits. The neighborhood Italian restaurant makes a pretty good Chicken Arrabbiata with linguini and it’s also reasonably priced. Aw come-on, no self respecting home chef depends strictly on take-out. Is that what your All-Clad copper core set is for? Didn’t think so. Could make it from scratch the “real” way. Hmm, do they actually use red pepper flakes or pepperoncini in Calabria? Can I take a culinary short cut? That’s when it hit me or more like the “on sale” tag caught my attention at the local supermarket. Buy one, get one free! Never tried this national branded sauce before and I don’t have the time to simmer my own marinara. Then it hit me again; how about the great Arrabbiata Taste-Off? I’ll compare major national brands of Arrabbiata just so you would know directly where to head when your own personal Arrabbiata craze kicked in.
The Challengers
I decided to trial the brands that you would be able to find at your neighborhood supermarket. The competitors included:
1) Rao’s Homemade
From the eponymous restaurant in New York that’s been claimed to be the hardest reservation to secure. With only about eight tables, purchasing a bottle of their sauce will probably be the closest thing to dinner at the restaurant.
2) Francis Coppola’s Mammarella
I guess this would be the Godfather’s own sauce!
3) Don Pomodoro
Made with San Marzano tomatoes in Italy.
4) Buitoni
The only sauce in the refrigerated section.
5) Classico
Found at EVERY supermarket.
6) Select Verdi
Safeway’s own label of Arrabbiata.
The Challenge
I first labeled six Pyrex custard dishes (on the bottom to “blind” the tasting) and microwaved all six for 2 & ½ minutes to warm. The Mrs and I then proceeded to view, smell then taste all six sauces and describe each sauce. We then ranked each sauce. Taste was 50% of grading followed by texture/color and aroma (25% each). Because the type of pasta or protein (shrimp, chicken or ???) added to each sauce could change the flavor, grading was strictly on the sauce itself. Capisce?!
The Results
For starters, you won’t get a consensus even with just two tasters (for married couples, this should be obvious). And taste for the most part is subjective. One person’s sour is another’s balanced, one person’s salty is another’s bland. Therefore it’s not surprising that the Tatsumoto’s only reached consensus on one sauce; the Don Pomodoro made from San Marzano tomatoes in Italy… unfortunately for the Don, we both had it last. No real fresh tomato flavor, no spice and the only overwhelming sensation was the immediate hit of chili pepper. I thought it would be one of the top two before the tasting. In ascending order, the rest of the bunch:
Tied for 3rd: The Classico and the Coppola. I had the Classico 4th the Mrs had it 3rd. She felt it had a concentrated tomato flavor with nice basil and heat, I thought it had a good tomato flavor but a little too much starchy taste.
The Mrs had the Coppola 5th because she felt if had too much garlic (it actually had slivers of garlic in the sauce), I felt that the tomato concentration was good and that the garlic didn’t overwhelm the sauce.
Tied for 2nd: The Buitoni and the Safeway Verdi. The Mrs felt the Buitoni was too light and the obvious herbs in the sauce didn’t complement it at all. I had it as my first choice because I felt the tomato had the freshest quality of all the sauces and the herbs complemented the sauce with heat just on the back end.
On the other end, the Mrs had the Verdi 2nd with good tomato flavor, good herbal qualities and enough heat to make it ”angry”. I had the Verdi 3rd because while the balance of flavors was good, it just didn’t stand out above the rest.
Numero Uno: Rao’s Homemade. Mrs T felt that it had the perfect balance of tomato, herbs and heat (her decision surprised even Mrs T because she never thought much of Rao’s basic bottled marinara). I had Rao’s in 4th because while it did have a good flavor balance, it was the only sauce that had a pronounced “canned” taste. Since it was a bottled sauce, I’m not sure if the canned flavor came from their use of imported Italian tomatoes (canned San Marzanos perhaps)? But it did lower my personal impression overall.
What About Price?
The sauces ranged from a low of $3.00 for the Safeway Verdi sauce all the way up to $11.99 for the Rao’s Homemade. Obviously for a Best Buy choice, that would be the Safeway Verdi sauce though some may feel that taste has no Best Buy, just best taste. Therefore I leave it up to you to decide what suits your taste buds. Since I was left with several jars of Arrabiata sauce and obviously, all sauces didn’t meet my personal expectations, I jazzed the leftovers with fresh basil, fresh chopped garlic and even a little lean bacon (yes, I also use those bottled bacon pieces on occasion) to make my own rendition of Chicken Arrabiata. On whole grain pasta of course.
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