I was watching old episodes of America’s Test Kitchen, or maybe Cook’s Country and they did a taste test comparison on spaghetti sauce starters. I have used the Hunts or Delmonte starters that cost around $1 for years. But, on the show their winning sauce was a Rao’s sauce, which was very expensive, about $7 per jar, compared to what I normally start with. *But, that did place a question in my mind.

So, I happened to see Rao’s on the shelf in Walmart the other day. The price was a little over $7 for the jar. I didn’t notice that this was “Tomato Basil Sauce” or know that there were other versions. I hesitated at first, but then decided to at least try Rao’s once and put the jar in my shopping cart (der Einkauftswagen).

Tonight I decided to make my spaghetti sauce. I saw the jar of Rao’s on my counter.

So I started with some chopped onion in olive oil in a tall pot on the stove-top. I then added ground beef and after that browned, I added a can of diced roasted tomatoes and then looking at the jar of Rao’s I hesitated and thought, for $7 I am just going to put half of it in this sauce.

As I go, I chop up some orange & yellow bell pepper, open and add a small can of mushroom pieces, some roasted garlic, and a couple of cloves of raw garlic. Now, I have added some salt, some freshly ground pepper, some thyme, marjoram, dry basil, dried oregano, fennel seeds, several anchovies with their oil, and some red pepper flakes. I think that is all that I added to the starter.

But, here is the thing. When I finally tasted this sauce, somewhere during the above process, I was immediately wowed by the different, and most assuredly better taste. As far as I know the only difference in this sauce and the others I have made over the last several years is starting with Rao’s. And, I think I may pay the extra cost and use Rao’s as my starter sauce… or at least until the difference is no longer worth it.

I made a Greek salad, and had angel hair pasta, with an Italian blend of cheeses (just two types) with the finished spaghetti sauce. It was a very pleasing meal.

NOTE: When I say “anchovies with their oil” this is what I mean. After I open a can of anchovies, what I don’t use, I put in a small tupperware container along with the oil they are packed in, and put that in the freezer. The oil hardens and turns whitish. When I want to use this frozen anchovies, I just use a fork to chop out a couple of anchovies and chip off some of the frozen oil. This melts quickly into whatever I am cooking on the stove.

I have used the canned Hunts or Delmonte spaghetti sauce starters for many years. I even recall when those companies started selling their starter sauces in slightly smaller cans. I kept one of their larger cans, and may have even taken a picture of the difference in sizes. That is the way a company can continue to sell an item for about the same price, when in actuality they are selling less of their product for a higher per unit price.

Now, if I had only kept some old yogurt containers because that was a really drastic change in size for the price. The current containers almost seem like thimbles (der Fingerhut) compared to what used to be.