My toughest food critics accidentally gave Rao's newest sauce the highest compliment possible. That's why I gave it a Taste of Home Award.
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Having spent much of my professional life working with food, people assume I’m a bit of a food snob. The truth is, I’m not. At this stage of my life, most of my meals involve finishing my kids’ leftovers or stealing bites off their plates like a well-fed raccoon. Fancy dinners have been replaced by swim meets, dance recitals, homework and trying to get the family fed before somebody fills up on Goldfish crackers. But there’s one area where my culinary standards remain stubbornly high: jarred pasta sauce.
If I’m taking the shortcut of opening a jar instead of simmering sauce from scratch, I want it to taste like someone actually cared when making it. That’s why the only jarred sauce brand you’ll ever find in my pantry is Rao’s Homemade. It has all the richness and depth I’d want from a sauce that spent hours bubbling away on the stove. It’s also one of the very few convenience foods I buy—because it never actually tastes like one. So when Rao’s introduced its new creamy roasted garlic sauce, it wasn’t long before it made its way onto my dinner table.
One dinner was all it took. I knew it had earned a Taste of Home Award.
Rao's Homemade Creamy Roasted Garlic Sauce
I’ve Always Been Loyal to Rao’s
I spent years immersed in the food world. I went to culinary school, worked in Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurants, and, yes, once dated the owner of an Italian restaurant largely because I wanted his gnocchi recipe. For years, I spent every single day surrounded by chefs, learning what separated good food from unforgettable food. Even in those days, there was always a jar of Rao’s in my studio apartment’s teeny kitchen.
While my life looks a little different than it did then, my expectations for good pasta sauce haven’t changed one bit. Between work, two kids, and a husband whose restaurant schedule means dinner often falls to me, I’m not spending four hours on a Tuesday simmering tomato sauce. I still want dinner to taste homemade—I just need a little help getting there. That’s why Rao’s has remained my favorite jarred pasta sauce. It’s the only food brand that has survived every chapter of my life. Naturally, I wasn’t about to pass up the chance to try its newest flavor.
My Kids Thought I Made It from Scratch
The first time I tried the new creamy roasted garlic sauce was on one of those weeknights when everyone was hungry, I was running behind and needed dinner to happen fast. I wasn’t about to announce to my kids that I was trying something new (that’s a rookie mistake). Instead, I simply boiled some bucatini, warmed the sauce and served dinner like I always do.
A few quiet bites in, my daughter looked up and said, “Mom, this sauce is amazing.” My son, whose mouth was too full to speak, simply nodded in enthusiastic agreement before asking what I’d done differently.
It almost broke my heart to admit that I hadn’t spent the afternoon making it from scratch.
As thrilled as I was that my kids loved it, I was even more impressed by how much I loved it. The flavors somehow walk the line between rich and restrained. Roasted garlic can easily overpower everything else, but here it’s mellow, almost sweet and deeply savory rather than sharp. Mascarpone gives the sauce a silky, velvety texture that softens the Parmesan and Romano cheeses, while the cream rounds everything out without muting the garlic. It tastes layered, buttery and unmistakably homemade—the kind of sauce that makes people assume you spent far longer making dinner than you actually did.
It also coats every piece of pasta beautifully instead of sliding to the bottom of the bowl. Every bite has the same creamy, savory balance, with enough roasted garlic to be interesting, but never so much that it overwhelms the dish. If someone had told me they’d spent the afternoon making this sauce from scratch, I wouldn’t have questioned it.
It’s My New Pantry Staple
Since that first dinner, I’ve spooned the creamy roasted garlic sauce over homemade gnocchi and chicken Parmesan, and have served it as a dipping sauce with my kids’ all-time-favorite snack, mozzarella sticks. Every time I find a new way to use it, I’m even more impressed.
That’s one of the things I love most about Rao’s sauces: They can be the starting point for dozens of dinners (not just pasta-centric ones) that taste like they took more effort than they actually did.
Considering how enthusiastically my kids have been cleaning their plates lately, it’s safe to say this creamy roasted garlic sauce has earned a permanent spot in our weekly dinner rotation.
Where to Buy Rao’s Creamy Garlic Sauce
Rao’s new creamy roasted garlic sauce with mascarpone cheese is rolling out to grocery stores nationwide. If your local store already carries Rao’s marinara, arrabbiata or Alfredo sauces, there’s a good chance you’ll start spotting this new creamy roasted garlic flavor alongside them soon. And if you can’t find it in person, you can always order it on Amazon.
