Best Store Pasta Sauce in Taiwan

I’m looking for ready to use jars of pasta sauce, preferably marinara/arrabiata sauce but white/pesto are also okay. In the US, brands such as Rao’s were very rich and delicious and almost restaurant like. However, the ones I’ve tried here so far have been pretty sweet and dull. I pick up the one with less than 5g/100g added sugar but it’s still bad.

What are your recommendations?

P.S: Culinary masters of Forumosa, please don’t tell me to make it myself. Thanks :pray:

Carrefour has imported Italian brands. They’re still not good. They also have tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, etc. by the way :slight_smile:

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I think we’re looking at least worst here.

Why don’t you … oh, right.

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I wonder if there’s some way to combine those things, in essence creating the sauce oneself at home?

Oh, never mind.

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Lol it takes much more time though

I wouldn’t do it, but using a tin of chopped tomatoes which already has herbs added would be as easy to prepare as a ready made sauce. Just heat and serve. It would be less crap.

Costco has some, but I think it’s just one or two brands of marinara with some other things in it

By the way, north Taiwan is supposed to be good for growing tomatoes

Doesn’t making your own pasta sauce require onions, garlic, sauté in olive oil, then add the pureed tomatoes and herbs? Seems like ~15 mins of more work compared to adding just the ready made sauce. Agree it’s probably worth it, but it takes my noob ass 45 mins to make pasta with the store bought sauce anyway (including prep time and cleaning time)

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It’s honestly not that difficult, and you might find it quite satisfying. :slightly_smiling_face:

I haven’t bought many pre-made pasta sauces here, but the ones I’ve seen in Wellcome/Carrefour when I considered it seemed unreasonably expensive. I used to use those quite often 20 years ago when I was a student and couldn’t cook (or cooked even worse than I do now).

That said, it’s quite easy to find canned tomatoes, tomato paste, passata, etc., which is like 90% of the ingredients (I usually buy canned tomatoes here - they seem better and cheaper than the generic Carrefour ones). Even if you don’t want to “cook”, it’s pretty simple to just put two tins of canned tomatoes in a pan (I would blend them first, but crushing later would also work) and add, say, 1-2 tsp each of salt, pepper, sugar, garlic powder, dried basil, dried oregano, dried rosemary, and dried thyme depending on your taste, then cook for 15-20 min.

I guess you could also use an Italian seasoning mix instead of the last few, or add onion powder or fresh garlic if you want. I would add extra tomato paste too. Shouldn’t take much longer than the store-bought version with fewer chemicals. :slightly_smiling_face:

Yeah, like @BiggusDickus said.

Yeah, you can do that. But if the benchmark is Taiwanese store-bought pasta sauce, I think you’re fine skipping a couple of steps (e.g., garlic powder and onion powder rather than chopping and cooking the fresh stuff).

[quote=“DunderMifflin, post:8, topic:222000, full:true”] it takes my noob ass 45 mins to make pasta with the store bought sauce anyway (including prep time and cleaning time)
[/quote]

45 minutes! How? Do you take a bath first?

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Water boil+ pasta boil + cook the sauce + clean the pans and pots and plates and the mess on the counter

It doesn’t seem like you would have much opportunity to make a mess, just pouring the tin of sauce into the pan and back onto the plate… :sweat_smile:

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I guess you only have a single hob. Even so, that’s impressively slow.

The small af kitchenette with the shitty IH stove
means I can barely move around my 24cm pan without bumping into things. Can’t boil pasta and prepare sauce in parallel either

Your best bet is the big carrefour. Just be prepared because they can be pretty expensive

It is hard to find time during the week to cook but it is so much better. To make the time count, I’ll make enough to have leftovers for work.
RTMart, PXmart and Carrefour have Italian brands. I’m partial to Italian pasta and Barilla’s or De Cecco’s Arrabbiata. In a pinch, I’ll put a tin of tomatoes, a garlic clove, a bit of onion, some spice into the blender, then cook for 5 min or so to get rid of the tin taste. People seem to like my blender sauce better. Definitely avoid the sauces with modified food starch.
For the best simple pasta, heat a small amount of sauce in one pan and undercook the pasta. Then add the pasta with some pasta water as needed into the sauce and cook till al dente.
My fav sauce these days is zucchini, but it is a 2 day process to make: Photos: How to Make Stanley Tucci's Favorite Zucchini Spaghetti

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Boil the pasta one minute short. Drain it. Then pour the sauce into the saucepan over the pasta and heat for a minute. Eat out of the saucepan.

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I like the part about eat out of the saucepan. It doesn’t get cold that way. I’m not sure how my husband would feel about me eating my half out of the pan.
That’s is exactly why he got covid from me. I tasted his beer before I know I had it.

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How can you know that? If you’re sharing drinks, you’re presumably also in close proximity and he’d be able to catch it the “regular” airborne way anyway? Especially if you’re living together…

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