Your Jarred Pasta Sauce Needs A Splash Of Wine

Jarred pasta sauce is one of the most popular convenience foods we have, and like anything made to be easy there are some trade offs made. Having a plate of pasta ready as quickly as you can boil noodles is undeniably appealing, but there is just no comparing fresh, homemade sauce with stuff from the jar, no matter how much we try and tell ourselves otherwise. Even the best pasta sauce brands won't touch a from-scratch recipe that has been simmering for hours. Jarred pasta sauces need to appeal to the widest variety of customers, so they just aren't going to knock you out with big flavor. Thankfully, there is a way to thread the needle between convenience and flavor, and that is by upgrading your jarred pasta sauce with some extra ingredients. And one of the best ways to do that is with a little splash of wine.

There are two big things happening when you add wine to jarred pasta sauce that really boost the flavor. The first is the taste of the wine itself. Different types of wine have all kinds of notes of fruits, spices, and earth, which will make their way into your sauce, giving often one-note sauces more depth of flavor. Then there is the alcohol, which like salt or acid can make other foods taste better by releasing flavor molecules already present in your sauce, making bland recipes more intense.

When you are adding wine to jarred pasta sauce you need to start like you're preparing a fresh sauce. While wine can boost your sauce it needs to be heated first to cook off the sharp flavor of the alcohol so it mellows enough to incorporate. Adding aromatic vegetables like garlic and onions is another great way to make jarred sauce taste more homemade, so if you are sauteing them first you can add a half cup of wine to deglaze the pan. This will help clear up all the browned bits in your pan, further adding to the flavor, and help cook down the wine into a more syrupy consistency without the harsh alcohol. Then you can add your jarred sauce.

Just think about what types of wine you want to add versus the style of your jarred sauce. Since wine is great at boosting flavors, look for notes in your wine that match your sauce, like pairing an earthy malbec or pinot noir with a mushroom sauce. Tomato sauces are also highly acidic, so try more acidic wines like Chianti that can stand up to them. If your jarred pasta sauce is more mellow or too sweet, which many are, more balanced fruit wines can work great too. But while picking the right wine will result in the best sauce, when it comes to the jarred stuff, almost anything will be an upgrade.