Let's start with the ingredients of this sauce:
Imported sweet San Marzano tomatoes, Italian olive oil, sweet onions, fresh basil, fresh garlic, crushed black pepper, salt and fresh oregano.
Simple enough, eh? Well, at over $10 a jar, this stuff isn't cheap. I first saw it a few months ago when I was in a grocery store in Mountain View and was astonished that it was $12.99 a jar when Classico is like four bucks. So I pick up the Classico Roasted Red Pepper sauce as I normally do and don't give it a second though. Now, last week I am in a different grocery store and I see this stuff on sale for $9.99 a jar and I say to myself "I have to buy this stuff, or it will drive me crazy wondering why the hell it's so expensive!" So I buy a jar, go home, cook up a 1/2 box of Barilla spaghetti and heat up the sauce in a skillet.
After maybe the first few bites I think to myself "This sauce isn't very special, in fact, it barely has any flavor at all."
So I keep eating, and as I am about 1/2 way through my plate of spaghetti, I really begin to start enjoying the subtle taste of the sauce.
"WOW!" I thought to myself, this is VERY good sauce... I was trying to figure out why it was so good...
And then it hit me...
It's basically the equivilent of an all-natural, homemade italian sauce using all imported italian ingredients. I felt like a young Italian schoolboy eating a homemade dinner that his absurdly overweight grandmother had just made for him. It was very spiritual. The taste is very sweet (because of the type of tomato used I suspect) and unique. The amount of olive oil in the sauce might be a little excessive for some, but it wasn't for me. The flavors were almost perfectly in harmony with each other... The basil... The garlic... the onions... Mama Mia!!! It was a good dinner...
So I do a bit of research that night and I find out that the tomatos used are some of the most expensive and tasty italian tomatoes in existance. And that the company that makes this sauce, "Rao's", is actually a famous restaurant in New York where you can't get a table unless you are famous or know someone.
Turns out the normal reservation wait is 6 months. Sheeeshhh... I think we all know where this is going... I now have to get a reservation at this place and write a review!!! ;-)
In the meantime, I encourage everyone to go and try a jar of this sauce with some good spaghetti. You will have to call your local grocery store and ask if they have it, or else you can order it by the case (or in a 3-pack) from www.raos.com.
