I’ve written here before about my quest to find a cheap but tasty tomato pasta sauce that doesn’t cost the earth. With that in mind I picked up this new Tesco chunky vegetable pasta sauce, although I was a little wary as I’ve had some AWFUL tesco and asda own brand pasta sauce in the past (the waitrose one is very nice!). Does anyone else think that supermarkets sometimes make their own brand/value products awful on purpose so you make a more premium product?
I used this sauce to make my veggie spaghetti and I liked it. Its a rich thick sauce, with lots of tomato chunks (it doesn’t have other chopped veggies in it though like some other sauces).
The one bad thing about this sauce is that its very sweet, but thats easy to fix as you can add some anchovies or herbs to counteract that. Given that the sauce is only 90p a jar its definitely a good back-up options for when my favourite brands Bertolli and de Cecco are not on offer.
Let me in on your frugal moneysaving secrets – what own-brand or value supermarket products do you love – and what ones should I avoid at all costs?!
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It appears that we keep writing about the same things, here is my recent post about tomato sauces and good recipe for a great quick and cheep pasta sauce.
http://liverpoolrestaurants.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/terrible-tomato-sauce/
I have to admit I don’t go for the whole jar thing either, with chopped toms at 30p you can make a sauce a lot cheaper!! That said I sometimes get lazy and by Sainsbury’s own curry sauces! Their tikka massala is lovely!!! Comes in a huuuuuuuuge jar though! Definitely too many for just little old me
As for the sauce did it really not have any chunks of veg?! You can’t call it CHUNKY VEGETABLE sauce if there’s no veg!!!! I guess it will have been blended for flavour :S
I would have thought you would make your own pasta sauce! An onion, 2 cloves of garlic, herbs, mushrooms, courgettes, peppers, fresh tomatoes and a couple of cans of economy tomatoes and you’ve got enough for about 8 meals! Freezes well too.
If you can get your veg from the market or from a world grocers place (my fave is Kaya on Alfreton Road – 30p for huge red peppers) then this is a lot cheaper, and a lot better for you that jars of sauce.
Yeah I’ve thought about making my own but I like the convenience of jars I guess! And bertolli only has the ingredients you would put in it yourself – you know, tomato, olive oil, garlic, basil. Definitely something to think about for the future!
If you have freezer space you can make a mess of it and freeze the excess. Defrost in a microwave and its almost as easy as the bottle stuff.
I do this with soups and stews, but the concept should work for spaghetti sauce.