Lost in the Sauce and Spiraling in the Comments

I learned how to pronounce Rao's, and you can too!

Hi hi! I’m back from Tillamook, Oregon, where I met some cows, ate an obscene amount of cheese, and learned the term ‘sea stack‘ (it’s like a haystack, but instead of hay, it’s a giant rock jutting out of the ocean, a la Goonies). The folks at Tillamook brought me out for a whirlwind tour of all things dairy, and I’ll be sharing more about the experience in a special BONUS POST soon, so get stoked for that.

sea stacks, they’re neat!

Speaking of bonus content, on my trip, I met fellow writer, Kiersten Hickman. In her Substack, Forkful, Hickman includes something she calls The Grocery Edit, where she shares the products that brands send her for review/editorial consideration. I, too, get a ton of these products (just yesterday, I received canned beans, puff pastry, and chef’s knives), and I’m not always able to cover them elsewhere, so I thought I’d share them here! It feels like a nice way to share gratitude with the brands and give you, my beloved readers, a little peek at some of the cool food and gadgets on the market these days.

I was a few days ago years old when I learned the right way to pronounce my favorite jarred marinara brand, Rao’s. Turns out it’s ‘ray-ohs,‘ not ‘rows.‘ Learning is humbling! You know what else is humbling? The comment section. Often, I will pour my heart and soul into a story, and the response will be something along the lines of crickets chirping quietly. Other times, I’ll dash off a quick piece about jarred marinara sauce, and it will get over 50 very passionate comments about how wrong I am in a matter of minutes!

Pizza beans, ft. Rao’s Marinara

This week, on The Kitchn, my article about the best jarred pasta sauce, according to chefs (Dan Pashman of The Sporkful; soon-to-be-released cookbook author, Peter Som; and Renato Polifaito, owner of Pasta Night) met with some…reader scrutiny along the lines of, “Rao’s is too expensive/too salty/too GMO-ingredient-y. Just take three hours out of your day and make your own like a good tradwife!“ My favorite comment was this one: “Get off your dead butt and grow some good tomatoes, cook 'em down, season to your tastes and enjoy! Save tons of money, eat better and feel good about yourself and what you have done!“ Wow, thanks for the tip, reader!

I’m pretty loyal to Rao’s, but I was sent a press sample of the Sauz line-up recently, and it’s quite tasty. I’m especially fond of the Summer Lemon, which brings a zippy brightness to a bowl of penne or homemade pizza — so good with goat cheese and green olives. So, now that I’ve asked the sawce experts, I’m asking you: What’s your favorite jarred marinara sauce, and for the love of god, please don’t tell me to make my own.

Jaya Saxena has a great piece up at Eater called ‘When Did All the Recipes Get ‘Garlicky’?’ Saxena traces a line from Alison Roman’s adjectivization of culinary nouns (brothy, jammy, lemony) to Molly Baz’s unhinged dismantling of the English language (or, if you speak Baz, her unhingey breakypoo of wordies) to the current, largely SEO-driven appearance of recipes with conspicuously simple names like “Spaghetti Sauce“ (Side bar: I met the “Spaghetti Sauce“ author herself, Dan Pelosi, on the trip, and I’m pleased to report that Grossy just as much of an earth angel IRL as on Instagram) and Eric Kim’s “Chocolate Birthday Cake,“ both of which were published this year by New York Times.

I especially love how Saxena rewinds a bit to look at the recipe naming conventions that were popular when I was in culinary school and in my early years as a line cook. What’s interesting to me is that, back then (early 2000s), recipes were borrowing names from fine dining menus, listing as many impressive ingredients and techniques as possible to convey authority and gravitas.

Those were the days of Iron Chef, Charlie Trotter, Thomas Keller, etc. It was The Big Toque Era, and people buying cookbooks were looking for that expertise to rub off on them. Now, cookbook consumers (and especially online recipe readers) seem to want recipes from people they think of as friends (but who are actually just strangers on TikTok or Instagram who are great at making us think they’re our friends), and the recipe naming conventions have shifted to reflect that.

Check out Saxena’s piece for more, and then make eye contact with me in public, and I will immediately start yakking about it with you!

How tempted am I to share a recipe for three-hour marinara sauce right now? Slightly. Instead, here’s the recipe that inspired last night’s dinner and, perhaps more importantly, taught me that I don’t ever have to make traditional egg parm again unless I really want to.

yesterday’s weeknight parm is today’s breakfast of champions

In this recipe for Weeknight Harissa Eggplant Parm, BA’s Kendra Vaculin simply sautes chopped eggplant in olive oil, makes a quick harissa-spiked tomato sauce in the same pan, combines the two and tops them with toasted panko and gobs of cheese. I didn’t follow the recipe faithfully. Instead, I cooked off the eggplant and then sauced it all up with Sauz’s Hot Honey Marinara, loaded that bad boy with breadcrumbs and cheese, and had myself a little broiler party before diving in with both hands some crusty bread. Bellisima!

Thanks so much for reading! If you haven’t already, I’d love it if you would subscribe and/or tell a friend about But Wait, There’s More! From my dead butt to yours…

xox,

SG