Jars attack!! (Aka, the hunt for great red sauce)

A while back I was hell-bent on creating the perfect homemade red sauce. I blame this in no small part on local restaurant Buon Appetito, who produces an awesome rendition: nice and tomato-ey, garlicky, and herb-free - a plain, tasty red sauce for the masses. The kids can't eat enough of it.

So anyway, I decided I had to try and make it at home - as close as I could get it, anyway. My friend, Susan, lured them into divulging the general recipe, and I have made it a few times, achieving about a 6 out of 10. Because I can't make fresh sauce all the time, however, I decided to try and find a comparable jar sauce.

I feel compelled to point out that typically, prior to this experiment, we ate almost nothing BUT jar sauce. The shame, I know! (I hope my friend, Martha, isn't reading this - she probably just fell off her chair.)

I embarked what can best be called a "sauce tasting frenzy," buying all major supermarket brands, fancy pants brands (Paul Newman, et al), and other brands previously unknown to me.

I am sad to report that none cut the mustard. None. And only now did I clean the "failures" out of our fridge. What a sight! Imagine the room we have in the fridge now. It's awesome.

Back to homemade sauce I go!