By Chuck Martin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Taste Team members Yolanda Cedrez (left) and Pam Hardy spoon marinara sauce to J's Fresh Seafood chef-owner Jimmy Gherardi for the team's special tasting. The Cincinnati Enquirer/BRANDI STAFFORD

Marinara is the simplest of Italian red sauces, and perhaps ideal for Friday meals during the Lenten season. Marinara tastes fine by itself, but is ready to adapt to the addition of herbs, olives and other flavors.

According to Italian legend, the meatless tomato sauce was prepared by the wives of fishermen, who tossed the sauce with the day's fresh catch. The name is from the Latin mare, or sea.

Making marinara requires simmering a handful of ingredients - tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil and/or parsley - for only a few minutes. But many cooks don't have even that much time, especially during the busy week. So the grocery shelves are stocked with jarred and refrigerated marinara sauces, ready for the pan.

RATINGS

The Taste Team rated nine store-bought marinara sauces 1-10 (1=poor;10=excellent) on taste, texture and appearance. Here are the top three brands, with average scores in ( ). 1. Buitoni (7.2) 2. Barilla (6.8) 3. Kroger Private Selection (6.3)

RELATED STORIES

• Price no issue in sauce test • Use fresh ingredients for easy sauce • Meet the Taste Team • Jazz up what's in the jar • More uses for marinara

This gave the Taste Team good reason to sample nine brands of store-bought marinara. As always, the panel of seven tasted the sauces blindly. They ate the sauce with bread - not pasta - and rated each on taste, texture and appearance.

The Taste Team must have an appreciation for the freshest flavor - two of its top three marinara sauces were from the refrigerated cases - not from the shelf. Their No. 1 sauce, Buitoni, is made in northern Ohio (Solon, near Cleveland) not northern Italy. The team rated the Buitoni marinara highly for its "balanced," "hearty" flavor, "great texture" and "visible herbs."

Finishing second was the jarred Barilla marinara sauce, made in the United States by an Italian company.

Kroger's Private Selection Garden Marinara from the refrigerator case finished third.

As usual, though, fresh costs more. On average, the refrigerated sauces cost more than twice as much as the longer-cooked and jarred marinara, which may make the second place Barilla ($1.99 per 26 ounces) the best buy of our taste test.

Although the Taste Team decided none of the marinara sauces was bad, they described their least favorite, Newman's Own, as "nothing special" and "just a sauce."

Nothing personal, Mr. Newman.