I did it their way

Taste Test

I did it their way

By G.A. Benton

I go to New York City several times a year to (not necessarily in this order): view exciting art and plays, shop, bar hop and, of course, eat out a lot.

Disappointingly, this is the first winter in a long time I haven't made my seasonal pilgrimage (yet), due to scheduling conflicts, home-owning headaches and a rotten economy. While I miss the splash and glamour, I certainly appreciate my cache of unspent cash.

As I was thinking about this — and fretting over evidence that I might be physically merging with my easy chair — I came up with a "Plan B New York vacation" strategy. I conceived of the scheme after noticing a jarred pasta sauce in a local store bearing the label of a famous Big Apple eatery.

Before moving forward with my new project, though, I had to hurdle over one tall stumbling block: the ugly word "jarred." See, I don't do it. Not with pasta sauce. The reasons would be some Italian lineage and the fact that I can whip up a good marinara in 20 minutes.

But after considerably more time than a New York minute spent in untold grocery aisles, I was able to override that reservation. That's because I serendipitously located even more sauces from other highly exclusive and expensive NYC "destination" restaurants.

So, I thought, I could have my money savings and eat my vacation too; I could dine on fare fed to celebrities and millionaires, but I'd chow it down from the cost-effective and sweatpants-friendly confines of my cozy Ohio home (where, I might add, the wine prices are terrific).

Another Plan-B bonus was that all the sauces I selected were made with high-quality, all-natural ingredients — though they did cost considerably more than a basic bottle of Ragu.

Thus one blustery night did I put on some Sinatra, pop open a cheap Montepulciano, lovingly fondle my unused credit cards and try out the following sauces. Boy, was I surprised with my findings.

Patsy's ($8.79/24 ounces)

[4 out of 5 tomatoes]

Patsy's was Sinatra's professed favorite restaurant. This venerable Midtown Italian-American institution has been hosting scores of red-carpet celebrities since the '40s. Patsy's sauce was rich, chunky and very garlicky. It also had a good presence of herbs and a nice balance of acidity and sweetness. Patsy's was by far the thickest and busiest of these sauces.

Rao's Homemade ($10/32 ounces)

[4 out of 5 tomatoes]

You will never eat in Rao's. Its 10 or so tables are actually owned by paying-through-the-schnozz regulars. So unless you're Martha Stewart, Mick Jagger or a very high-up "wise guy," your only taste of Rao's will come from this jar. And it'll be good. While Rao's was a little salty, it was rich, with rounded and smooth flavors of straightforward tomato, onion and olive oil. It was relatively fresh-tasting and had big ripped pieces of basil.

Il Mulino ($11/24 ounces)

[3.5 out of 5 tomatoes]

Since it opened a couple of decades ago, Il Mulino has been fairly consistently voted the No. 1 NYC Italian restaurant by Zagat. But that kind of prestige doesn't come cheap — dinner for four can reportedly go for $1,000. The restaurant's much more affordable jarred sauce was quite tart yet still rich, if on the thinner side. It was pleasantly garlicky and had plenty of tomato pulp.

Cleveland's Own Little Italy ($5.79/32 ounces)

[2.5 out of 5 tomatoes]

I added Cleveland's Own Little Italy marinara sauce because Cleveland is a much easier potential getaway. Besides, NYC doesn't have a lock on the Italian-American heritage scene. This darker-colored sauce had a more "cooked" tomato flavor as well as some herby notes, and was slightly acidic. Overall, I'd say not bad.

We tried it!

Spot a new menu item you'd like Taste Test to try? E-mail gbenton@columbusalive.com

January 31, 2008