The Great Jersey Tomato Sauce Taste-Off: The best jarred marinara is ...

Chef Anthony Pino, born into an Italian-American family and raised on rich, tangy Sunday sauce, has a numerical ratings system for jarred tomato sauces. A 1, for example, isn't great, but it's a heck of a lot better than a 4.

That's 1 a.m. vs. 4 a.m., as in how late it is when he gets off work, and how desperate he is for a meal.

Pino, one of three Italian-American chefs we invited to judge our Jersey tomato sauce taste-off, leans into a pot of simmering marinara for a deep whiff, then eyes the texture before downing a spoonful. Too garlickly. "That's like a 1:35." With another, he nods approvingly at the signature sheen of good olive oil on the spoon — "You can tell what it tastes like by looking at it" — before sampling.

"That's a before midnight," he pronounces.

For our blind taste test earlier this month, we pitted 10 marinara sauces with Jersey pedigrees — some made from our vaunted Jersey tomatoes, some with the imprimateur of Garden State celebrities, others from long-established Jersey catering halls and markets. (This is by no means a definitive list, but a selection of sauces found in a variety of supermarkets across North Jersey.)

Judges Pino, who owns Hoboken's Bin 14 and Anthony David's, Francesco Palmieri of Bloomfield's the Orange Squirrel, and Louis Laico, the chef-owner of Jersey City's 42-year-old red sauce classic Laico's, considered texture, taste, color and salt content, although some personal biases about marinara came into play. They all had their own opinions about what makes a perfect sauce, but Pino and Laico nodded approvingly when Palmieri offered his definition: "As soon as you walk into your house, you think, 'Damn, that's good.' "

What we tasted, from best to worst

Nanina's in the Park: "nice and sweet" ($5.99, ShopRite, Kings Food Markets)

Hoboken Farms: "the flavor is close to good" ($8.49, Whole Foods)

Bongiovi Pasta Sauces: "good spices," "better texture" ($6.99, ShopRite)

Ethnic Cottage Jersey Tomato Sauce: "needs sodium to pick it up" ($4.99, Whole Foods)*

Signature Sauces from the Brownstone: "bitter" ($6.99, ShopRite, Kings Food Markets)

L.E. Roselli's Italian Food Specialties: "nice texture" ($4.79, Wegmans)

John Celentano's Mia Cucina: "too overpowering" ($4.99, ShopRite, Wegmans)*

Teresa Giudice Fabulicious Foods Skinny Italian: "flat flavor" ($9.99, skinnyitalianfoods.com)

The Food Emporium Trading Company Jersey Tomato Sauce: "aroma unpleasant" ($6.79, A&P)*

Two Guys Jersey Tomato Sauce: "too much seasoning" ($5.99, Whole Foods)*

*Made with "Jersey Fresh" tomatoes

The results

The runaway winner was Nanina's in the Park, from the longtime Belleville catering hall of the same name, a perfectly textured sauce with a simple but pleasing blend of imported Italian tomatoes and olive oil, garlic, salt, oregano and basil. It's based on a recipe taught to Campania-born chef Vincenzo Loretti by his grandfather nearly 60 years ago. Loretti has been cooking at Nanina's since 1973.

Nanina's launched the sauce line (there's also a tomato basil, vodka and fra diavolo) in 2006; a business instructor at Monmouth University had his students work on the launch as a class project, says Sergio Cucci, the director of operations for Nanina's Gourmet Sauces.

Also scoring points with the judges: the Big Red Marinara from Hoboken Farms, which operates weekly farmers markets across New Jersey and runs a sandwich shop in Summit. The sauce was extra-chunky with barely processed tomatoes, and Palmieri thought that with another five to 10 minutes on the stove, a little more extra-virgin olive oil and some chili flakes, it could be a winner.

Of the three "celebrity" sauces they tasted — "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice's Skinny Italian marinara (actually imported from Italy, and only available online, which made it the most expensive sauce at nearly $18 a bottle with shipping), the marinara from the Brownstone, the Paterson catering hall owned by the Manzos, also of Bravo fame, and the Bon Jovi, er, Bongiovi marinara, based on Jon Bon Jovi's father John's recipe — Bongiovi's went to the top of the charts. The elder Bongiovi always made a huge batch of sauce on Sundays, and the family would eat it throughout the week, with pasta, with seafood, with chicken.

"It was survival," recalls Bon Jovi's brother Matthew Bongiovi, who helps market the sauce, all profits of which go to the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation.

Bad news for boosters of Jersey tomatoes: They apparently don't fare so well in sauce, at least in the ones we tasted. The four sauces made with Jersey tomatoes and bearing the Jersey Fresh label scored poor to middling.

"I think it's the uniquess of the Jersey tomato," says a charitable Cucci of Nanina's. "They're great with salads, they're great eating on their own. I don't think they're as good as imported San Marzano tomatoes as far as making great sauce."

What about your sauce?

Think you've got a killer tomato sauce that deserves to be the supermarket shelves? Don't quit your day job, says Phil Lempert, the retail expert known as the Supermarket Guru. Everybody wants to be in the pasta sauce business, he says: It has a high profit margin, the products are shelf-stable, and pasta is perennially popular.

"For me, it's all about the ingredients, where they're coming from, how authentic the recipe is," Lempert says. But even with a great recipe — and ensuring quality by tasting each and every batch — the competition is stiff. There are more than 15,000 new food products launched every year, and only about 1,000 make it, he says. (Indeed, a few days ago, we can across another Jersey-branded sauce in Whole Foods, the relatively new Original Jersey Italian Gravy, although it's made in New York.)

"Don't take any money out of the bank," Lempert advises. "What you really want do if you want to get into the food business is go visit some trade shows, walk up and down the aisles, look at the competition, taste the competition, and see if you've really got a point of difference that can make it."

Chefs' secrets to a great marinara

Francesco Palmieri: Slow-cooked onions at the start of the sauce will give it sweetness and a depth of flavor; no sugar required.

Louis Laico: When using canned tomatoes, taste them first. Some cans may be sweeter, others more bitter, so you'll know how to adjust your seasonings.

Anthony Pino: Tomatoes are packed with water, so salt throughout the cooking process to bring out their natural flavor.

FOLLOW STAR-LEDGER ENTERTAINMENT: TWITTER • FACEBOOK

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.