Light Ragu Review: The Savvy Consumer's Pasta Sauce Pick

With nearly half an aisle devoted to pasta sauce at the super market, it is difficult to make a decision. My first instinct is to go for the cheapest product, provided that the packaging looks secure and the brand or generic name conjures some inkling of recognition in my mind. Ragu - as I have always known it, the rival to Prego - seems to pop up frequently as one of the cheaper options. I trust Ragu. The company can - or, at the very least, could - afford television ads, so the sauce must have something going for it (or, at the very least, accountability to millions of television viewers). But the moment I turned the bottle to read its nutritional info, as well as that of its neighboring sauces, I was astounded to learn just how detrimental a red sauce could be to my diet. How could this be, I wondered. I had come to expect loads of sodium in tomato juice, but now sodium and sugar invading tomato sauce? Gasp! My eyes shifted to the right, suddenly, and I noticed the "Light" Ragu. "No sugar added," the bottle read. That was the first positive development. The second came when I read that the Light Ragu, flavored with Tomato and Basil, contained 330 mg of sodium -yes, still high, but better than the 750 mg in traditional red sauce, Ragu or otherwise.

I tested the sauce and am happy to report that the absence of sugar does not impact the flavor. A half-cup serving, plentiful for this diner, nets just fifty calories. Best of all, your elementary school child can recite the ingredients list without so much as a stumble.

We are taught at an early age that tomatoes are good for us. They are chock full of vitamins C and A, as well as potassium. They improve our complexion. And we like the lycopene, an anti-oxidant proven to ward off cancer-causing agents. As kids, the thought of consuming an unadorned tomato is tough to digest; but upon maturation to adulthood, the fruit takes on an elevated profile as the compliment to fresh mozzarella and basil, or the sundried jewel amidst a bowl of hand-made pasta. With adulthood, however, comes a hectic schedule, uninspired approach to cooking, and, finally, a search for healthy foods to appease all taste bud tiers. This is where pasta sauce enters the picture - namely, Ragu.

As one who appreciates ornamental use of the tomato but lacks the budget and patronage to merit such extravagances, I purchase my tomatoes in a jar. Pureed, enhanced with herbs and spices, ready to blanket some freshly boiled pasta. My experience buying tomatoes from the produce section of my local supermarket(s) has yielded disappointing outcomes time and time again. Perhaps this is because I live near a large city in the desert, where farm stands are non-existent within reasonable driving distance. The tomatoes have been mealy to the point that I am forced to remove them from my salad or sauce pan. Light Ragu, on the other hand, has yet to disappoint.