Ranking 9 Brands of Jarred Alfredo Sauce

I have been, and will always be, a big proponent of jarred pasta sauce. I love a Sunday sauce just as much as the next person, but the reality is that not everyone has the time, patience, or know-how to whip up their own sauces from scratch, like this basic all-purpose tomato sauce. The pasta aisle of the grocery store is filled with sauce options, from classic marinaras and pestos to the creamiest sauce of them all: Alfredo. 

Alfredo sauce is traditionally made by combining milk, butter, heavy whipping cream, and cheese until it resembles a thick, unctuous sauce perfect for topping your pasta shape of choice or repurposing for something else, whether that’s as a dipping sauce for mozzarella sticks or a substitute for a classic pizza sauce. Store-bought Alfredo contains all of these elements, just in an inexpensive and shelf-stable format (which, I should note, should be refrigerated after opening). 

Now I’ll admit something right off the bat: I’ve never bought store-bought Alfredo sauce before. Marinara, sure — but not Alfredo. This primed me to take on one of the cheesiest taste tests ever: a quest to find the best store-bought pasta sauce that money could buy. I tested a range of store-bought Alfredo sauce brands, both on their own and with pasta, and then ranked them from worst to best. I wanted to find a sauce that boasted not only the creamiest texture and cheesiest flavor imaginable, but was also high quality enough to rival a homemade Alfredo sauce like the one on this ultra creamy chicken fettuccine Alfredo or one made at a top-of-the-line Italian joint.

Ragú is probably not a brand that you associate with the phrase “award-winning.” And as it turns out, this Alfredo sauce wasn’t even nominated for a “best of” award — at least for this taste test. While all of the other sauces in this ranking were speckled with some amount of pepper, this one was as white as snow. It’s what you would feed to a picky child who screams “Icky!” anytime there’s a speck of anything green or brown on their plate. 

However, I don’t think I would subject any child — or eater, for that matter — to this pasta sauce. When I took a sniff of the jar, I found it had a musty odor, like it had been sitting on the shelf at my local Walmart for too long. This mustiness was reflected in its flavor, which also was riddled with a medicinal flavor. The cheesiness was noticeably absent, as was any lick of spice that would have otherwise helped distract from its strange flavor. The predominant flavor that I got from this sauce was sour; there was no freshness or lightness to help uplift it or give it a competitive edge against the other jarred Alfredo sauces on this list. 

Part of me wonders if there are any ingredients I could add to this store-bought Alfredo sauce to improve it. But zero times anything is still zero, which leads me to believe you’re better off scrapping this sauce entirely and choosing one of the better-ranked ones on this list. 

Great Value’s lineup of products is generally reliable — at least in terms of price. Though, in my experience, not all of Great Value’s products boast an incredible quality or flavor, nor are they worth buying. 

Take this classic Alfredo sauce, for example. I’ll admit I was a little repulsed when I opened the jar to find that the sauce resembled mayo; it was gelatinous and had a strong garlicky aroma that caught me off guard. Its garlic flavor was not fresh, though — it was more like garlic powder shoved to the back of the pantry that should have been tossed about three years ago. When I tasted it sans pasta, I could tell that it really leaned on the salt; there was very little pepper to keep the sauce even keeled. The mouthfeel was thin — like mayo — and it lacked the creamy depth of the higher-ranking Alfredos on this list.

When I mixed the sauce with the pasta, I found that this sauce still kept its same, mayonnaise-like texture. It didn’t really adhere to the noodles. Instead, it was like I was eating a lukewarm, over-mayo-ed pasta salad. The cheesiness was not genuine, nor was it full-bodied, and the garlic flavor was stale rather than fresh and sharp on my palate. It lacked the proper creaminess of a good Alfredo sauce, too. I was immediately able to tell it was store-bought (and a poor selection at that), which pushed it to the bottom of this ranking. 

I am an Aldi girl at heart — mainly because I can’t justify spending a ton of money on groceries every week. This Priano Alfredo sauce from Aldi fits the bill from a price standpoint; it is the cheapest jarred Alfredo sauce brand that I sampled. Texture-wise, this sauce is spot-on. It’s thick enough to stick to every noodle, and I would say it had a far better texture than some of the other brands on this list. Its mouthfeel is what I would expect from a homemade Alfredo sauce. 

Its flavor, though, was a swing … and a miss. You can see the little specks of black pepper floating around in the sauce, and they do offer a little zing on your tongue as you eat it. But the actual cheese flavor barely comes through. The sauce is over-salted and falls flat. There is very little richness from the cheese to make it hearty and add any umami notes. A big part of what makes Alfredo so good is that innate creaminess, especially when it’s paired with the savory flavor of the Parmesan. This Priano sauce tasted more like a creamy cacio e pepe — which is not what I was looking for here. If it placed a greater emphasis on the cheese flavor, rather than the pepper, it would have fared better. 

Bertolli is a brand you may associate more with olive oil (check out our ultimate guide to buying olive oil) than you do with pasta sauce. But it turns out that it has a whole lineup of sauces, including the Alfredo that I sampled for this ranking. But just because it’s likely found on the shelves at your local grocery store doesn’t mean that you should buy it.

Going into this ranking, I felt optimistic about this pasta sauce, seeing as how I could see the large specks of black pepper floating in it. But, when I nuked it in the microwave and combined it with my pasta, I could tell there were some issues afoot. For one, there was a distinct, white wine-like flavor milling about. I couldn’t entirely tell where it was coming from, and I was honestly worried that this bottle had spoiled or gone rancid before I got my hands on it. After assuring myself that this was not the case, I took another bite and found that my palate had become more acquainted to the flavor. So, maybe this sauce is indeed a two-bite wonder.

However, I grew less enthused with it over subsequent bites. The cheese in this Alfredo tasted cheap; it lacked the heavy, umami flavor that traditionally comes with a good, high-quality sauce. The black pepper that I hoped I would find was missing, and this sauce had a milkier mouthfeel than other brands. While “milkiness” isn’t inherently bad in a pasta sauce, especially one made with milk, it means that it lacked that creamy, unctuous mouthfeel that I was expecting from a cream-based pasta sauce. However, it still wasn’t as flavorless as the lower-ranking brands. 

Classico’s Alfredo sauce is the definition of a store-bought Alfredo sauce. It’s not necessarily good, but it will do the trick if you need to get a meal on the table and have no other options. Despite its label touting that it’s made with fresh cream and aged Parmesan, I don’t think it’s fooling anyone into thinking it’s made with high-quality ingredients. 

Its texture is creamy and decadent, and I would say that it’s better than Rao’s and Carbone in this department. But its flavor is where things start to get a little hairy. I expected to be hit with the perfect cheesy flavor, which would add depth and umami richness to the bland noodles. But all I got was a blank, wholly underdeveloped flavor that tasted more like heavy whipping cream than cheese. I suspect that because the brand either used very little Parmesan, or a lackluster brand of it, it also caused the sauce to come out less salty than the other brands I sampled. I don’t like super salty sauces, but we start to run into issues when there is no cheesiness to back that flavor up. Lest we forget that Classico’s sauce is supposed to be made with four cheeses, so it had four opportunities to enrich this sauce with the cheesy flavor it deserves — and failed to deliver on every single one of them. Its texture earned it a middling spot on this list, but it’s still not my pick of the litter. 

I have been a staunch supporter of Rao’s from the beginning. Of the many brands of store-bought marinara sauce, Rao’s is a staple in my fridge, and it’s a go-to for everything from frozen vegan meatballs to cheese tortellini. But how does its Alfredo sauce fare in this race? 

First, we have to talk about the price tag. Rao’s was one of the most expensive brands that I sampled on this list — by a long-shot. It was three times more expensive than name brands Prego and Classico, and the selections from Aldi and Great Value had an even larger price disparity. The jar itself isn’t that big, which makes the price of this sauce even more jarring (pun intended). But if the sauce is good, I’m willing to pay more for it. 

When I opened this jar of Rao’s, I took note of its aroma, which had some Asiago-like notes to it. I also saw that it came out of the jar like a flowing river; it was very thin rather than gelatinous or mayo-like. This consistency issue persisted even when I heated up the sauce and mixed it with the pasta. It was very thin and liquidy, and even after I let it sit for a few minutes, I don’t think it thickened enough to pass for an Alfredo. Maybe a molten cheese dipping sauce, but certainly not Alfredo. But the cheese flavor here was spot-on. It was heavily salted and decadent, though I honestly could have done with a little less salt. All in all, it’s not a bad Alfredo; I just think that you have to use it very sparingly because it’s so salty and runny. 

Carbone’s Alfredo sauce is very similar to Rao’s offering. It came out of the jar in a liquidy torrent and featured the same off-white color as the other premium pasta sauce brand. Even its price was similar. But the fact that it was less overwhelmingly salty put it just an inch above Rao’s in this ranking. 

This sauce didn’t thicken as well as the top-ranked Alfredos on this list; even after it was heated up, it dripped and dribbled off the penne and back into the bowl. Like Rao’s, the Carbone Alfredo tasted very complex and well-made; you can tell that it featured a flavorful and sharp cheese, which worked well against the sauce’s milky creaminess and improved its overall mouthfeel. The pepper also played a big role in this sauce’s success in this ranking; it offered a piquant bite that was compelling and helped balance both the sharpness of the cheese and the saltiness of the sauce. 

Despite Carbone’s clear use of high-quality ingredients and bold flavors, I still feel disappointed by its texture. I fear that if I had served it with steamed broccoli, any lingering water in the florets would cause this sauce to become even thinner and more watery — effectively rendering it useless as a sauce. If you could find a way to thicken it up, I think it has the potential to be an excellent pasta sauce. But as it stands — compounded by its high price tag — I don’t think I would buy it again. 

I’ll admit that Prego’s sauces haven’t wow-ed me in the past. But this Alfredo sauce is truly one of the brand’s best items — and it’s a sauce worth adding to your cart. It doesn’t look like much when you pop open the jar; it has a texture similar to Great Value’s Alfredo sauce when it’s cold. But I noticed that its texture got super creamy and rich after I warmed it up in the microwave. It sticks to every noodle with ease and doesn’t seize up in the way that a cheap, poorly made Alfredo sauce would. 

The flavor that is at the forefront here is unequivocally salt. I don’t get the impression that it was made with quality cheese, as there is very little umami to supplement the salty flavor of what I think was Parmesan, but I honestly couldn’t be sure. After the salt, my palate was hit by a wave of stale pepper. It was not like the freshly cracked stuff served table-side at a fancy Italian restaurant; it’s like the dust left over in a McCormick can. Though, I will say that the garlicky undertones were a welcomed addition to this sauce, as was its overall cheesiness.

Despite its flavor faults, there is something innately tasty and compelling about this sauce, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. I felt compelled to go back for another bite, even after I had finished my initial tasting. I imagine that it would be a better sauce if it was paired with a flavor that could compete with it, like massive broccoli florets, chicken breast, or shrimp. 

The shape of the bettergoods Alfredo pasta sauce was unique. It looks more like a jar of queso than an Alfredo sauce. This, along with the periwinkle-colored label on this private Walmart brand, made it stand out against the sea of other generic and name-brand Alfredo sauces at my local grocery store.

It might sound a bit odd, but the sauce doesn’t just look like the Italian version of queso; it tastes like it too. When I opened the jar, I immediately noticed that its texture was very pudding-like. It’s smooth and creamy and sticks to the pasta better than the lower-ranked brands, and I was glad to see that it thinned out after I heated it up in the microwave and tossed it with the pasta. When you lean in and take a whiff, you can immediately pick up on that savory, umami-rich Parmesan. This is the primary flavor that comes through on the palate as well. The sharp and umami undertones were at the forefront, and it wasn’t overly salted like Rao’s sauce was. The other flavor note that I got from this sauce was garlic. It wasn’t a stale garlic — like the flavor and aroma of the Great Value Alfredo. It was piquant, vibrant, and authentic, and it really added value to the overall flavor of the sauce. 

Overall, bettergoods did a much better job in balancing flavors than the other brands. It was like the Goldilocks of Alfredo sauces — not too creamy, not too thick, and not too salty — thus earning the highest marks in this Alfredo showdown. 

I purchased these jarred Alfredo sauces from two grocery stores in southern Rhode Island. In order to keep the playing field as level as possible, I purchased the most basic Alfredo sauce offering from these brands — meaning I left roasted garlic-flavored and bacon-infused Alfredo sauces out. I heated each of the sauces up in the microwave for about 30 seconds before tasting each one solo so I could get a better feel for its flavor and texture. Then, I ate the sauces with a small serving of cooked penne pasta to test their texture and mouthfeel. 

The two cornerstones of a good Alfredo sauce are cheesiness and creaminess. In order for a sauce to place high on this ranking, it had to offer a decadent, rich mouthfeel and a creamy consistency; sauces that were especially goopy or watery placed lower than ones that could be enjoyed with a variety of foods, be it pasta, veggies, or proteins like chicken. I also looked closely at the flavor of each sauce. Umami and rich cheese should be the focal point of the sauce, though I did note brands that were able to balance out this flavor with others, like garlic or black pepper. The top-ranked Alfredo sauces offered a fresh and flavor-forward mouthfeel that kept me coming back for another bite, whereas the lowest ranked sauces were the ones that I personally wouldn’t consider buying again.