I Tested Olive Garden’s New Spicy Three Meat Sauce, and It’s a Flavor Explosion

When I was a kid, there were two restaurants that regularly made it into the rotation on nights when we would go out to eat. To me, they were known as the “Olive Place” and the “Tomato Place.” The Tomato Place was Fazoli’s, and the Olive Place was the Olive Garden. No doubt, you’re noticing a theme. I’ve always been a fan of saucy pasta, and I also remember that both restaurants’ responsibility was to satisfy that deep seeded love for a garlicky breadstick. I must admit, going into this tasting, I felt that same anticipatory delight I remember: The promise of Olive Garden’s tasty, soft breadsticks. Of course, they were exactly as delicious as I remember, but admittedly, on this particular visit, they played second fiddle to Olive Garden’s newest sauce and pasta option: Spicy Three Meat Sauce with bucatini noodles.

I got to try the newest addition to Olive Garden’s create-your-own pasta meal. On this outing, my mission was simple: Decide whether the Spicy Three Meat Sauce is worth your time and money. Though you can order the sauce with any noodle, I paired it with the newly released bucatini to get the full effect, and it seemed the best pasta shape for the sauce.

Many times, when I have gone into a restaurant and there’s been a new entrée on the menu, it’s commonly featured as a colorful menu addendum or there may even be photos of it around the restaurant at tables. I was surprised that Olive Garden wasn’t more heavily featuring the sauce and noodle; in fact, it was so subtly placed on the menu, I asked Michael, my waiter, to point it out to me. You’ll find it under the “Create Your Own Pasta Meal” for $12.99. With this option, you choose a noodle, sauce, and a topping if you would like. You’ll also get a choice of soup or salad for the first course of your meal with, of course, those iconic breadsticks.

Bucatini is a very thick noodle with a hollow center. On the surface, it looks like thick spaghetti, and, apparently is an underrated noodle you should try mixing into your pasta salad. The spicy three-meat sauce is, as you might expect, a meat sauce with pepperoni, beef, and Italian sausage. There’s also some spiciness in the sauce, I imagine largely due to the cherry peppers throughout. It isn’t an exorbitantly spicy bite, but it is noticeable. Especially those guests who struggle with spicy foods might find it too hot, but I found the sauce to be reasonably spiced for a dinner pasta dish.

For those who have been to Olive Garden quite a bit over the last few years, the addition of the bucatini is especially notable because it’s the first time a new pasta has been added to the create-your-own pasta meal in seven years. After such a long wait, seeing a new addition is no doubt welcome. Unfortunately, it seems that the new addition won’t be around for very long, at least initially. As of now, both the spicy three-meat sauce and bucatini are set to leave the menu after August 25, 2025. This means you get the summer to visit Olive Garden to sample the new noodle and sauce.

Of course, just because it’s available for a limited time now doesn’t mean it couldn’t join the menu permanently at a later date. I imagine such decisions would largely depend on reception, demand, and how well the products sell.

If you’ve not tried Olive Garden lately and aren’t eager to head to a busy chain restaurant, the popular casual dining chain will finally deliver straight to your door. In fact, for the first 1 million orders, customers are even receiving free delivery. At the time of writing, I wasn’t given an indication of how far into that number customers have chipped, but the free delivery seems to be continuing, at least for now.

The spicy three meat sauce is one of the heartier sauce options on the create your own pasta menu. Each serving has 400 calories, 28 grams of fat, 65 milligrams of cholesterol, and 2,270 milligrams of sodium. Comparatively, the meat sauce carries 3,000 calories, 19 grams of fat, 60 milligrams of cholesterol, and 1,040 milligrams of sodium. The spicy three meat sauce is hardly the most heavy of the sauce options you can add. That award goes to the creamy mushroom sauce that has 860 calories, over double that of the spicy three meat sauce.

For ingredients, the sauce was described to me as “a flavorful blend of chili flakes, cherry peppers, red bell pepper, pepperoni, red wine, garlic and herbs and homemade meat sauce.” For the amount of spice packed into the sauce, it’s obvious that the cherry tomatoes and red pepper flakes have a significant punch in spicy flavors. Seeing such a description, it’s surprising how much spice actually comes from the sauce when the spicy ingredients seem fairly minimal. With even one bite, the spiciness is immediately present, though not overwhelming, and it doesn’t linger for long.

When I asked Michael (my server) what he recommended in pairing the sauce with, he advised a white wine. Normally, I would choose Riesling as my go-to wine, but in this case, I selected Moscato, an ultra-sweet white wine from Italy. In the past, I’ve considered Moscato something of a cop-out in the wine world, but I’ve come around to really finding Moscato to be a decent selection with some menus, so this seemed like the perfect place to pair it.

Though I didn’t necessarily find the sweetness did much to the spiciness of the noodles, it was a delicious accent to the meal as a whole. I enjoyed that little sweetness hanging out with the spice — it was more the difference between the sweet and the spicy that really made Moscato the right choice.

I chose to try the new spicy three-meat sauce with the release of the bucatini noodles. The three meats are accented by a spiciness from cherry peppers, which, if you know the cherry pepper relish from Jersey Mike’s, you might recognize the zest of this sauce. The bucatini is a hearty, thick noodle with a hollow interior. It reminded me of delicious udon noodles that I’ve had in soups before, but with an Italian spin on it. They feel like extra long elbow noodles that aren’t curved in any way, but as long as spaghetti.

The spice is absolutely evident, but from my first bite to the very last, it wasn’t overwhelming in any way. The build is nearly imperceptible and it doesn’t burn at all. As someone who enjoys spicy foods, I found it to be a nice level — perhaps slightly above a mild salsa spice level to give you an idea. However, I think those who don’t enjoy spicy foods will find this too spicy. To me, the spice feels purposefully done for the flavor profile rather than intending to burn off your taste buds.

I absolutely loved the bucatini noodles with the spicy three meat sauce. As someone who doesn’t often enjoy meat or heavy dishes, I was surprised by just how enjoyable this sauce was, and I think it’s largely because of all of the flavors coming together. The three meats play nicely with the pepper spice, and it felt like the type of sauce you might create out of an experiment rather than following a strict recipe. Those who are looking for something a little out of the ordinary that is still familiar will be deeply satisfied with the offering.

Having not been to Olive Garden in many years, I was happy with what I found here. The restaurant offered good food, the service was great, and the chain was really leaning heavily into the homemade nature of its food. Honestly, that came through in my bite, and I hope this sauce and noodle eventually join the permanent line up.

To decide whether the spicy three meat sauce is worth a visit to Olive Garden, I sat down to a meal to experience the latest Olive Garden has to offer. I chose the bucatini noodles to pair with the spicy three meat sauce so that I could try both new options together, as they seem to be intended for that purpose. I also asked my waiter for the best choice of wine and made my selection according to his recommendation. 

Ultimately, the verdict came down to whether I found the sauce to be an enjoyable flavor. I wanted something that was spicy, without being fiery and had a flavor to it that I would look forward to ordering again.