Review: Prego Released A Really Good Sauce (And 2 Others)

Prego is no stranger to unique sauces. The brand's website lists 41 individual varieties at the time of writing, ranging from Mini-Meatball Pasta Sauce — which really does contain tiny meatballs — to Cheesy Bacon Cheddar Cheese Sauce and Creamy Roasted Garlic Pesto Sauce. It seems that Prego's goal is to create a sauce for every meal, and with three new options hitting shelves, it's hard to argue that the goal isn't within reach.

Margherita, Lemon Alfredo, and Cajun Alfredo are the brand's latest sauce offerings. As the only red option in the bunch, the Margherita Sauce promises "mozzarella-forward flavor with notes of bright tomato and aromatic basil" (per Prego's website). The Alfredos, meanwhile, lean into their creamy textures, with the Lemon offering a "perfect balance of bright lemon flavor and rich velvety cream," while the Cajun brings the heat with a "delicious fusion of bold Cajun spices and rich velvety cream" that "delivers zesty, well-balanced flavor."

While the official product descriptions are enough to make your mouth water, executing on those lofty promises is another story. I tried all three flavors and found that they ranged from fantastically flavorful on their own to needing a bit of sprucing up. Read on to find out which sauce is worth adding to pasta night and which one to steer clear of.

Prego reached out and offered to send me the three new sauces to try. After photographing each jar, I warmed up a bit of sauce and tried them on their own before adding them to a batch of pasta. My evaluations were based on taste, scent, texture, and how well the sauce worked on pasta as compared to the solo flavor. 

Some recommendations are based on first-hand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

Generally, when I do a review, I try to isolate the item I'm consuming, but this time I tried all the sauces alone first, and then as part of a more complete meal. By itself, the Lemon Alfredo Sauce left me wondering: Who was asking for this flavor? 

On paper, it sounds good — a citrus cream sauce to pair with seafood or chicken. My first impression, though, was hardly positive. While the lemon flavor is at the forefront, I couldn't get past an almost artificial dairy taste. Still, I powered through and added in some sautéed asparagus and meatballs to round out the dish, and I'm glad I did.

Prego's Lemon Alfredo is a complementary piece, not the star of the show. By itself, the sauce feels stuck between the lemon flavor and the creamy cheese base that flavor lives in. Add in some other elements, though, and the two sides of the sauce stop fighting for supremacy and work well to complement everything around them. I'd recommend shrimp or even a spicy sausage along with plenty of vegetables to liven up any dish with Prego's Lemon Alfredo. It's not bad — this store-bought Alfredo sauce just needs a little help.

Depending on your pizza preferences, the Margherita pizza is either the perfect pie for its simplicity or just cheese pizza with good PR. With three key ingredients — mozzarella, basil, and sauce — the Margherita pizza is hardly complex, and in striving for accuracy, Prego created a sauce that can't be billed as terribly complex itself.

As the only red sauce in the new trio, Prego's Margherita Sauce is hard to compare with the others. On the one hand, it offers more texture, with tomato chunks and pieces of basil throughout. The flavor is steady and even, though I'm not sure the mozzarella notes promised in the description are as prevalent as they could be. Still, the basil offers some freshness, and ultimately, the sauce is a perfectly enjoyable, basic red sauce. It's good, not great, but for the price, it's worth buying if you're looking for something cheap that won't let you down. 

Should you still dress it up with some meat or veggies? Probably, but even if some shredded cheese is all you have on hand, a bowl of pasta with Prego's Margherita Sauce will not end in disappointment.

Now this is a sauce that can stand on its own. I actually tried the sauces in the same order as my ranking because I didn't want to fry my taste buds with spice from the Cajun sauce — a good choice in the end — and I'm so glad I saved this one for last. In all the ways the Lemon Alfredo seems disjointed, the Cajun Alfredo works.

The spice in this sauce is real. It doesn't require a top-end heat tolerance, but you'll feel that fun, tingly burn with each bite. The creaminess of the Alfredo sauce helps mellow a bit of the Cajun kick, but it also adds richness that, combined with the heat, coats every part of the pasta. 

Paired again with the same meatballs and asparagus as the first two sauces, the Cajun Alfredo is the elevator, not the elevatee. This sauce has its own personality and, honestly, would work well with just about anything you toss in it.

On the whole, Prego's new sauces are good, especially for the price. While the Lemon Alfredo Sauce requires the right environment to thrive, it does offer a citrus element not often found in store-bought jarred sauces. The Margherita Sauce is hardly unique, but it's beyond serviceable. If you're looking for a classic red sauce without too much flair, this one gets the job done. 

The real star, though, is the Cajun Alfredo Sauce. Chicken, shrimp, sausage, beef, and any vegetable you can imagine would be instantly elevated by this spicy, creamy concoction. Working out at less than $4 for around seven servings, it's well worth grabbing a jar to see if it can give your weeknight dinner a boost.

The new Prego sauces are available now from selected online retailers, and are rolling out to retailers nationwide in June 2026. All three sauces have a suggested retail price of $3.69, which takes price out of the equation when ranking these sauces, though the two Alfredos come in 14 ½-ounce jars while the red sauce is 23 ¾ ounces.

A ¼ cup serving of the Lemon Alfredo contains 80 calories and 360 milligrams of sodium, along with 7 grams of fat. A serving of the Cajun Alfredo — also ¼ cup — contains the same number of calories and grams of fat, with a little extra sodium to bring the total up to 380 milligrams. Finally, the Margherita is measured in ½ cup servings, each of which contains 60 calories, 460 milligrams of sodium, and just 1 ½ grams of fat.