The Pre-Made Sauce Bobby Flay Swears By
Home cooks have a ton of quality pre-made sauces to choose from. When it comes to jarred pasta sauce, chefs recommend Rao's Homemade Marinara Sauce, Whole Foods 365 marinara, or Rao's Homemade Vodka Sauce (per Strategist). Meanwhile, Taste of Home opts for Prego Basil Pesto or Barilla Rustic Basil Pesto. If you want to make some high-quality spaghetti — and skip the hassle of spending all day monitoring a pot of sauce simmering on the stovetop — a jar of pre-made sauce can take your pasta to the next level.
In January, Bobby Flay gave fans a digital tour of his pantry and unveiled some of his favorite ingredients in a Misfits Market video. Flay explained his love for his collection of Calabrian chilies, specialty dried pasta, and gochujang, but one pre-made sauce caught viewers' attention. Flay pulled out a specialty product called Simply Sugo, claiming he can whip together pasta in minutes by doctoring the flavor a bit with a few herbs. While this seemingly life-changing sauce might change everyone's quick pasta game, the sauce doesn't appear everywhere, and many wonder what Simply Sugo consists of.
What is Simply Sugo?
Flay's game-changing sauce contains a basic blend of tomatoes and basil, per Mutti. The food brand also has a few other flavors of the sauce, including Simply Sugo with olives, chili peppers, or Parmesan. Home cooks have also found something to love in this particular sauce. Over on Blackbox Reviews, users praised the item, calling it "my go-to pasta sauce" and recognizing its "good flavor." If you've gotten tired of Prego or Ragu and need a brand-new jarred sauce for your spaghetti, this Mutti product might just have your name on it.
The only obstacle this sauce presents is its availability. You may have to go on a journey to get your hands on a jar of this sauce, but stores including Eataly and Instacart carry the product. While this item presents a simple shortcut for anyone looking to make great pasta quickly, it takes some practice to master. But several recipe hacks can take Simply Sugo pasta sauce to the next level.
How to transform Simply Sugo into a full-blown sauce
Even if you can get your hands on a jar of Simply Sugo, you'll still have to transform this basic tomato sauce into a winning pasta topping. Bobby Flay has a particular way he handles this sauce and imbues the item with his own signature flavors. "If I want to eat literally in a few minutes, I throw on a pot of water, fill the pasta in there with a bunch of salt, get some tomato sauce going then I'll take out some Calabrian chilies or some crushed red peppers, fresh basil, or some oregano — or whatever kind of herbs I have — some Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and you have pasta and it's perfect," Flay said to Misfits Market (via The Blast).
While Flay has discovered a few hacks for this product, you can let your imagination guide you when you doctor up this sauce. Bustle suggests using a basic tomato sauce like Simply Sugo as a basis to build flavor on. Home cooks can add cream, spices, cheese, pasta water, meat, and even a bit of tomato paste into this basic sauce to create their own signature pasta topping.
While this tomato sauce serves as Flay's secret weapon when it comes to throwing together a quick dinner, the chef also has a few other pre-made sauce preferences up his sleeve that take recipes to the next level.
Flay's other go-to sauce
When Bobby Flay invited fans into his pantry in a Misfits Market video, he showed off some other pre-made sauces that could elevate meals in minutes. While Simply Sugo stole the spotlight as an incredibly versatile pantry staple, Flay also emphasized the importance of owning some pre-packaged curry and shared another easy hack. "Take some red curry paste, toast it in a pan, throw some coconut-milk over it, and you literally will have a red curry or a green curry sauce literally in 15, 20 minutes," Flay said (via Cheatsheet). "You can put it over some chicken or some grilled salmon. It has so much flavor, and it's so easy."
Flay also keeps items on hand that complement the Simply Sugo pasta sauce. Per The Blast, the chef pulled out his collection of dried mushrooms and explained how their flavor can help elevate the taste of pasta. You may never expect it, but Flay's go-to sauce enhancer also comes in the form of anchovies. "I put anchovies in so many things and people don't know it," Flay said in the video.
The next time you need to take your pasta to the next level, take a page from Flay's playbook and reach for a jar of pre-made pasta sauce to doctor up. Fans may also want to keep an eye on Flay for more hot pantry tips to streamline the cooking process.