Costco Rao’s Homemade Calabrian Chili Marinara Review

I absolutely love the original Rao’s Marinara Sauce – it’s my favorite store-bought pasta sauce. It’s one of the items I buy over and over again on my trips to Costco. When I spotted this Rao’s Calabrian Chili Marinara, I hoped it would be just as good but with a new flavor profile to enjoy.

I’ve reviewed a few different pasta sauces from Costco like the Simply Natural Organic Tomato Basil Sauce, Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto and the Kirkland Signature Organic Marinara from Tuscany.

Location in Store

I bought this in Kona, Hawaii to go with the Pasta Prima Spinach & Mozzarella Ravioli we were having for dinner. The item number is 1765485 and I found it in the aisle with the dry pasta and other jarred sauces.

Taste

This is a sweet and slightly spicy marinara sauce. It has a really nice sweet marinara flavor with a mild amount of heat. The texture of the sauce is nice from the tomatoes that they use.

There aren’t a lot ingredients but the tomato peel gives it a fresh, homemade flavor. This Calabrian Chili is lighter in color than the other Rao’s marinara. The flavor is sweeter and spicier than the regular marinara and a little less tomatoey.

Cost

For $15.69 USD you get two separate 22-ounce jars. Which isn’t cheap! That’s over 10 dollars Canada per jar of marinara.

Convenience

The best before date is two years and eight months from when I bought it. The marinara just needs to be heated and served and if you’re not going to be using a whole jar, refrigerate the marinara after opening the jar.

You could use marinara on any pasta or to make chicken parmesan, pizza, a meatball sub or any baked pasta casserole dish!

Nutrition

Calories

A half cup serving contains 100 calories, seven grams of fat, 390 milligrams of sodium, seven grams of carbohydrates, two grams of fiber, five grams of sugar and two grams of protein. That’s not many calories or carbohydrates. The fat in the sauce is coming from the olive oil used in it.

Ingredients

I absolutely love the short and simple ingredients list. I appreciate that they use olive oil in the sauce instead of using something like canola or soy oil. The marinara is gluten-free, dairy-free and soy-free.

Scoring

Taste: 9/10

Cost: 6/10

Convenience: 10/10

Nutrition: 9/10

Overall

Give it a try!

Overall this is a good sauce and equally good as the regular Rao’s marinara.

Have you tried this marinara ? What did you think of it?

Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).