Botticelli – Spicy Marinara Alla Fra Diavolo Pasta Sauce

Bitter: ⭐⭐✰✰✰

Salty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sour/Tangy: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Sweet: ✰✰✰✰✰

Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Heat: ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

Quick Flavor Notes: Salty, one-note, dull

Texture: Medium thicknes with some small chunks

Recommended: No

Ingredients: Italian Tomatoes, Onion, Sea Salt, Sunflower Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Basil, Garlic, Chili, Black Pepper

Walking through the aisles at Publix I noticed a BOGO sale on Botticelli pasta sauces. Looking at their ingredient labels I was happy to find some that were quite clean, and since pasta can be a quick and easy weeknight meal from a prepared sauce I figured I’d give a couple of their spicy options a try. Botticelli appears to be a family-owned business and in addition to pasta sauce also makes olive oils, jarred preserved vegetables, vinegars, and coffee.

The Botticelli Spicy Marinara Alla Fra Diavolo initially got my attention because it had one of the cleanest ingredients lists of all of their sauces. While several contained modified food starch there was none to be found here, just tomatoes, onion, basil, garlic, chili pepper, and oils (olive and sunflower). While sunflower oil isn’t an ingredient typically found in high quality pasta sauces it’s at least better than soybean oil, and they do use olive oil as well. Botticelli does make a point on their bottle to state on their bottle that they use Italian tomatoes from Parma. San Marzano is the most famous tomato growing area in Italy, located in southern Italy near Naples. Meanwhile Parma, most famous for Parmesan cheese and not tomatoes, is located in northern Italy. The position of the chili peppers towards the end of the ingredients list didn’t fill me with hope that there would be much of any detectable spice however. Texturally this sauce is mostly smooth with some small tomato and vegetable bits and a medium consistency that hugs pasta well. Tomatoes, garlic, and dried herbs float on the aroma.

Quality tomato sauces should have a blend of sweetness, acidity, and richness from the tomatoes plus a fresh taste that reminds one of the garden the tomatoes were picked from. Unfortunately Botticelli Spicy Marinara sauce doesn’t live up to that promise. There’s no natural tomato sweetness here at all, and though there is some richness the acidity level is also on the lower side. The spice level, as expected, is so minimal it’s difficult to even detect. If I’d been fed a spoonful of this blindfolded I’d have never guessed it was supposed to be a spicy sauce. What Botticelli does have is massive amounts of salt. At 460mg of sodium per half cup serving, a full 20% of your DRV of sodium, this sauce is just unbearably salty. Judicious use of salt enhances flavors. Oversalting can depress and deaden them and that’s what’s happening here – this sauce is so salty that it makes the tomatoes taste one-note with no complexity and any chance the basil, garlic, and onion could bring a little natural sweetness is dashed. This sauce is a far cry from the best spicy pasta sauce that I’ve tried, Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Spicy Arrabbiata Tomato Sauce (which is sadly discontinued). That sauce had freshness, sweetness, acidity, heat, and complexity. Botticelli brings salt dull one-note flavors.

Obviously I can’t recommend this sauce at all. Not only is it not spicy at all it’s also unbearably salty and lacking in any depth of flavor or any hint at showing the full spectrum of the flavor of the tomato. On the plus side this sauce is all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.