Make Store-Bought Pasta Sauce Taste Better With An Ingredient You Already Have Lying Around

We've got a pro tip for making jarred pasta sauce taste homemade, and you don't even have to be a pro to make it work. Even the worst store-bought marinara sauce can be transformed into a velvety, restaurant-worthy masterpiece with one simple ingredient that you probably already have on hand: butter.

Butter does more than add richness to the sauce; it smooths out harsh tomato acidity and any bitter processed tastes, rounds out the flavors, and gives the sauce a glossy, luxurious finish. The fat in butter adds a richness and helps the sauce cling to pasta noodles better. Overall, you'll give a ho-hum jarred sauce more of a robust finish rather than a thin, watery texture, with hardly any extra effort! In fact, there's a name for adding cold butter to enhance sauce: it's called mounting.

To make sure that the butter's flavor actually comes through in the sauce, it's best to add it at the very end of cooking. To get it right, warm your sauce over medium heat, then stir in unsalted butter (it's important to control the level of salt here!) just before serving. Let it melt completely before giving it a taste. A couple of tablespoons per jar of sauce is usually the sweet spot, but a little extra won't hurt if you want something silkier. Garlic butter or herb-infused butter are fun options as well, adding another layer of depth, making the sauce feel even more intentional.

You can get similar effects to mounting your sauce without butter: You could always drop in some cream, tangy goat cheese, ricotta cheese, or some hearty glugs of olive oil. These will all add a rich creaminess to your sauce, but there are also plenty of other ways to enhance store-bought pasta sauce. We're all eating on a budget these days, so it's tempting to pick up some inexpensive jarred sauces. They're great for the wallet, but not always for the palate. Artificial flavoring or low-quality tomatoes can give jarred pasta sauce a bitter or simply unsatisfying flavor, but some at-home adjustments can help.

A great homemade pasta sauce typically starts out with sautéed aromatics, and there's no reason you can't add these to a jarred sauce, too! Sauté some fresh garlic and onions in olive oil before pouring in your sauce for a flavorful base that adds natural sweetness and depth. Later on, drop in more flavor-enhancing aromatics like basil, oregano, or parsley for freshness.

If you're not a fan of the sweetness that some jarred sauces pack in, add a splash of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar to balance everything out. Finally, add some of your favorite vegetables or proteins like sausage or ground beef to really make the sauce feel elevated and homemade.