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The Most Popular Pasta Sauces in the United States

Take a look at which pasta sauces are most common in American kitchens.
ByCaLea Johnson|
Americans love tomato-based sauces.
Americans love tomato-based sauces. | Aflo Images/GettyImages

From lasagna to vermicelli, pasta is a staple in many U.S. households. For most people, no pasta dish is complete without a heaping pile of sauce. But which sauce has captured the hearts of most Americans? Grocery delivery and pickup service Instacart recently shared the answer.

To determine this information, Instacart analyzed its clientele‘s pasta sauce preferences in 2024. The website then determined each type‘s popularity by calculating its overall purchase percentage and comparing it to others.

According to Instacart’s findings, tomato-heavy sauces dominated the list, occupying seven out of 10 spots. Marinara is America's top pick, accounting for 20 percent of all Instacart pasta sauce purchases in 2024. Its popularity may be due to its simplicity, as the tomato-based sauce typically only requires tomato puree, salt, and pepper. Marinara is also pretty thin and is often used as a dipping sauce with foods like calamari and mozzarella sticks.

Alfredo sauce follows closely behind, taking up 17 percent of pasta sauce purchases. This classic white sauce is dairy-heavy, with butter, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese. It’s also the star in pasta dishes like chicken alfredo and is often paired with fettuccine noodles.

Rounding out the third most beloved sauce in America is tomato basil sauce, which accounts for 16 percent of all pasta sauce product purchases. You might think tomato sauce and marinara sauce are the same, but that’s a common mistake. According to Tasting Table, there are differences between their ingredients, consistencies, cooking processes, and flavors. While marinara sauce is bright, thin, and follows a more straightforward recipe, tomato sauce is thicker, takes much longer to make, and has more ingredients. It’s common to cook onions, celery, carrots, herbs, garlic, and more ingredients for hours in tomato sauce, making its flavor much richer. Tomato garlic sauce (13 percent), regular tomato sauce (12 percent), and tomato and cheese sauce (five percent) followed, respectively.

You can find the rest of the most popular pasta sauces in the U.S. below:

  1. Marinara sauce
  2. Alfredo sauce
  3. Tomato basil sauce
  4. Tomato garlic sauce
  5. Tomato sauce
  6. Pesto
  7. Tomato and cheese sauce
  8. Meat sauce
  9. Vodka sauce
  10. Mushroom sauce

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