'The Convenience Is Unbeatable': Amazon Shoppers Are In Love With This Store-Bought Rao's Dinner

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Rao's is arguably best known for its premium pasta sauces, particularly the iconic marinara sauce Ina Garten uses all the time, beloved for its like-homemade taste and all-natural ingredients. But the brand has other products, too, including soups, dried pastas, and absolutely delicious frozen pizzas. Rao's also sells nearly a dozen frozen entrees, featuring various Italian dishes. The Penne Alla Vodka, in particular, is a favorite of Amazon shoppers.

The dish is made with bronze die-cut penne pasta, which has a coarser texture that better soaks up the creamy, tomatoey vodka sauce. Natural ingredients, including Italian tomatoes, heavy cream, parmesan and Romano cheeses, vodka, olive oil, onion, and garlic, go into the sauce, with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. One Amazon review raves about its "rich, authentic flavor that rivals anything you'd get in a high-end Italian restaurant." Other reviewers on the site say it actually tastes like it was made fresh and leaves other frozen pastas in the dust, with one fan proclaiming, "This is my favorite frozen meal I've ever had."

Like Rao's pasta sauces, the 9-ounce Penne Alla Vodka isn't cheap, although the cost varies, and we judged it worth the price in our "hit or skip" list of the brand's entrees. A look at Amazon prices for five major U.S. cities found a low of $4.99 in Chicago and San Diego and a high of $6.89 in New York, with Atlanta and Houston falling in between.

Rao's origins date back to 1896, when Charles Rao bought a saloon in New York City's East Harlem neighborhood. Charles, and later his sons, sold drinks and food at the small location until it eventually transitioned into a restaurant by the 1970s, serving the family's Italian recipes. A three-star New York Times review in 1977 raised its profile, helping draw celebrities and politicians. A still-used reservation system was put in place that gave preference to longtime regular patrons for its 10 tables, and it remains a tough restaurant to get into. Charles' descendants still own the original location, and there are now two others in Miami and Los Angeles.

Retail sales of the pasta sauces debuted in the 1990s under the Rao's Specialty Foods name, with other products added over the years, including the frozen entrees in 2019. Sovos Brands bought the company in 2017 and expansively grew sales over five years from $65 million to $580 million in 2022 (per Robb Report). The Campbell Soup Company now owns the brand after buying Sovos for $2.7 billion in 2024, pledging it wouldn't change the traditional recipes. Showing its commitment to Rao's, Campbell's procured a 49% interest in Italian company La Regina in December 2025, which has long made the brand's pasta sauces.