If you’re fresh out of it, you can likely craft a substitute for tomato sauce from what's in your pantry. Sure, you could channel your inner Italian nona and spend an afternoon stirring a pot of fresh tomatoes for hours on end, but pre-made tomato sauce is one of our favorite time-saving hacks.
Whether you're in desperate need of tomato sauce for lasagna, pizza, or a shakshuka-inspired skillet, don’t worry: You can create the same sweet-and-savory, velvety sauce from other tomato products. We show you how to save you a trip to the store with these substitutes for tomato sauce.
With a can of tomatoes, you can pull together a quick tomato sauce in about 20 minutes:
Sauté some finely chopped onion in a pot with olive oil, and then add a bit of minced garlic when the onion has softened.
Add tomatoes, and season to taste with salt, pepper, and chili flakes. If the tomatoes are whole or too chunky for your liking, crush them with your hands, a fork, or a potato masher.
Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until the sauce is to your liking.
For an extra smooth sauce, blitz it in a blender or food processor.
There, you’ve made your own speedy tomato sauce! Use this as a 1:1 substitute for pre-made tomato sauce.
Fresh Tomatoes
You can make a 1:1 substitute for tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes. Keep this idea in your back pocket to preserve a glut of summer tomatoes.
When making a sauce with fresh tomatoes, it’s best to avoid their skins, which results in a different texture even when blitzed with the pulp. The easiest way is to slice fresh tomatoes in half, grate them on the cut side, and then discard the skins at the end.
Using your grated tomato, follow the same steps for cooking canned tomatoes. The only difference is that you don’t have to cook fresh tomatoes for as long, especially if they’re ripe and sweet.
Tomato Paste
Tomato paste is a thick, concentrated paste made by cooking tomatoes down for a long time, straining them, and then cooking them again. This umami-rich paste can transform into a makeshift tomato sauce when mixed with water. Here's how:
Sauté tomato paste in olive oil with minced garlic, salt, pepper, and chili flakes.
Add water, roughly following a ratio of 1:1, tomato paste to water, and mix well.
Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes to meld the flavors.
Tomato paste is not interchangeable with tomato sauce as-is, but you can use this tomato paste-water mixture as a 1:1 substitute for tomato sauce.
Tomato Soup
Tomato soup tends to be sweeter and more liquidy than tomato sauce, so it’s not a perfect 1:1 substitute. We’d avoid using tomato soup for something like pasta sauce, but it can add a nice tomato flavor to dishes. Start by adding less tomato soup than you would tomato sauce, and adjust to taste.
Ketchup
With a sweet and sour flavor profile and an almost gel-like consistency, ketchup is decidedly not tomato sauce. Please do not use ketchup as a sauce for pasta! Yet, like tomato soup, ketchup can add the sweetness of tomatoes to a recipe.
Tomato Purée
Tomato purée is thicker than tomato sauce but thinner than tomato paste. It can be turned into tomato sauce using the same method as tomato paste, but since it needs less dilution, don’t mix it with as much water. Tomato purée is not a 1:1 substitute for tomato sauce, but tomato puree-based sauce is.
Sun-Dried Tomatoes
You'll find sun-dried tomatoes packaged dry or marinated in oil, and with flavorings or plain. You can use them as a substitute for tomato sauce, but they have to be rehydrated first. Here's how to turn sun-dried tomatoes into a 1;1 substitute for tomato sauce:
For 1 cup of sun-dried tomatoes, pour 1½ cups of water into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
With the dried tomatoes in a large bowl, pour the boiling water over them and set aside until softened, about 1 to 2 hours.
Blend the rehydrated tomatoes with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (or its marinade) to a smooth, thick consistency.
Add herbs and spices—dried basil, salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder—to match the flavor of tomato sauce.
Simply put your sauce into a freezer bag or container and it will keep its authentic flavour for up to six months. When you want to use it again, just bring it out of the freezer and allow it to defrost at room temperature for a few hours.
Dishes like bolognese or lasagna sauce are probably out. However, slow cooker meals, pot roasts, glazes, casseroles, meatloaf, and beans could all handle the swap. In these cases, you can substitute ketchup for tomato sauce in a one-to-one ratio, but adjust the recipe to balance out the sweetness.
Marinara sauce and tomato sauce are often used mutually due to some very easy to see similarities. They taste similar and look the same. So, just what is the difference between marinara and tomato sauce? The key difference is that tomato sauce is thicker and much more complicated.
Add small pinches of baking soda to your tomato sauces, but be careful not to salt the food beforehand. Adding baking soda to the sauce will cause a chemical acid base reaction that results in a salt being formed. Salt your dish after adding baking soda to neutralize the acidity to your liking.
Pasta sauces with minimal acidity and fat are OK for those with heartburn and acid reflux. This can include sauces with an oil base (like pesto) sauces made with roasted red peppers as a tomato sauce substitute, or sauces made with other vegetables like pumpkin.
Papa Vince Tomato Sauce provides a smooth, gentle flavor profile, making it a perfect choice for those with sensitive stomachs or following a low-acid diet.
Tomato sauce and other similar condiments such as BBQ sauce and mustard, do not need to be refrigerated due to its high acidity and processing. Even after it's been opened, it remains microbially stable for quite some time, which means little bacteria grows in it.
According to news.com.au, thanks to its high acidity and processing, tomato sauce (alongside other sauces like BBQ sauce and mustard) doesn't require refrigeration after opening.
Thankfully, you probably have something in your pantry or fridge that you can use in its place. Let's look at four possible substitutes for tomato sauce: The two best are tomato paste and canned tomatoes, while ketchup and tomato soup can be used for certain recipes when you are really in a pinch.
Similar to marinara but with a different flavor, carrots, and beets offer a ton of nutrition and can be supplemented in many dishes that use tomato sauce. Try sauteeing the vegetables with onion, garlic, and olive oil, then blend to desired texture. Add seasonings to taste.
For this swap, David Joachim, author of The Food Substitutions Bible, recommends you use ½ cup tomato paste and ½ cup water to replace 1 cup of tomato sauce—just keep in mind that you'll need to season your substitute to taste.
Although it is likely to change the flavor profile more than other substitutes, tomato soup can work as a tomato sauce substitute. A can of tomato soup can replace 1 cup of tomato sauce. However, because the soup has more liquid than tomato sauce, you should reduce another liquid ingredient by 1/4 cup if possible.
Tomato juice is typically made completely from tomatoes with a little salt added. Sauce generally consists of the same ingredients: tomatoes, water, and salt, plus a little lemon juice to ensure proper acidity during the canning process.
White Base. White based pizzas are made many different ways but the most common is cheese (usually mozzarella but there's no white base rules to follow) straight onto the base followed by toppings. ...
1 cup tomato juice: substitute 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 1/2 cup water. 1 10-3/4 ounce can tomato soup: substitute 1 cup tomato sauce plus 1/4 cup water.
Beets – If you're looking to add some sweetness to your salads or a substitute base for pasta sauces, beets can be a great substitute packed with Vitamin C that you would get from tomatoes. Carrots – Similar to beets, carrots can be a great substitute base especially in soups and are a great source of beta-carotene .
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