Gwynedd Stuart
The best canned tomato sauce is essential to making recipes taste as good as possible. I make stuffed peppers almost weekly, and I’m here to tell you that using the best tomato sauce really does make the whole dish taste better. Better ingredients, better stuffed peppers—you can g’head attribute that quote to Papa Gwynedd.
For this taste test, I set out to find canned tomato sauce that strikes the perfect balance of acidity, sweetness, and umami. Canned tomato sauce should taste like cooked-down tomatoes, not like licking the inside of an aluminum can. And this is important, too: No salt added tomato sauce should still have flavor! If you’re watching your sodium intake, the good news is we found two we really like. Whether you’re making homemade bolognese, chili, or stuffed peppers (hell yeah), this is the best canned tomato sauce to have in the pantry.
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- Sprouts No Salt Added Roma Tomato Sauce
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If you put sugar in your homemade sauce or like your sauce to lean sweet for whatever reason, then this is the no salt added tomato sauce you should be buying. (Prefer savory tomato sauce? See the next entry on this list.) Sprouts No Salt Added Roma Tomato Sauce is very smooth and clean tasting. It’s bright and fresh and leans hard into the natural sweetness of Roma tomatoes. This still has 20 mg of sodium a serving, but that’s much better than the non-low-sodium varieties (the overall best canned tomato sauce on this list has 380 mg of sodium in a serving). It’s a very delicious tomato sauce. Honestly, even if you aren’t keeping an eye on your sodium intake, this is a great sauce to doctor up.
Credit: Merc / Sprouts
- Hunt’s No Salt Added Tomato Sauce
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When it comes to the best canned tomato sauce, Hunt’s is THE guy. Seriously, it’s kind of unreal how good Hunt’s is, even without the sodium. This no salt added tomato sauce has a mere 15 mg of sodium per serving, but it’s still super umami. I detected the flavor of chlorinated water in some of the other no salt added tomato sauces we tried—this is the best tomato sauce if you want pure umami tomato flavor. It’s tangy and bright and comes to life on your tongue. This is what I buy for my pantry now. If you’re looking for lots of flavor with a lot less sodium, Hunt’s makes the best tomato sauce.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- El Pato Hot Tomato Sauce
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Most of the tomato sauce on this list is pleasantly bland. No herbs, no spices—just tomato sauce to serve as a base for recipes or for pasta sauce made precisely the way you want it. This tomato sauce is different. It’s more like canned salsa (although El Pato also makes canned salsa, so this is different). This canned tomato sauce is very savory and has a burst of pepper flavor, along with a good amount of heat. This stuff is spicy, but it’s not a lingering burn—it’s a blast of heat on first bite and it’s good. This is the best canned tomato sauce to doctor up for enchiladas or another spicy dish. It’s an outlier, but it’s so tasty I had to recommend it.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Muir Glen Organic Tomato Sauce
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Muir Glen makes the best canned tomato sauce if you really like a sauce that leans into the tanginess of tomatoes. As my colleague Justine Sterling put it, this has a “tomato skin thing going on.” Not actual skins, but the fresh flavor of tomato skins. It’s sweet, it’s fresh tasting, and it’s a little less sodium dense than some of the other sauces on this list (besides the no salt added varieties). If eating organic is important to you, this is the best tomato sauce we found.
Credit: Merc / Ralphs
- Del Monte Tomato Sauce
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Del Monte tomato sauce was a close second to Hunt’s, but this is the overall best tomato sauce in a can if you want something that leans sweet rather than savory. Don’t get me wrong—this stuff is still very salty, but the flavor profile has a lot more sweetness than Hunt’s, if that’s your thing. The flavor is almost ketchuppy (in a good way). If you’re making something super savory and want a little sweetness to offset the savory flavors, this is the best canned tomato sauce to buy.
Credit: Merc / Pavilions
- Hunt’s Tomato Sauce
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Like I said, Hunt’s no salt added sauce is my new go-to, but if I were buying tomato sauce with no regard for sodium content, this regular ol’ Hunt’s canned tomato sauce would be my jam. This is dramatically tastier than most of the other canned tomato sauces we tried. It almost tastes like it’s already been seasoned. Flavor-wise, it reminds me a little of Campbell’s classic condensed tomato soup, but a little tangier and a lot more savory. I’m telling you, starting with the best tomato sauce will make everything you cook taste better. Try Hunt’s and tell me if you agree.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
Best No Salt Added (Sweet)
Best No Salt Added (Savory)
Best Spicy
Best Organic
Best Sweet
Best of the Best
Other products we tried: Muir Glen No Salt Added, Kroger, Kroger No Salt Added, Contadina, Contadina No Salt Added, Great Value, Great Value No Salt Added, Sprouts Organic Roma Tomato, Pomi
Justine Sterling
Jordan Myrick
cento is no good? they have excellent organic tomatoes and sauce. But sauce only is not good?