6 Substitutes for Tomato Sauce (and How to Use Them)

There’s almost nothing more frustrating than having a dish planned out in your head, getting into the kitchen all revved up to cook and realizing you’re out of a key ingredient. Some ingredients are easier to substitute than others. Out of one herb? You can probably swap in another. Missing chicken broth? Use vegetable broth instead. But what if the ingredient you’re out of is more central to the flavor of your dish? Take tomato sauce for example. How can you make spaghetti and meatballs, a pot of chicken tinga, or a homemade pizza without any tomato sauce? Fret not, we’ve gathered lots of options — both fresh and shelf-stable — so you won’t have to pivot your dinner plans.

Tomato paste is made by cooking tomatoes until the majority of their water content has been removed, resulting in a thick paste with concentrated tomato flavor. While tomato paste is typically used as a flavor enhancer, if you thin it out with a little water, it subs in nicely for tomato sauce. Start with a 1-to-1 ratio of paste to water, and whisk together until well combined. You can add seasonings (like garlic and herbs) and a little bit of olive oil if you’re looking for more of a marinara-adjacent sauce.

Crushed tomatoes are typically made up of a mix of crushed tomatoes and pureed tomatoes or tomato paste. They have a thicker consistency than tomato sauce, but are still pourable. You can substitute crushed tomatoes in a 1-to-1 ratio for tomato sauce in most recipes, just know the texture is a little thicker. You can also puree crushed tomatoes to get a smoother, more sauce-like consistency.

Fresh tomatoes are the foundation of tomato sauce, whether canned or homemade. Depending on what you’re making, you can lightly cook and then puree the tomatoes to make a sauce, chop them up by hand, add them to a blender or food processor, or even grate them. It’s worth noting that some tomato varieties have thicker skins that might not be welcome in sauce (unless you grate them), so take that into consideration when using fresh tomatoes as a substitute. 

Diced tomatoes are fresh tomatoes that have been chopped into small pieces before being canned. They’re usually packed with a mixture of citric acid and calcium chloride, the latter of which helps the tomatoes hold their shape. Diced tomatoes are a good substitute in recipes where you’re okay with chunks of tomato, like chili or minestrone soup. You can also toss diced tomatoes in a food processor or blender to puree them before using in your cooking.

Passata (also known as “strained tomatoes”) is an uncooked tomato puree that has been strained of seeds and skins. Depending on the brand, some are slightly chunkier than others. Tomato sauce has been cooked, while passata is raw, which results in slightly different flavors. However, passata is a great 1-to-1 substitute for tomato sauce in most recipes. If you want to add a little extra cooked tomato flavor, add a little tomato paste in addition to the passata to your recipe.

In a pinch, you can substitute ketchup for tomato sauce, but we don’t recommend it. Ketchup is much sweeter and more viscous than tomato sauce and may throw off the flavor of your dish. That said, ketchup can be a decent swap in dishes where there is already sweetness present, like sloppy joes.

• What’s the best tomato sauce substitute for pizza? When making pizza at home, you’ll want to stick to a substitute that has a similar consistency and flavor profile to tomato sauce, like passata or crushed tomatoes. In a pinch, tomato paste that has been thinned out with water (with a few spices added if you like) can also work.
• Can I substitute tomato sauce with salsa? Salsa has a much different consistency than tomato sauce, as well as a very distinct flavor profile and potentially different ingredients, like corn, or beans, all of which makes it not an ideal substitute for tomato sauce.