Once in a blue moon, we do get the ‘make-it-from-scratch’ impulse and feel like doing our extensive grocery with a long list of exotic ingredients and then spend hours in the heat of the kitchen to cook something as elaborate and time-consuming as a pot of pizza sauce. But apart from those rare events, most of the time all we want is a quick but healthy way to satisfy the frequent cravings that we get for multiple large pizza slices with our favorite toppings.
When we think of an easy and quick way, the first thing that would come to our mind would be to order pizzas and have them delivered to our homes. However, we are also aware that these pizza home-deliveries can be quite expensive and also by the time they reach our homes, the pizza does not even close to how we have imagined – hot melting cheese, fresh crust that you can actually bite into, and a burst of flavors from the tomatoes and Italian herbs.
If you want to enjoy a freshly-made pizza at home, with the advantage of being able to be very picky with your toppings, but without having to make your own pizza sauce then there is no better solution than to buy store bought pizza sauces. These ready-made pizza sauces come in cans and jar and they are the perfect way to kick-start the start of your weekend or a hassle-free dinner on a particularly stressful weekday when you want to enjoy a home-made pizza without having to spend time and energy in the kitchen.
Ready-made pizza sauces are widely available in the stores and you would be able to find one easily at the closest grocery store. However, you would realize the difficulty in buying a can of pizza sauce the moment you reach the sauce shelf at the store and find yourself staring at a row of many different brands of pizza sauces, each of them claiming to be the best pizza sauce you would ever find.
Practically speaking, there is no pizza sauce that is the best for everyone, whether a pizza sauce would be the best one for you depends on different factors such as the type of taste you like, the type of container it comes in, the variety of tomatoes that has been used to make the sauce, etc. Therefore we have rounded up some of the best stores bought pizza sauce that is available on the market today and has given you an in-depth idea of their features, taste, and ingredients so that you can choose the one that would be the best one for you.
Best Pick
Rich with flavorful ingredients, olive oil, and tomatoes grown on organic farms, this pizza sauce from Muir Glen ranked the first on our list of store-bought pizza sauces. It is also gluten-free and does not contain any added sugar so if you are looking for a pizza sauce that has these important criteria then this would be a great choice for you.
Budget Pick
The budget picks pizza sauce on our list is this one from Don Pepino who boasts of an original recipe that has been loved by many since 1950. It uses real tomatoes that have been grown on vines and has been dried under the sun which gives the sauce a delicious taste and makes it a healthier choice compared to those made from processed tomatoes.
Quick Comparison: Top 8 Best Store Bought Pizza Sauces
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1. Muir Glen Organic Pizza Sauce
Highlighted Features
If you want to get as close as possible to a pizza sauce made from freshly picked tomatoes then you can do so by choosing Muir Glen pizza sauce but with the advantage of not having to spend hours in the kitchen making the pizza sauce. Each 15-ounce can of this 12-can pack contains tomatoes that have been grown in the rich soils of Sacramento Valley and have reached their peak ripeness with the help of Californian sunshine. As these are grown in organic farms with organic fertilizers, there is no risk of negative health impacts and the taste of the sauce is very close to a sauce made from fresh tomatoes.
The texture of the sauce is thick, which makes it perfect for New York style thin slice pizzas. The sauce has been packed with flavors from different ingredients such as extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and garlic. This sauce is also a delight for herb lovers as it contains black pepper, oregano, and basil. Another great news for health-conscious people is that the can is made of the BPA-free lining so it is safe to be stored and enjoyed for a long period of time.
Apart from the sheer goodness of the sauce, the company that makes this sauce has other things to be appreciated for, for example, it has won a conservation award for turning the waste generated from the tomato farms into the nutrient-rich soil through composting processes. It also has ongoing programs for creating habitats for pollinators such as bees along with their tomato farms which help to keep the natural ecosystem intact and to protect biodiversity.
Due to the company's strong ethics, conservation programs, and high-quality organic products, this is a company that you would be proud to be a customer of.
2. Don Pepino Pizza Sauce
Highlighted Features
Don Pepino’s original family recipe has been used lovingly in countless home kitchens since 1950. At the heart of the unique recipe is tomatoes which have been picked at their peak ripeness and has been incorporated into the sauce in a special manufacturing process which locks the maximum level of flavors and the freshness of the tomatoes into the final packaged sauce.
As the tomatoes are allowed to reach their full ripeness in the vine rather than in storage containers, the tomatoes used to make the sauce are fresh and are able to release their goodness into the sauce. The fresh whole tomatoes are then mixed with cholesterol-free corn oil and a special blend of herbs and spices which results in the smooth yet delicious and flavorful pizza sauce that is so popular among the kids and adults alike, as kids do not like sauces that are too strong or spicy.
The sauce is free of ingredients that many of us are worried about when buying readymade sauces such as citric acid, artificial colors, sugar, and chemical additives. In this pack, there are twelve cans of pizza sauce which are 15-ounces each, so if you are looking for a pack of pizza sauces for your family that you can store in the pantry and use for a long time then this is a great choice for you.
3. Pastorelli Pizza Sauce Italian Chef
Highlighted Features
Who can you trust more than the Italians when it comes to pizzas, the people of the country where it all originated? Pastorelli, the company that makes this delicious authentic Italian style pizza sauce has a long and interesting history that traces its origins back to central Italy. In the 1800s, a member of the Pastorelli family started a food distribution business in Italy, and his son has brought the legacy to America where he carried on the food business. In 1952, Pastorelli made their first canned pizza sauce with the authentic taste and flavors of Italian pizza sauce.
This recipe has stayed true to the taste of the original Italian pizza sauce even today. The sauce is made from the finest San Marzano style tomatoes that are so popular for their sweet flavor and low acidity. What makes this sauce even better is that it contains Pecorino Romano cheese as an ingredient. Pecorino Romano is a cheese that is known for its sharp, robust, and salty taste and is an excellent garnish for soup, pasta, pizza, or salad.
The combination of extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, herbs, salt, and Pecorino Romano cheese in this pizza sauce makes it a pizza sauce that will allow you to taste an authentic Italian pizza at the comfort of your home.
4. Chef Boyardee Pizza Sauce with Cheese
Highlighted Features
Bold flavors of vine-ripe tomatoes and mouth-watering richness of cheddar cheese are the two secrets behind what makes Chef Boyardee pizza sauce so good. It not only is the perfect base for all your favorite pizza toppings, but it can also be an easy way to turn anything from English muffins to bagels to sandwiches extra delicious. As the sauce is flavored with Italian herbs and made better with cheddar cheese, you would not have to go through the trouble of spicing it up by adding extra cheese or separate ingredients which you would have to do for pizza sauces with a bland taste.
The can is properly labeled with all the ingredients it contains, including the calorie count per serving so you can keep a check on what you are consuming. In addition to the rich flavors, it does not contain flavor-altering preservatives so you can enjoy the sauce to its full extent with any of your home-made quick bites.
5. SAN MERICAN TOMATO Pizza Sauce
Highlighted Features
This pizza sauce would be a great choice for anyone who is looking for a pizza sauce that comes in a glass jar instead of a can. Due to health effects, many of us are hesitant about using canned food and prefer the food to be packaged in glass jars. Another special feature of this pizza sauce is the variety of tomato that it uses. Most of us have heard about San Marzano, an Italian heirloom variety of plum tomatoes, which are claimed to be the best tomatoes for Italian recipes due to their sweet taste, low acidity, and meaty texture.
This pizza sauce uses an American variety of tomato that is very similar to San Marzano tomatoes, and hence the sauce has the flavor, taste, and texture quality that you would get from San Marzano tomatoes.
6. Eden Organic Pizza Pasta Sauce
Highlighted Features
What we love about this pizza sauce is that it has placed a special focus not only delivering excellent taste and flavor but also on the nutrition value of the sauce for the health of the consumers. The Roma tomatoes that have been used to make this pizza sauce has been grown on an organic family farm and even the Italian herbs used in this sauce are grown in an organic way. This is an important aspect that many food manufacturers forget to place importance on, but this company has understood it well that people are health-conscious and they do not want to consume food that is laden with chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
The fresh flavor and rich nutrient content of the sauce come from the fact that the tomatoes are packed within hours from when they are picked at their peak ripeness from the farm, preventing the tomatoes from losing their freshness before they are put into the sauce. The Roma tomatoes that are used to make this sauce are known to be one of the best tomatoes to be used in sauces as these tomatoes are fleshy, bright red, thick-walled, and has fewer seeds. The sauce also uses extra virgin olive oil which results in an exceptionally delicious sauce that can be used to make pizza, pasta, rolls, etc.
This sauce is rich in dietary fibers, and essential nutrients such as vitamin A and C. Each serving of this sauce also provides you with 14.4 mg of lycopene. Lycopene is a natural antioxidant with many health benefits, which includes protection from the sun, improved heart health, and lower risks of certain forms of cancer.7. Mutti Pizza Sauce with Spices
Highlighted Features
Mutti is a renowned Italian company that has a long history of growing tomatoes and making tomato-based products such as purees, paste, and different kinds of sauces. From this company that knows their sauce recipes and their tomatoes very well, comes this pizza sauce which is proudly used even in pizza restaurants in Italy. The bold flavors and bright red color of this sauce come from tomatoes that have been grown in rich Italian soil and has been ripened under the Mediterranean sun.
The sauce also has a superb fragrance thanks to Italian herbs such as oregano and basil. The sauce is free of GMO, additives, preservatives, and gluten, which makes it a product that you can consume without worrying about health impacts. Not only is this sauce great for making authentic Italian pizzas at home, but it can also be used with versatile recipes such as pasta, flatbread, dipping, and olive tapenade.
8. Boboli Traditional Italian PIZZA SAUCE
Highlighted Features
Sometimes it is hard to decide how much sauce you should put on your pizza- put too much and the pizza will become soggy, put too less and it will be too dry. To eliminate this kind of troublesome guesswork, this Boboli sauce pack comes in a box that contains three separate packets and each packet contains the right amount of sauce for a 12-inch pizza.
The sauce has been flavored in an Italian style with garlic, onion, and herbs. With this pizza sauce making home-made pizza will be a breeze, as you can also separately buy ready-made pizza crusts from the same company.
Things to Consider Before Buying a Store-Bought Pizza Sauce
Packaging
The packaging of the pizza sauce is an important factor to consider as pizza sauce is something that is used with your food and you would not want it to be stored for a long time in a container that might affect your health in a negative way. As you have seen in the descriptions of the sauces, the main ingredient of a pizza sauce is tomato and tomatoes are acidic and this acidity might cause certain types of packaging materials to leach into the sauce. If you want to be completely sure that the sauce will be safe to your health, then it is best to go for sauces that come in a glass jar. If you are going for a canned pizza sauce, then it is important to check that the can does not contain any BPA.
Another important aspect of the packaging is how convenience. The glass jars are easier to store as they come with a lid which is not the case in the canned ones. If you are not sure about how much sauce you should use on your pizza, then a good option for you is to choose pizza sauces that come in pre-measured packets so that you do not have to rely on guesswork to put the right amount of sauce on your pizza.
Type of tomatoes used
As tomatoes are the main ingredient in most store-bought pizza sauces, the type of tomatoes used plays a major role in determining the quality and taste of the pizza sauce. That is why sauces made from tomatoes that have been picked at their peak ripeness from an organic farm gives a fresh, bold flavor to the sauce compared to sauces that have been made from tomato purees or pastes. When it comes to varieties, different tomatoes give the sauce different types of textures, taste, and flavor. For example, one of the most highly regarded tomato varieties when it comes to pizza sauces is San Marzano. This variety of tomatoes are from Italy and they have a sweet taste, fleshy texture, and vibrant red color. Another type of tomatoes that are popular for making pizza sauce is Roma tomatoes which have a meaty texture to the sauce made from them are thick and flavorful.
Intensity of taste
The intensity of the pizza sauce is important as different people have different preferences when it comes to the taste of the sauce they use on their pizzas. For example, you might like a strong, savory and spicy taste whereas your children might prefer for a sweeter, milder taste. By reading the label on the sauce’s container, you can know what type of seasoning has been used such as black pepper, garlic, onion, and herbs so you can guess the type of taste the sauce would have.
Texture
Depending on the type of pizza crust you are going to use the sauce with, you would want to use different thickness of sauce. For example, if you are going to use the sauce on a Chicago style deep-dish pizza, you would not want the sauce to be too thick, whereas, for a New York style thin crust pizza, you would not want a sauce that is too runny as this will turn your crust soggy. Also, you should have a clear idea of whether you like chunks and pieces of tomatoes or other ingredients in the sauce or you want the sauce to be smooth so that you can choose the sauce that has the texture that you prefer the most.
With or without cheese
Some store-bought pizza sauce come with cheese as a part of the recipe of the sauce and this can be great news for people who love cheese, but if you are allergic to certain types of cheese or are lactose-intolerant, then it is best to check if the pizza sauce you want to buy contain cheese or not. Another aspect of pizza sauces that have cheese mixed into them is the type of cheese used. For example, a pizza sauce might use cheddar cheese, Pecorino cheese, or any of the countless types of cheeses that exist, and you might have a special liking for a certain type of cheese and strongly dislike the smell of another. That is why it would be wise to know the aroma, taste, and texture of the cheese that has been used to make the sauce that you are going to buy.
Nutritional Value
Just because it is so tasty and easy to make, it does not mean that pizza has to be a junk food, as long as you make it in with nutritious ingredients and that is why the nutritional contents of a pizza sauce should be considered before you are buying it. One aspect of this is the type of oil used in the sauce, for example, some sauces use cholesterol-free oil whereas others use extra virgin olive oil. Another thing that you can check is whether the sauce contains vitamins and other ingredients with health benefits such as Lycopene which is a strong antioxidant that is present in tomatoes.
Labeling
Any manufactured food product that you are going to buy should have proper labeling of not just the ingredients and nutritional value, but also whether it is organic, non-GMO, and must include the expiration date so that you have full knowledge of what the sauce contains and the important aspects of how the sauce was made. There are other things to note in the labeling as well, such as whether it is Kosher or not.