A great homemade pizza can be undone by a lackluster sauce. So the culinary pros in the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen sampled seven popular store-bought pizza sauces to find the jars and cans actually worth reaching for.
Three stood out for their fresh tomato flavor, balanced seasoning, and pizza-worthy texture — including one pick that requires just a little DIY.
Bianco DiNapoli Organic NY Style Pizza Sauce
Bianco DiNapoli Organic NY Style Pizza Sauce
If you’re looking for a light, refreshing topping, this canned sauce fits the bill. Food Producer Tina Martinez reports that it tastes “super bright, with fresh flavor and natural sweetness from very ripe tomatoes.”
Its delicate, tangy flavor pairs well with light ingredients like zucchini, artichoke hearts, and fresh herbs.
This sauce has more texture than most jarred sauces. Chunks of tomatoes add nice little bursts of sweetness to your pie. And we love that its minimal ingredient list is similar to what we’d use for homemade sauce: tomatoes, olive oil, salt, basil, and garlic.
Rao’s sauce brings a rich, deeply savory flavor to your pizza. It tastes as though the tomatoes have been lovingly simmered for hours, creating a robust, umami-rich flavor and a velvety, almost creamy texture.
This sauce gets a boost of sweetness and complexity from carrots and onions. Flecks of oregano and basil add a fresh, vegetal note. Its bold flavor can stand up to equally flavorful toppings like funky blue or gorgonzola cheese, spicy sausage, and sweet caramelized onions.
If you’re willing to put in a small amount of effort — we’re talking two minutes, and an appliance does the real work — stick an immersion blender right into the can of whole peeled San Marzano-style tomatoes, and purée your own pizza sauce. Add a pinch of salt and a dollop of olive oil (see our recipe here) for a well-rounded sauce you can call homemade.
This option has a subtle, sweet tomato flavor that won’t overpower other toppings. Plus, you’re in control of the texture. Go as thin or as chunky as you like.
How we tested
GH Food Producer Tina Martinez and Senior Food Editor Susan Choung researched popular tomato sauce brands with broad availability. To qualify for the taste test, each product had to list tomatoes as the first ingredient, rather than tomato puree or a combination of tomatoes and tomato paste.
After selecting seven sauces that met this criteria, we tasted each one on its own — straight from the jar or can — to evaluate its full flavor and texture without distraction. Next, we made simple cheese pizzas with each sauce to see how it baked and interacted with dough and cheese.
Why trust Good Housekeeping
Lizzy Briskin is a contributing analyst in the Good Housekeeping Kitchen & Cooking Lab. She’s tested indoor and outdoor pizza ovens, and she makes pizza at home almost weekly. She’ll take red sauce over white or pesto pizza every day.
Tina Martinez is a recipe developer and food producer in the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen. In her career, she has cooked up hundreds of pizzas using sheet pans, cast iron skillets, air fryers, and pizza ovens.
