The Best Store-Bought Pizza Sauce Is As Simple As It Gets

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Store-bought pizza sauces can be flecked with herbs, made with fire-roasted tomatoes, or spiced with chilis. But in our opinion, the very best is one that's prepared with simple ingredients that can shine on their own without any fancy bells and whistles. Case in point? Bianco DiNapoli New York Style pizza sauce, which beat out stiff competition to take the top spot in our ranking of 14 store-bought pizza sauces.

Despite its Italian-sounding name, Bianco DiNapoli is an American brand (founded by Rob DiNapoli and Chris Bianco in 2010) which uses tomatoes grown in sunny California to make its products, such as tomato paste and pasta sauce. The company's website states that the pizza sauce in particular is "made from just four, locally sourced organic ingredients (Organic Tomatoes, Organic Garlic, Organic Basil, Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil) plus Pacific Sea salt." It's this simplicity that gave the sauce such a fresh taste and a wonderful tomatoey aroma when we sampled it.

As Bianco DiNapoli's sauce is free from additives and preservatives — as well as the sugar that's often incorporated into canned tomato products to offset tartness — the quality of the tomatoes, herbs, and garlic was able to take pride of place. While the sauce was underwhelming when tasted straight out of the can, it transformed into something yummier when baked on a pizza with a few slices of mozzarella. It was garlicky with a hint of basil and perfectly balanced.

The simplicity, texture, and fresh flavor of Bianco DiNapoli's pizza sauce set it apart from many of the other competitors on the market. That said, you can easily doctor up this pared-back offering with extra ingredients if desired. Parmesan is a key ingredient in some of the best pizza sauces because it brings an umami nuttiness to the crust, but you could add more herbs, like oregano, for a deeper aroma, or chili flakes for a touch of warmth. Of course, you don't have to use pizza sauce solely for pizzas either. You can spread it on a quesadilla, add it to braised meat dishes, or use it as a bright and zingy sauce for pasta. Bianco de Napoli also ranked highly in our taste test of the best canned tomatoes, coming in at number three (one reviewer on the Walmart website described the brand as the "absolute best. Won't use anything else from now on.")

The worst pizza sauce in our ranking — Good & Gather's traditional pizza sauce — was too sweet and had a texture that was more like a ketchup (while it had a garlicky flavor, it faded after cooking, leaving behind little else but sweetness and a weird consistency).