San Marzano Tomatoes substitute

Best substitute

Canned whole peeled plum or Roma tomatoes

Use the same amount as the san marzano tomatoes you are replacing

Best for marinara

Close match

Plain canned whole peeled plum or Roma tomatoes are a straight 1:1 replacement and genuinely make excellent sauce, which is the reassurance most people are looking for. Taste them first: if they are sharper than you expected, a quarter teaspoon of sugar or a grated carrot simmered in the sauce closes the gap. Canned crushed tomatoes or passata work at 1:1 too if you want a smoother sauce and do not mind losing the chunks.

Other san marzano tomatoes substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Other high-quality canned plum tomatoes (Mutti, Bianco DiNapoli, Cento, Alta Cucina)
Close match
Use the same amount
Premium canned plum tomatoes that are not DOP San Marzano but are packed to a similar standard.
What changes
Best for
Neapolitan pizza sauce, marinara, when you want the best result without the DOP price
Prep. Use exactly as you would San Marzano, crushing by hand and using all the pulp in the can.
Frequently indistinguishable in a finished sauce, and in blind tasting some of these outperform mediocre cans wearing a San Marzano label. Many are the same plum varieties grown elsewhere in Italy or in California, picked ripe and packed thick. Expect a slightly less floral, less sweet profile than a good DOP can, and slightly more variability between batches. No compensation usually needed.
3Fresh Roma or plum tomatoes
Taste and texture differ
900g fresh for a 400g can, or 2 lb fresh for a 28 oz can
Fresh plum tomatoes, peeled and seeded, cooked down to concentrate them.
What changes
Best for
late-summer sauce, when your tomatoes are genuinely ripe, fresh marinara
Prep. Blanch, peel, seed, chop, then cook down for at least 45 minutes until the sauce mounds on a spoon.
Wonderful in August and disappointing in February, and it is worth being blunt about that. Canned tomatoes are picked and packed at peak ripeness, so out of season they beat fresh ones easily. Fresh tomatoes also hold far more water, so the sauce takes considerably longer to reduce and will taste thinner and greener if you rush it. Peel them by scoring and dunking in boiling water for thirty seconds, squeeze out the seedy gel, and give the sauce a good forty-five minutes.
4Canned crushed tomatoes
Different texture
Use the same amount
Canned tomatoes already broken down into a coarse pulp.
What changes
Best for
weeknight marinara, pizza sauce, meat sauces, soups
Prep. Add straight to the pan; because they are pre-thickened, they need less simmering time than whole tomatoes.
Fast and perfectly respectable. Because they are already crushed you skip the hand-crushing step, but you also give up all control over texture, so you cannot leave the pleasant soft chunks that a hand-crushed San Marzano sauce has. Crushed tomatoes are often blended with puree, which makes the sauce thicker but slightly duller and more uniformly tomato-paste-like. Check the label for added citric acid or calcium chloride, which make the sauce sharper and keep pieces unpleasantly firm.
5Passata (strained tomatoes)
Different texture
Use the same amount
Uncooked or lightly cooked tomatoes sieved into a smooth, seedless puree.
What changes
Best for
smooth pizza sauce, silky marinara, sauces for delicate pasta, children who dislike chunks
Prep. Simmer gently and taste for acidity; a splash of olive oil stirred in at the end restores some of the body it lacks.
The right choice when you want a completely smooth sauce and the wrong choice when the recipe wanted texture. Passata is thinner than crushed tomatoes and completely uniform, so a marinara made with it is glossy and even rather than rustic. Because it has been sieved, it tastes cleaner and slightly less complex, with none of the sweetness that comes from the tomato's own gel and seeds. It thickens quickly, so watch it.
6Tomato paste thinned with water
Taste and texture differ
120ml paste plus 350ml water for a 400g can
Concentrated tomato paste diluted back to sauce consistency.
What changes
Best for
emergencies, when nothing else is in the house
Prep. Fry the paste in oil for 2 minutes, whisk in the water, simmer 15 minutes, then correct with sugar, a little acid and olive oil.
The least good option and worth naming as such. Paste has been cooked down hard, so it brings depth and colour but no brightness at all, and the resulting sauce tastes flat, slightly metallic and one-dimensional in a way that long simmering makes worse rather than better. If you must, cook the paste in olive oil for a couple of minutes first to take the raw edge off, thin it, and then work to add back what is missing: a pinch of sugar, a squeeze of lemon or a splash of red wine vinegar for acidity, and a generous finish of olive oil and fresh basil.

What is San Marzano Tomatoes?

San Marzano Tomatoes is San Marzano tomatoes, pomodori San Marzano, are a long thin plum variety grown in volcanic soil near Naples and sold canned whole and peeled, prized for thick flesh, few seeds and unusually low acidity.

Cooking tips

Crush whole tomatoes with your hands or a wooden spoon, never in a blender or food processor. Blending whips air into the tomatoes, which turns the sauce pale orange and makes it taste noticeably flatter and slightly bitter. This is one of the biggest differences between a homemade sauce that tastes restaurant-good and one that tastes vaguely off.
Use the juice or pulp in the can, not just the tomatoes. In a good can most of the sweetness and body lives in that liquid, and pouring it away leaves you with a thin sauce that you then have to over-reduce to fix. If the packing liquid is watery and pale, drain some of it; if it is thick and red, use all of it.
Taste the raw tomatoes before you season anything. San Marzano's whole reputation rests on being sweet and low in acid, so the substitution question is really an acidity question. If your tomatoes make you wince, a quarter teaspoon of sugar per 400g can, or a whole peeled carrot simmered in and removed at the end, will round them out without making the sauce taste sweet.
A tiny pinch of baking soda, no more than an eighth of a teaspoon per can, will neutralise excess acid if sugar is not enough. Add it off the heat and expect a brief foam. Overdo it and the sauce tastes soapy and dull, so start smaller than you think and taste after each addition.
Read the tin, not the front label. Genuine DOP San Marzano cans carry the red and yellow Consorzio seal and a DOP certification number, and they contain whole peeled tomatoes only. Cans marked San Marzano style, San Marzano type or grown from San Marzano seed are ordinary plum tomatoes at a premium price, which is exactly the situation where a good honest can of plum tomatoes is the smarter buy.

Frequently asked questions

Are San Marzano tomatoes really worth it, or will regular canned tomatoes do?

Regular canned whole peeled plum tomatoes will do, and this is the single most useful thing to know. A good DOP can is sweeter, lower in acid, thicker-fleshed and more consistent, and in a simple raw-tasting sauce like a Neapolitan pizza sauce you can taste the difference. In a sauce that simmers for an hour with garlic, onion, herbs and meat, the difference narrows a great deal. Buying a well-regarded ordinary can and adjusting the acidity yourself gets you most of the way for a fraction of the price.

Can I use fresh tomatoes instead of canned San Marzano?

In peak season with genuinely ripe plum tomatoes, yes, and the sauce can be lovely. Use roughly 900g of fresh tomatoes for each 400g can, peel them by scoring and dunking in boiling water for thirty seconds, squeeze out the seedy gel, and cook them down for forty-five minutes or more. Out of season, do not: supermarket tomatoes in winter are watery and underripe, and canned tomatoes were picked at peak ripeness, so the can wins comfortably.

Can I leave the San Marzano out and use something else entirely?

You cannot leave out the tomatoes in a tomato sauce, since they are the entire dish, but you absolutely can stop worrying about the specific variety. What San Marzano brings is sweetness, low acidity, thick flesh and few seeds, and every one of those is either available in a good ordinary can of plum tomatoes or fixable in the pan with a pinch of sugar and a longer simmer. Treat the label as a nice-to-have rather than a requirement.

Why is my sauce more acidic than when I use San Marzano?

Because most canned tomatoes really are more acidic, and some brands add citric acid as a preservative on top of that. Fix it in this order: simmer longer, since heat softens harsh acidity on its own; add a quarter teaspoon of sugar per can or a peeled carrot to cook alongside; and only then reach for a pinch of baking soda, which neutralises acid directly but turns the sauce dull and soapy if you use too much. A generous finish of olive oil also blunts perceived acidity because fat coats the palate.

Can I substitute a different tomato in a canning or preserving recipe?

No. Home-canned tomatoes and tomato sauces sit right at the boundary of safe acidity, which is why tested recipes specify exact varieties, exact added acid and exact processing times, and why swapping in a lower-acid tomato or leaving out the specified lemon juice or citric acid creates a genuine risk of botulism. Follow a tested recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation or your national equivalent exactly as written. Everything on this page applies to sauces you cook and eat or refrigerate, not to anything you intend to seal in a jar for storage.

Related substitutes

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San Marzano Tomatoes substitute

Other san marzano tomatoes substitutes

2Other high-quality canned plum tomatoes (Mutti, Bianco DiNapoli, Cento, Alta Cucina)

3Fresh Roma or plum tomatoes

4Canned crushed tomatoes

5Passata (strained tomatoes)

6Tomato paste thinned with water