Tomato sauce also performs well as a base ingredient, especially for recipes that rely on lots of tomatoes. Tomato sauce is more at home in soupy recipes and shines in the presence of other great-tasting herbs and spices. And a little of it is enough since tomato paste is highly concentrated. Tomato paste also has a more substantial umami potential, which makes it great for savory dishes. Tomato paste, however, tastes more like fresh tomatoes. You’ll sense the tartness more in tomato paste than tomato sauce, and it reminds you of dried tomatoes. But tomato paste is heavier in tomato flavor than tomato sauce. The acid also helps the paste to stay preserved.īecause it contains more ingredients, tomato sauce is tastier than tomato paste. Tomato paste, however, only contains the only salt, and the addition of natural citric acid lifts its acidic tart. As such, you’ll find other items like garlic, salt, sugar, onions, olive oil, and other herbs in tomato sauce.
And, because it contains more water, the extra herbs and spices are needed to lift the taste of tomato sauce.
The key is to create a tomato-based ingredient you can use to infuse a rich blend of flavors into your recipes. Tomato sauce is more flavorful than tomato paste and because it contains various other ingredients. This process also leaves more solids in tomato paste than tomato sauce and makes it denser and more concentrated. But tomato paste is thicker, as the pureed tomatoes are cooked, so the water content is highly reduced. The flowing consistency of tomato sauce is also a result of it having lesser tomato solids. When you pour it into a container, tomato sauce spreads evenly and quickly. Tomato sauce is more fluid, and this is because it contains more water. But other specific differences can be used to tell them apart. By general distinction, tomato paste is a more concentrated tomato ingredient than tomato sauce. Tomato Paste Nutrition Factsĭifferentiating tomato paste from tomato sauce is pretty straightforward.
You’ll also switch tomato sauce with tomato paste in popular ingredients, including lasagna, pizzas, and many other recipes. When you’ve fully grasped their contrasting features, you’ll be able to tell how much tomato paste replaces tomato sauce in a recipe. So, the best way to use one for the other is to understand these distinctions. Though both ingredients are made from peeled and deseeded tomatoes, they also share tons of differences.