Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce

Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce – rich, thick and super flavorful homemade pizza sauce using few pantry-staple ingredients. Pair it with my homemade pizza dough and you can skip the deliveries and make pizza anytime you want at home! You will never ever find a pizza sauce as crazy delicious as this!

We just LOVE pizza nights here at home. In fact, if health isn’t that much of an issue, we could eat pizza every night. Just take it from my son who would right then and there answer pizza if you’d ask him what he wants for dinner. And we don’t do pizza deliveries (except for rare instances like when I ran out of pizza sauce). All we need is just this amazing homemade Pizza Sauce here  and our homemade Pizza Dough. They’re kid-approved and loved by my neighbors, too. No kidding! I mean how can you not love that thick, deep red, meaty and flavor-packed sauce all-in-one? Just look at that!

What is Pizza Sauce?

Pizza sauce refers to that red, thick, tomato-based sauce that is often used on pizza as a base for its topping. For me, it’s usually the deal breaker of any pizza. Yep! I can be a little forgiving with the pizza crust and the toppings (I love to play around with my pizza toppings, so yeah..), but as for the sauce, I go BIG as it’s the soul of any pizza; the very thing that breathes life into it. Of course, I don’t want it to taste nothing but just tomatoes. It got to have a hints of flavors in it without overpowering one over the other.

Pizza Sauce vs Marinara

Generally speaking, pizza sauce is not pre-cooked as it cooks with the pizza itself. On the other hand a marinara sauce is for pasta which is cooked along with several other ingredients like olive oil, sauteed onions, garlic, basil and more. However, for our homemade version of pizza sauce, I prefer to have it cooked to allow the seasonings to bloom and meld beautifully to achieve that layering of flavors.

We also need to point out how pizza sauce are a lot thicker compared marinara sauce. Pizza sauce lets you spread it all over the pizza dough without being too runny or causing it to get soggy. Although there are some who uses marinara sauce on pizza, with its higher water content and thin consistency, we just prefer to spread a sauce  clean, simple and evenly on a pizza dough.

Homemade Pizza Sauce Ingredients

I’m telling you as early as now as to how flavorful and fragrant this sauce is! I even seasoned it with my homemade Italian seasoning for added aroma and flavors and pepper flakes for an additional kick. Truly an exceptional sauce that is a must-have in your fridge if you happen to be a huge pizza lover!

You’ll just need the following ingredients below to recreate this amazing recipe here:

• olive oil
• minced garlic
• onion powder
• can of diced tomatoes
• tomato paste – please don’t skip or swap on this one; this helps us thicken our sauce
• sugar
• Italian seasoning – homemade recipe HERE
• basil
• pepper flakes
• salt and pepper

Pizza Sauce Recipe Substitutions

• Can of Diced tomatoes – If you don’t have this on hand, you may swap it for fresh roughly blended tomatoes or tomato sauce.
• Italian seasoning –  A simple mix of 1/4 teaspoon each of basil, thyme, rosemary and oregano for each teaspoon of Italian seasoning in the recipe is already a good substitution.
• Sugar – A little bit of sugar actually enhances the flavor of this sauce. But if you prefer not to use one, you may omit; this sauce would still taste GREAT. Or swap it for coconut sugar or those Keto low-calorie sweeteners like stevia.
• Pepper Flakes – This is a great addition to a pizza sauce. I love the subtlety of heat here for that added oomph. Feel free to omit it, too, or swap for cayenne pepper in case you don’t have pepper flakes on hand.

How To Store Homemade Pizza Sauce

Once you’re done mixing your homemade pizza sauce, you can now store it in an airtight container in the fridge for about a week. This will make it easier for you to whip up pizza anytime you want right at home.

If you prefer storing it longer, you may freeze it for up to 2 months. What I would usually do is to spoon any leftover sauce into ice cube trays or any mold and freeze it up. When ready to use, simply thaw the frozen sauce overnight before using on pizza or microwave it for about 30 seconds until it melts like into a sauce.

Ways to Use this Homemade Pizza Sauce

Don’t you know that you can make a ton of ways with this homemade pizza sauce? Yes, yes! It’s not just for pizza doughs, but it can certainly be served like the ones below:

• use it on pasta
• as a rice flavoring (swapping 1 cup of water for 1 cup of pizza sauce; depending on your preference)
• chip dip or bread dip (pair it with this Focaccia Bread HERE)
• use to flavor soups
• as a spread
• braising meat
• turn it into a cocktail (just add vodka, water, lemon juice, and salt; mix and you’re good to go!)

More Homemade Sauces For You

• BBQ Sauce
• Chimichurri Sauce
• Alfredo Sauce
• Remoulade Sauce
• Homemade Gravy
• African Pepper Sauce

How To Make Pizza Sauce

In a medium saucepan, add olive oil and garlic and cook over medium heat for about a minute or until fragrant.

Add onion powder, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, Italian seasoning, basil and pepper flakes. Stir well to combine. Add salt and some freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and let it simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes or until desired thickness has been reached.

Looking for more recipes? Follow on...

My Newsletter

Print

Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce

Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce – rich, thick and super flavorful homemade pizza sauce using few simple ingredients and ready to use in 5 minutes; pairs well with my homemade pizza dough. You will never  ever find a pizza sauce as crazy delicious as this!

No ratings yet

Prep: 5 minutes mins

Cook: 25 minutes mins

Total: 30 minutes mins

Italian

Servings 24 servings or 2 large pizza

Ingredients

• ▢ 1-2 tablespoons (14- 28 ml) olive oil
• ▢ 2 teaspoons  (10 g) minced garlic
• ▢ 1-2 teaspoons (2-4 g) onion powder
• ▢  14.5 ounce diced tomatoes (about 1 ¾ cup) , undrained 
• ▢  6 ounce (¾  cup)  tomato paste 
• ▢ 1-2 teaspoon (4-8 g) sugar 
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (4 g) Italian seasoning (click HERE for homemade)
• ▢ 1-2 tablespoon s (1-2 g) basil , (for additional flavor)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (2 g) pepper flakes (optional)
• ▢ salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

• In a medium saucepan, add olive oil and garlic and cook over medium heat for about a minute or until fragrant. 
• Add onion powder, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, Italian seasoning, basil and pepper flakes. Stir well to combine. Add salt and some freshly ground black pepper to taste.
• Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and let it simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes or until desired thickness has been reached.

Tips & Notes:

1. This sauce will still taste great without Sugar. So you can choose to omit it.
2. After cooling at room temperature, the sauce can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week in the refrigerator and up to 2 months in the freezer.
3. Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 17kcal (1%)| Carbohydrates: 2g (1%)| Protein: 1g (2%)| Fat: 1g (2%)| Saturated Fat: 1g (6%)| Cholesterol: 1mg| Sodium: 71mg (3%)| Potassium: 87mg (2%)| Fiber: 1g (4%)| Sugar: 1g (1%)| Vitamin A: 154IU (3%)| Vitamin C: 2mg (2%)| Calcium: 9mg (1%)| Iron: 1mg (6%)

Author: Imma

Course: Condiment

Cuisine: Italian

Tag Us On Instagram!Did you make this recipe? I love hearing how it turned out! Tag me on Instagram @ImmaculateBites and be sure to leave a rating below!

Follow on Instagram