Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe
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Skip the store-bought stuff, this homemade pizza sauce recipe comes together in under 5 minutes (no cooking needed) and tastes like it came straight from your favorite pizzeria. No cooking required, perfectly balanced flavors, and designed specifically for homemade pizza.
5-Minute Homemade Pizza Sauce
If you have 5 minutes and a can of tomatoes in your pantry, you have everything you need to make my quick and easy pizza sauce recipe. The perfect pairing for my homemade pizza dough, this is a staple in my kitchen.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Takes literally 5 minutes to make! Faster than dashing to the store, and perfect for a last-minute pizza night.
- Bold, balanced flavor. Thanks to plenty of Italian spices, tomato paste, and a pinch of sugar.
- Bare minimum prep-work: no chopping or cooking required. Literally all you need to do is toss some ingredients together and hit a button!
- Uses simple ingredients, most of which are pantry staples.
Not just for pizza! This sauce also tastes great with calzones, breadsticks, stromboli, rolled up in pizza rolls, or served on the side with arancini or mozzarella sticks!
Ingredients
My goal was to develop and share a pizza sauce recipe that was as simple as possible (while still being robustly flavorful) so we’ll use just 10 ingredients. Most of them are spices/seasonings!
- Canned diced tomatoes. Yes, canned! And yes, I’m a bit defensive about this. I talk more on this below. You can substitute whole canned tomatoes for diced, or you can switch things up and use fire roasted tomatoes for even more flavor (like I do in my award-winning chili recipe!).
- Tomato paste. This does a lot of the heavy lifting for this recipe; it thickens the sauce (important so your pizza crust doesn’t become soggy), concentrates the flavor, and adds richness without requiring cooking.
- Olive oil. This gives the sauce the proper mellow mouthfeel and adds flavor. Use a good quality extra virgin olive oil.
- Spices. I use dried basil, oregano, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. While fresh herbs could be use instead (and would need to be substituted properly), remember, this is meant to be a quick and easy pizza sauce!
- Garlic. We’ll use fresh garlic here since it’s easy to just toss a whole clove into the food processor. If you’re using pre-minced garlic, I recommend a heaping teaspoon.
- Sugar. A pinch deepens the flavor of the sauce and cuts the acidity from the tomatoes without making the sauce sweet. I use sugar in many of my tomato recipes for this reason, like my cherry tomato sauce.
You’ll also need a food processor or a blender to combine everything. I’ve linked to the one that I own and love in the recipe below. I got it as a wedding gift and use it for everything from pie crust to scones!
Sam’s Tip
Pizza sauce is meant to be a bit thick (more-so than marinara), but if the sauce is too thick for your liking, just add a drizzle more olive oil to loosen it.
As always, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe and amounts, please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Pizza Sauce (Fast!)
- Add all ingredients to a food processor (a blender would also work). There’s no need to chop any ingredients before adding them, just toss everything in!
- Pulse until smooth. Or if you like your sauce to have some texture, stop pulsing a bit before things are completely smooth.
- Use as desired. It’s that easy! If you don’t plan to use your homemade pizza sauce right away, store it in your fridge until ready to use.
Sam’s Tip
Always do a quick taste test before using your sauce. Different brands of tomatoes may be more or less acidic, you may find you need to add a pinch more salt, or a bit more sugar if the acidic taste is particularly strong.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, do not drain the tomatoes when making this pizza sauce recipe. The extra juices in the can are essential for giving the sauce the proper consistency and helping it to blend smoothly. Draining them would leave you with a thicker base and can throw off the balance of the sauce.
Personally, I like to use mine for dipping my garlic knots or slices of my sourdough bread recipe. I’ll also freeze the leftovers. I typically use about ½ cup of sauce for a 10-12″ pizza, so I’ll divide the leftovers into 1/2-cup portions and pop in the freezer for the next time I’m making a batch of pizza (or my sourdough pizza crust).
The secret to a great pizza sauce recipe is to use high-quality canned tomatoes, and to balance your seasoning. It might sound surprising, but I use canned tomatoes here for the same reasons that I use them in my marinara sauce (and prefer to use them in my homemade salsa and tomato soup). Canned tomatoes are typically more consistent, less watery, and more concentrated in flavor than fresh tomatoes and will give you a more robust, richly flavored sauce. And they’re more convenient and available any time of year.
Related Recipes:
If you are interested in a “white” version of this recipe, my Alfredo sauce recipe is perfect for that!
Enjoy!
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Pizza Sauce Recipe (Easy, No-Cook!)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 14.5 oz (411 g) canned diced tomatoes or fire roasted tomatoes, undrained
- 6 oz (170 g) canned tomato paste
- 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
- ¾ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, freshly ground
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender.14.5 oz (411 g) canned diced tomatoes or fire roasted tomatoes, 6 oz (170 g) canned tomato paste, 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 2 teaspoons granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons dried basil, 1 clove garlic, 1 teaspoon finely ground sea salt, ¾ teaspoon dried oregano, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- Pulse 15 times or until mixture is smooth.
- Use immediately or store in an airtight container to use later.
Notes
Storing
Store leftover sauce in an airtight container. Will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week or the freezer for up to 3 months. I’ll usually store in 1/2 cup portions, that way I can just thaw exactly what I need, when I need it. I like to use these souper cubes from Amazon (affiliate) for freezing, very convenient.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
Easy enough
Tasty. a good overall taste and consistency. My husband even liked it and hes a finicky eater. Used it on homemade foaccaccia and it was very good. Had enough left over to put in the freezer for another day.
I’m so glad it was a hit, Denise! 🙂
This is the BEST pizza sauce I have ever made! I will never buy store-bought sauce again! You can literally taste the freshness compared to other sauces.
So glad it was such a hit for you, Meredith! Enjoy 😊
Can you use crushed tomatoes instead of diced?
Hi Amanda! The crushed tomatoes may introduce a little bit more water and make it a bit runnier, but I haven’t tried it to know for sure. 🙂
Can you use tomato sauce instead of diced tomatoes?
Hi Marissa! It won’t work quite the same and would take some tweaking. Without having tried it I can’t say for sure what to do.
So simple and so delicious! I was using a food network chef”s and really liked it until I tried yours. This will be my forever pizza sauce. My family and friends agree.
We’re so happy you gave our recipe a try Julie! Thanks for the review 😊
Discovered this recipe about 3 years ago. We NEVER use anything else! Taste will vary depending on brand of tomatoes, size of garlic clove, and level v. rounded teaspoons of sugar, but it is always just perfect.
Thank you. I have been trying to make a great home made pizza for the family for years. I invested in a built in dome pizza oven. Nothing seem to produce a great pizza.
High five to you gal.
I made you pizza dough and your pizza sauce three time will Excellent results.
I now invite friends over for EXCELLENT pizza night. All belive I am a marvelous Pizza Chef. All due to you. Thanks you.
I’m so glad it’s all been such a hit, David! 🙂
Quick & easy, absolutely delicious!
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Annie, thank you so much for trying my recipe!
This is a game changer for my pizza. I have always made my own sauce but never really followed a recipe. This is a keeper! Taste is perfect and is the consistency. my husband asked me if I wrote down the recipe so I don’t lose it ever
We really love this sauce, especially on your sourdough pizza! it’s super easy, tasty, and versatile. I’ve used it in making lasagna and spaghetti, and it’s great for dipping bread sticks, too. I’ve used this recipe for three years; it’s my go-to!
so easy.not too sweet. i freeze in single portions.
I will NEVER buy pizza sauce again!!! This was amazingly delicious!! 😋
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Pam! 🙂
I haven’t made the sauce yet, but I made the pizza dough last night – the kids loved it! I have to give you props for handling the canned food crowd – you made my morning! TY for sharing your recipes!
My favorite recipe so far! I used store bought pizza sauce.
Will rotel tomatoes (diced tomatoes and chiles) work or canned stewed tomatoes?
Hi Margaret! The rotel tomatoes with chiles will give the sauce a completely different flavor profile. I would probably try the stewed tomatoes before the rotel, but I can’t say for sure how they will turn out.
Thanks! I tried the stewed tomatoes and it was delicious. Thanks for sharing your recipes. I’ve made several and they’ve all been great!
Thanks for letting us know, Margaret! Enjoy 😊
due to health problems sugar is forbitten. Bee honey or Mable syrop will do the job? Any ideas?
Thanks John
Hi John! I think honey could work as a substitute. 🙂