I’ve made homemade pizza sauce before but I wanted one that was even thicker and richer because I had some big plans to dip things in it (and by “things” I mean pizzadillas). Dipping sauces have to be really thick or else they won’t hang on to whatever is being dunked in them. But I also love a good, thick pizza sauce on my pizzas. A thick pizza sauce gives all the flavor without making the dough soggy. No watery pizza sauce here, folks!
Ingredients for Pizza Sauce:
To make this super thick and rich pizza sauce, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- Olive Oil & Garlic: Garlic sautéed in olive oil provides a deep base flavor for this pizza sauce.
- Crushed Tomatoes: Canned crushed tomatoes provide the bulk of the volume of the sauce. The crushed texture is smooth enough that you won’t have chunks in your sauce, but still has enough texture to prevent the sauce from being too thin.
- Tomato Paste: A little dollop of tomato paste helps thicken the sauce even further and provides a super concentrated tomato flavor to the sauce. No weak sauce here!
- Seasonings: We keep the seasoning pretty simple with just a little basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and a little sugar to help balance the acidity of the tomatoes. Oh! And a pinch of crushed red pepper too, for a little kick. ;)
How Much Sauce Does This Make?
This homemade pizza sauce recipe makes three cups, which is about 3 large pizzas or 12 dipping portions (or like, six pizza sandwiches). The sauce freezes great so go ahead and freeze some of it and then you won’t have to make a batch the next time you want a pizza!
How to Use Homemade Pizza Sauce
Pizza sauce is great for a lot more than just pizzas! This super thick and rich pizza sauce recipe is my new go-to red sauce. Use it for meatball subs, eggplant or chicken parmesan, or just for dipping breadsticks. It’s a quick, easy, all-purpose red sauce for smothering and dipping. Here are a few other great ways to use your Homemade Pizza Sauce:
How to Store Leftover Pizza Sauce
If this pizza sauce recipe is more sauce than you need for one meal, go ahead and freeze the remainder of the sauce. I suggest using a quart-sized freezer bag. To reheat, just tear away the freezer bag and empty the frozen pizza sauce into a small sauce pot. Reheat over low, stirring often, until it is heated through.
Homemade Pizza Sauce
Servings 3 cupsIngredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.26)
- 1 clove garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes ($1.47)
- 1 6oz. can tomato paste ($0.59)
- 1/2 Tbsp sugar ($0.05)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 1 tsp dried basil ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper (optional) ($0.02)
Instructions
- Add the olive oil and garlic to a sauce pot and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, or just until the garlic is soft and fragrant.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt, basil, oregano, some freshly cracked pepper (10-15 cranks of a pepper mill), and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.
- Cover the pot, allow the pot to come to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low, and let simmer for 15 minutes minimum, or up to 30 minutes (I often let it simmer as I prepare my pizza dough).
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Homemade Pizza Sauce – Step By Step Photos
Sauté one clove of minced garlic (or two if you like things garlicky!) in 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat for one to two minutes, or until the garlic is soft and fragrant.
Add one 28oz. can crushed tomatoes, one 6oz. can tomato paste, 1/2 Tbsp sugar, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, some freshly cracked pepper, and a pinch of red pepper flakes to the sauce pot.
Stir the ingredients together, place a lid on top, then allow it to come up to a simmer. Once simmering, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes minimum (I sometimes let it simmer longer while I’m preparing the pizza dough and the flavor just gets sweeter and deeper).
How do you freeze this? Plastic freezer bags, jars or vacuum seal bags?
I like to just use quart sized freezer bags. Lay them flat as they freeze for space saving :)
Another way to freeze small portions is to let the sauce cool in the refrigerator, then spoon it into muffin tins for freezing. My favorite way by far has been to spoon leftovers into my mini-muffin silicone tray–the frozen pucks pop out with ease and are perfectly-sized to portion out according to personal preference. After frozen, I simply store the pucks in freezer bags until needed. Awesome sauce (literally).
Kristina – About 5 days, but you can always freeze extras :)
how long would this keep good in the fridge
Omg, I’m going to make this tomorrow since I’m making pizza at home!! The ingredients are so convenient, I think I have all of those things at home. Thank you!! :’)
This pizza sauce is delicious and SO incredibly easy to make. I added a little bit more basil because my husband and I are basil fanatics. Thanks so much for this recipe!
I love this sauce! I made it with tomatoes from my garden that I crushed up, and did a double batch. We made some bubble pizza and it was fabulous.
I found that I wanted it more heavily seasoned, that might be because of my husband’s tastes, or the fact that i used my palm instead of a teaspoon, or the fresh tomatoes.
Does yours taste a lot like tomato, with a little seasoning? (do i even make sense)
This will be good in the fridge for about a week. If you need it any longer than that, it freezes really well!
How long will this stay good for in the fridge?
I’ve made sauce like this before, but found it lacking just a little sweetness. I finely shredded some carrots that were just sitting in my fridge, and added them to the mix early enough. They melt right in to the red sauce and add sweetness and nutrients. Try it!
Steve- I would just thin it out slightly with some of the starchy pasta cooking water. Just a tad!
Looks fabulous!
This looks amazing! Any ideas on how to turn this into a general pasta sauce?
Awesome! I made the no-knead focaccia bread today (with a few tweaks…added 1 tsp garlic powder and threw some asiago cheese on top). I was planning on slicing it into bread sticks and serving it with a pizza sauce. Perfect timing for this recipe! Thanks!
Great recipe and much cheaper than buying sauce at the store!
This looks yummy….you have a lovely blog… You have so many wonderful pizza.I have bookmarked you blog and some recipe from that to try.