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).
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Video
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).
Definitely gonna be trying this awesome homemade pizza sauce
Cooking and baking is my favorite also
This was too sweet for me- If you use good tomatoes i wouldn’t add sugar
Thank you this saved me from panic and having to go to the store! It came together so quick and made enough for later.
This was so good and so easy to make! I love the tangy flavor and the texture of the sauce was perfect! I also love that it only had to simmer for 15 minutes which made it much easier for me to make a pizza from scratch on a weeknight.
I just hope this will serve me well,since I am interested in trying it out.
I have say your sauce is the best ,made frenchbread pizza subs for 11 of us,I will forever be making this sauce thank you!!!!!
I loved this recipe!! My wife and kids loved it. This will be a staple in our home for years. I made a garlic butter to brush on the crust and stuffed the crust with mozzarella. I found myself cutting off the crust and dipping it in the leftover sauce. It was fantastic…
This is delicious without any modifications! Yum!
Good recipe
How did I never realize it was so easy to make pizza sauce. Beth saves the day, AGAIN
I wanted to tell you how fabulous this recipe is. I had some cheap grape tomatoes about to go bad so I used them instead of canned. It STILL turned out amazing! So glad I found this recipe!
Would this sauce keep jarred for a while?
It should stay good for about 5 days in your fridge stored between 38 and 40 degrees. XOXO -Monti
My family absolutely loves this recipe. It’s so simple & delicious. I’m not allowed to buy pre-made any longer lol! Thank you!
So far this has been my go to pizza sauce. It’s simple but very rich and good.
I am looking for a pizza sauce that doesn’t use store-bought canned tomatos or tomato sauce.
I only searched for a pizza sauce recipe because the store was out of the jars and I’m so glad I found this one. I’ll never buy the pre made stuff again. This tastes likes the best pizza restaurant sauce, so better than even most restaurants. Great texture too, not watery at all. Perfection! I threw in 4 garlic cloves because that’s my personal preference and I was very happy.
Been using this recipe for my deep dish sauce just subbing the crushed tomatoes for peeled to get that “chunk” in the sauce. Also found brown sugar is a nice substitute for the regular sugar as well. Reduces down well and tastes amazing!