You’ll love this easy homemade pizza sauce recipe, which uses fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, and oregano. All fresh ingredients! No tomato paste or sugar added! Try this sauce on your next pizza, and you’ll never look back.
I make a batch of this pizza sauce every few weeks. I love it that much. I use it to make homemade pizza and have even started tossing it with pasta and gnocchi (SO good).
If you can put a few ingredients into a pot, you can make this delicious sauce. It is a must-try!
Key Ingredients
- Fresh tomatoes: The star of this homemade pizza sauce! Using fresh tomatoes keeps this pizza sauce light on its feet. I find sauces made with tomato paste heavy and rich. I have successfully used cherry, vine-ripened, heirloom, and Roma tomatoes in this recipe. Canned tomatoes should also work, if that is all that you have. We recommend using canned whole peeled tomatoes.
- Garlic and onion: Add so much flavor. We cook them with fresh tomatoes so they become soft and sweet.
- Oregano and red pepper flakes: These work so well with pizza! Use crushed red pepper or more flavorful gochugaru (Korean pepper flakes).
- Olive oil: Makes our pizza sauce velvety and rich – similar to how we use olive oil to make marinara sauce.
How to Make Pizza Sauce
To make pizza sauce, you’ll combine fresh tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, onion, pepper, oregano, and salt in a covered saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes.
Uncover the pot and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes. During this time, the sauce will concentrate its flavor and become incredibly flavorful. When the sauce is done cooking, blend until your desired consistency.
Ways to Use Homemade Pizza Sauce
Make pizza! Stretch your pizza dough and spoon on your sauce. I keep the sauce application pretty light. You should be able to see through the sauce. Here’s our easy pizza dough recipe! I love using this sauce to make our family’s favorite cheese pizza. For an easier option, make flatbread pizza!
Beyond pizza, this amazing sauce is also great for pasta, lasagna, and gnocchi. Whenever a recipe calls for pasta sauce, use this pizza sauce instead. The garlicky tomato sauce works well in almost any recipe that uses red sauce.
Homemade Pizza Sauce (Better than Store-Bought)
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This flavorful homemade pizza sauce is made with fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, and oregano, and it’s completely free of any added sugar. You can use this light and garlicky sauce to make your own homemade pizza or try it with pasta (it’s delicious).
You Will Need
4 cups (760g) chopped fresh tomatoes, 5 to 6 medium
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced or finely grated
3/4 cup (100g) chopped onion
Pinch red pepper flakes or gochugaru (Korean pepper flakes)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
4 twists black pepper
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
Directions
1Over low heat, combine olive oil, garlic, onion, and pepper flakes in a medium saucepan. Cover the pot and cook for 5 minutes.
2Add the tomatoes, oregano, and black pepper. Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
3Uncover, and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring every once and a while.
4Season with salt — start with 1/4 teaspoon and add from there. Use an immersion blender or stand blender to puree the sauce.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Canned tomatoes: We love fresh tomatoes for this sauce and have even found that the more lackluster winter tomatoes in stores work perfectly well for this pizza sauce. That said, you can use canned tomatoes. We recommend using drained whole peeled tomatoes.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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Do you peel and seed the tomatoes?
No, we use the whole tomato in this sauce.
Can this sauce be frozen? I have an abundance of garden tomatoes waiting to be created into something delicious.
Definitely!