Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe! 5 minutes and 9 ingredients results in the best pizza sauce you will ever have! Gluten-free, paleo-friendly, dairy-free, & vegan!
The morning before we go grocery shopping…while I sip my coffee and my kids finish their breakfast…I like to ask them what they want for dinner the next week. Without fail their first answer is always, “pizza!”
We love making pizza at home because it’s crazy easy, super fun, way healthier than delivery and easy on the wallet. Today I am sharing our go-to Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe. It literally takes five minutes to whip up and will make the best pizza you’ve ever had. ever.
We’re from Chicago (born and raised)…so we’ve experienced some of the best pizza in the world. I remember, one evening after dining at a famous pizza restaurant, we got in the car and I asked my husband how he liked it. (Yes, I’m that wife who analyzes the entire meal the second we get into the car after dining out). It turned out he was less than impressed. WHAT?! Seriously I thought my pizza-loving-husband had gone crazy!
His problem was with the sauce! “There was only a thin layer and it tasted just like tomatoes” was his personal opinion. He likes his pizza saucy and flavorful and that particular pie just didn’t cut it. Moral of the story: there’s no weak sauce allowed in our household. And this Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe ensures that!
How do you make Pizza Sauce from Scratch?
To make this homemade pizza sauce from scratch you literally crack open two cans, add some seasonings, stir and you’re set to go. You can easily make it ahead of time and store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to make your pizza!
Tomato paste is a must.
Please don’t leave out the tomato paste! It makes the pizza sauce thicker (see the importance of that below) which is key in making non-soggy pizza!
Use a RED spatula for mixing!
Seriously, keep your white spatulas far, FAR from this pizza sauce recipe…unless you want to turn them into orange spatulas! 😉 This red spatula (pictured below and used in the video) is my absolute favorite EVER! I use it for everything, especially making red-colored foods like this homemade pizza sauce!
What is the difference between Pizza Sauce and Spaghetti Sauce?
This is a common question I get asked all the time! Here are some distinctions between the two:
- Spaghetti sauce has a higher water content. This is why I don’t recommend using a jar of marinara when making homemade pizza, you could end up with a mushy watery mess!
- Pizza sauce is thicker. this goes along with the point above, but pizza sauce contains tomato paste, which causes it to spread easier and more evenly!
- Pizza sauce is more flavorful. This might be my own opinion, but we like a lot more spices in our pizza sauce than we do in our spaghetti sauce!
Homemade Pizza Sauce Serving size
This Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe makes enough sauce to very generously cover one large pizza. If you are a normal human and enjoy a normal amount of sauce…I suggest saving a little to dip your extra crust in!
A few tips on making the best homemade pizza:
- Use great dough. If your dough is just bleh, you pizza will be too. This Easy Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe is our go-to! It requires no rising, and makes a delicious pizza in under 30 minutes!
- Spread the sauce generously and evenly. The flavor and essence of a pizza lies in the pizza sauce recipe you use! Be sure to put a nice thick layer on and spread it evenly!
- Add a little cheese before the toppings. This was a trick I learned working at the pizza place. Starting with a very thin layer of cheese helps the toppings stick. It also creates like a cheese-topping sandwich on top of your pizza, which is just amazing .
- Watch the pizza carefully. The pizza goes from almost done to too brown fairly quickly. So be careful!
8. Let it cool & Serve
To avoid burning your mouth on lava hot sauce, let the finished pizza cool for at least 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving!
Easily Doubled (or tripled)
This easy pizza sauce recipe is easily doubled or tripled. I love serving it with a huge salad when we have guests. You can also make the crust into small personal pizzas and let the kids put their own toppings on it, which is super fun!
Vegan Pizza Sauce!
The sauce itself is vegan…so you can make some pretty amazing vegan pizzas out of this delicious recipe! However, as I’ve mentioned before…I’m a veggie-lover trapped in a family of carnivores! So I usually make a little pizza for myself with lots of veggies!
Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe: Substitutions
Here are a few possible substitutions that can be made in this recipe.
- Tomato Sauce. Sometimes I run out of cans of tomato sauce (GASP) and in a pinch I have used a can of diced tomatoes that I tossed in my Vitamix to turn into sauce! You can also use fresh blended tomatoes as well!
- Oregano/Italian seasoning. I always make this with dried spices, but feel free to use fresh! Also, if you like a tamer sauce you might want to start will less and add more to your liking!
- Garlic salt. If you don’t keep garlic salt on hand, feel free to use a little more garlic powder and regular sea salt!
- Granulated sugar. This can be left out to make a paleo version. Or you can substitute coconut sugar! I think the little bit of sugar enhances the flavor of the tomatoes!
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Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe
This is the best Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe ever! It's ready in 5 minutes and made with only 9 ingredients! Plus this healthy pizza sauce recipe is gluten-free, paleo-friendly, dairy-free, & vegan!
Ingredients
- 1 6 oz can tomato paste
- 1 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1-2 TBS oregano to taste
- 2 TBS Italian seasoning
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ TBS garlic salt
- ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp sugar coconut sugar for paleo or omit
Instructions
- Mix tomato paste and sauce together in a medium size bowl until well combined (all the lumps of paste are incorporated into the sauce).
- Add the rest of the ingredients (oregano, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, garlic salt, pepper and sugar) and mix well!
- Use in your favorite pizza recipe!
Recipe Video
This post was originally published on April 25, 2016. The post has been updated with new photos, step-by-step instructions and a video, but the recipe remains unchanged!
What are you favorite pizza toppings!?
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Jenn - a traveling Wife
YES – love homemade pizza. I would definitely have to say sugar is a must for any good pizza sauce. Not much is needed, just enough to cut the acidity of the tomatoes. This looks like such a good sauce. 🙂
Laura
Jenn I totally agree! Just a touch of sugar really helps amp up the flavor! 🙂 We live on homemade pizza over here too!
Rosemary D
It was! I just made some! Mmmmmmm! Mmmmmmm! Delish!
rachel @ athleticavocado
I can’t believe I have never made pizza sauce!! Time to change that, thanks for the recipe 🙂
Laura
I always end up doctoring up store-bought sauces anyway! Might as well just make my own! 😉 You definitely need to give it a whirl! 🙂
Kara
This looks awesome! My mom used to make homemade pizza every Sunday and it was one of my favorite dinners/traditions. My fiancé and I love pizza, and I’m hoping to make the switch to homemade instead of delivery with him too! I’ll have to use this when I finally convince him 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
Laura
Hey Kara!! That is such a fun tradition! We love doing pizza and move nights on Sundays too! 🙂 Oh man I’m sure once he gets a taste of homemade he’ll never turn back!!! 🙂
Kim
Homemade pizza sauce is by far the best! This one looks absolutely amazing!
Laura
Thanks so much Kim! Homemade is always better! Except for Oreos……. 😉
Emilie Ahern
LOOKS DELICIOUS! And I love how easy it is!
Laura
Thank you so much! YES! Easy is KEY! 🙂
Allison
I’ll try this! Every Friday is pizza night at our house.
Laura
Yay for Friday Pizza Nights!!! 🙂
Lela
I am so excited you shared this recipe at Inspiration Thursday tonight! I have been looking for a good pizza sauce and I think this one may be a winner. It sounds great! I can’t wait to try it. My son is a pizza eating machine so we have it once a week. Haha!
Laura
Is there a kid on the planet that won’t eat pizza for dinner every night?! 🙂 I hope your little dude loves it! 🙂 Thank you!
sherry
This looks great! I will be using this recipe because I never have pizza sauce when the kids want to make pizzas.
Laura
Isn’t that the way it always goes?! You have the ingredients to make 100 recipes, but not THE one everyone has a hankering for that day! 🙂 I hope you guys enjoy it!
Kirsten
Boys are so much fun, and so exhausting! My daughter and son are night and day, but I would not change him one bit. Homemade pizza sauce is genius! I am sure you save a bunch of money making it on your own. Thanks so much!
Laura
I couldn’t agree more! My girls are so different than my boy! I couldn’t imagine it any other way! 🙂
Gina
I love how simple this recipe instructions are! I can definitely handle it! I’ve pinned this to try out later. I’ve been wanting to start making my own sauces. This is a great place to start! Thank you!
Laura
Thank you Gina! Simplicity is key! When the craving for pizza strikes there’s no time to waste! 🙂
Linda
Looks tasty! And I do love the ease of this sauce! Thanks for sharing on Fiesta Friday 🙂
Laura
Thank you Linda! Easy is key!! )
Angela @ Setting My Intention
We love homemade pizza too but we actually like our sauce with just tomatoes and fresh garlic, maybe a bit of seasoning. I have 3 boys and I love raising boys. My youngest is 6 and he is so sweet.
Laura
Angela I am definitely with you! I like my sauce to taste fresh and tomato-y! 🙂 But my love for my husband trumps my sauce preferences in this case! LOL! 😉 Awww! I’m going to miss having babies so much! But every age is such a blessing! My oldest is 5! 😉 I’ll bet you guys can go on amazingly fun adventures without having to worry about potty-related incidents…THAT will be dreamy!
Angela @marathonsandmotivation.com
This looks delicious! Next time I make my GF Pizza, I am going to make this to go on it! Thanks for sharing at the Sunday Fitness & Food Link-Up!!
Laura
OooOOoo GF pizza sounds delish! I hope you enjoy it! 🙂
Donna P.
I just made this tonight using fresh herbs from my garden. Needless to say, it was delicious!
Laura
Donna I am SO glad you liked it! I can’t wait for my garden to kick it into high gear so I can use fresh herbs…that sounds absolutely delicious! 🙂
Maria Pinagel
Delicious, I’ll try it tonight!!!!!!
Laura
Woo hoo! Hope you love it! I make this on a weekly basis! 😉
Missy
This was better than store-bought sauce!!! Pizza is a favorite in my household, especially homemade pizza. I’ll be going to this recipe often!
Clarissa
Is 2 TBS of oregano correct? It was way too strong for me!
Diva W
The 2 Tbsp of oregano was likely a measurement for fresh oregano. To substitute dried oregano, use only 1/3 of the original amount.
Laura
Hey Diva! I always use 2 TBS dried oregano when I make this recipe! However it is always OK to adjust it to your liking of course!
Bob O'Hara
I can see the chopped garlic in the jar of sauce but you didn’t mention it in the recipe. You can never have enough fresh garlic in the sauce if you ask me.
Laura
Hey Bob! I actually only use garlic powder not fresh garlic…but fresh garlic can absolutely be subbed in for the powdered if you prefer it!
Carole
Your recipe calls for an 8 oz can of tomato paste. I have only seen it in 6 or 12 oz size. Your link takes me to cans of 6 oz. Do you use 6 or 8 oz of paste? Just need clarification on the amount. Thank you.
Laura
Hey Carole! It’s 6 oz! I will update that!!! Thank you for calling this to my attention!
Paula
I made this sauce for a family pizza night (I’m a Celiac so we do individual pizzas which are separately baked- mine is on GF crust and baked in my toaster oven while everyone else uses regular crust/oven). This sauce was a hit. =) I’m sure we’ll be making another batch soon. Thank you for the recipe!
Jessica
Just whipped this up today (without sugar) and loved the results. I tossed in a little rosemary and thyme and we all love it!
I was curious if this is a good recipe for canning?
JaSi Bartles
Is the nutritional information for the whole batch or is there a specific serving size?
Laura
Lunches are challenging for our gluten-free, dairy-free family. Made this with fresh herbs and baked on gluten-free bagels with Manchego thinly sliced and roasted fresh garden veggies for a quick and yummy late summer lunch! Thank you for the fantastic recipe. Simple is often best!
Laura
I agree!!! Lunch is the hardest meal of the day for me to actually prepare for myself! I’m so glad you enjoyed this and it helped with the lunchtime craziness!
Lisa
I made this last night for my homemade pizza dough. It was amazingly great!! So easy to make. Thank you for this recipe. It’s my pizza sauce forever! 🙂
Teri
This pizza sauce made me so happy! I love that it is so easy and so flavorful. I used it on a polenta pizza crust topped with cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan and the result was out of this world! Thanks for sharing!
Ramona
I found this recipe today,made some and made pizza for dinner. My husband raved,said it was the best pizza sauce he’s ever had,and he loves pizza! The recipe is printed and in my recipe binder. Thanks so much!
Kristen
My husband loves this sauce! I don’t really do tomatoes so we always make individual pizzas and end up with quite a bit of sauce left over. Has anyone tried freezing it? It seems like a waste to have to through half of it out because of can sizes. We tried just making pizza twice in one week, but it gets really thick and not as pleasant as it hangs out in the refrigerator…
Laura
Hey!! I have frozen it with great results! I also totally know about the solidifying in the fridge! I have found that letting it warm to room temperature and stirring returns it to its original texture! I usually use leftovers to make French bread pizza or pasta!
Mrs.oki1
So good! Is it bad that I’ve eaten about 3 spoonfuls before putting it on the pizza? I’m excited! I’m never buying sauce again!
Hope
Love this easy recipe for pizza!
Becky Blad
This pizza sauce was so easy to make and flavorful! I will be making it again.
Laura
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Becky! 🙂
Mel
This was much better than store bought.
Laura
I’m so glad you think so Mel!
Erik
I didnt have tomato paste, but it was time to teach my 10yo about reductions anyways…reduced down a can of tomato sauce and had JUST enough for our antelope and pepperoni pizza.
Turned out real good! I think we may try mixing in a shredded can of green chilis next time for some power but this sauce was right tasty!
Thanks!
Kristin
Perfection! This was so simple, yet delicious. We are new to making pizza at home and have found our sauce. This is a keeper!
Kerry
How long can this stay in fridge after its mixed up?
Julina
Perfect!! Thanks for the great recipe! No sugar needed for me. I’ve had this 3 times now and it will continue to be my go to pizza sauce.
mohit verma
It’s great sauce recipe, thank you for sharing this recipe, great combination with pizza
Dawn
Made this sauce for the first time tonight. It was delicious on our pizza! Had half leftover so froze for future use. Will be making this sauce again & again. Thank you for a quick & simple recipe.
June Robbs
Thought I had pizza sauce in my pantry but none….so forced to make this quick and easy sauce as my pizza was ready to go. Well what a pleasant surprise. Not only easy and fast but tasted great. I only used 1/2 cup for a 10 ” square iron skillet pizza which was plenty…froze the rest. Definitely a keeper.
Laura
I’m so glad you enjoyed it June!!
Raquel
Made this last week and it was so good! It had so much more flavour than the store bought version we usually use. I made way more than I needed though, do you know how long it lasts in the fridge?
Laura
I have used it a week after making it! 😉 You can also freeze it!
Tom Thornbury
Is a can of tomato sauce the same as a can of chopped tomatoes?
Laura
No those are two different ingredients!
Ken Hansen
Laura, you are spot on with this recipe! Born & raised in Waukegan and lived in Roger’s Park for years, I know what good Chicago pizza sauce tastes like. Not to be confused with deep dish whole tomato sauce that many folks believe that is the only pizza us folks from “The Windy” eat, I love thin crust and this is perfect! I was going to ask you how long it would last in the fridge but I found out the answer. Not very long! It seemed that over just a few days it seemed to have disappeared!