This homemade pizza sauce is so easy to make. It only takes two minutes and nine key ingredients. Itโ€™s a really fun way to get started for your homemade pizza night, and tastes so much better than store bought pizza sauce!

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Pizza Sauce

This flavorful pizza sauce is anything but weak. Like the old-school marinara sauces made by expert cooks in Naples, itโ€™s packed with rich, saucy flavor. The term โ€œmarinaraโ€ sauce actually refers not to the ingredients, but to the boatloads of hungry sailors (or โ€œmarinariโ€)  who would walk from the port in Naples – which remains active to this day – to their favorite pizza joint, demanding only the best pizza they could get. The simple, flavorful red sauce that went on top of the oven baked bread was a quick, tasty way to serve so many hungry sailors, and the name stuck.

How To Make Pizza Sauce from Scratch

Itโ€™s easy to make this sauce ahead of time, and it stores really well in the fridge until youโ€™re ready to make pizza.

Simply mix the tomato paste, tomato sauce, your basil, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and sugar until smooth. Thatโ€™s it!

Once your sauce is made up, itโ€™s time to put together your delicious homemade pizza. Use your favorite pizza dough recipe and generously and evenly spread your red sauce over the pizza dough. You want a nice thick layer of the sauce atop the pizza. Donโ€™t skimp on sauce! Thatโ€™s where the flavor is.

Homemade Pizza Sauce Serving Size

Our recipe should make enough sauce for three large pizzas or four medium sized pizzas. Of course, if youโ€™re feeding more people, simply double the quantities in the recipe to get a yield for four large pizzas.

Itโ€™s really easy to double, or even triple, this recipe. If youโ€™re feeding kids, you could even let them make smaller sized personal pizzas, with a correspondingly small amount of sauce, with their choice of toppings. They think itโ€™s great fun.

Storage

You can easily store or freeze this pizza sauce. A glass jar with a lid should do the trick quite nicely. It will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks. You could also freeze the sauce, and it will keep in the freezer for up to three months.

When you want to use the sauce, allow it to return to room temperature before applying it to your dough. You can thaw the sauce overnight in the fridge if it is frozen.

Homemade Pizza Sauce FAQs

Whatโ€™s the difference between pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce?

Spaghetti sauce typically has a higher water content. It needs to coat strands of pasta, so itโ€™s less viscous than a pizza sauce should be. Thatโ€™s why you should avoid using jarred marinara sauce, which is intended for use with pasta.
Pizza sauce is thicker and denser than most pasta sauces.
Spaghetti sauce also varies quite a bit, according to the ingredients used in preparation. Your pizza sauce, because it is denser and thicker, will probably have a stronger, fuller flavor than most spaghetti sauces.

Should homemade pizza sauce be cooked?

You donโ€™t need to cook this pizza sauce recipe, as it will endure high heat as the pizza itself cooks.

Can I use ketchup as pizza sauce?

No.
Ketchup is not pizza sauce. It is not pasta sauce. Do not use it as a substitute for tomatoes or either sauce.

Homemade Pizza Sauce Substitutions

  • If you run out of tomato sauce, you can simply blend a can of tomatoes – especially diced tomatoes – in a food processor. You could also blend fresh tomatoes.
  • It will take a little longer, but you could try roasting tomatoes in the oven for 20 minutes, then blending the roasted tomatoes. Itโ€™s a great, fresh flavor.
  • You canโ€™t really substitute the tomato paste in this recipe, as that is critical to the texture of the pizza sauce.
  • You can use fresh spices in place of dried spices if you have access to them. Basil, or Italian seasoning, are great for this recipe, and if you have access to a fresh sprig of oregano or basil it will make your sauce taste great. If you want your sauce to have a less bold flavor, start with less seasoning and add more as you go.
  • You can leave the granulated sugar out if you want a sugar free sauce. You could substitute it for honey or a tiny pinch of cinnamon, which is commonly done in Sicily.
  • This sauce is already vegan, so you donโ€™t need to make any substitutions or alterations to make it into a vegan alternative. You can make yourself some pretty incredible vegan pizzas if you want using this sauce and the right ingredients.

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5 from 1 vote

Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce

By: chefjar
This homemade pizza sauce is so easy to make. It only takes two minutes and nine key ingredients. Itโ€™s a really fun way to get started for your homemade pizza night, and tastes so much better than store bought pizza sauce!
Prep Time: 1 minute
Cook Time: 1 minute
Servings: 3 cups
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Ingredients 

Instructions 

  • Whisk all ingredients together in a medium size bowl until well combined.
  • Use in your favorite pizza recipe!

Nutrition

Serving: 2tablespoons | Calories: 22kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 0.2g | Sodium: 479mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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All rights reserved. CHEF JAR. All images and content are copyright protected. PLEASE do not use my images without my permission. If you want to share this recipe, PLEASE provide a link back to this post.

Chefjar

Hello there!

Iโ€™m Tatianaโ€”your go-to gal for easy, tasty meals that wonโ€™t leave you crying over a sink full of dishes.
Letโ€™s cook, laugh, and keep it real in the kitchenโ€”aprons optional!

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2 Comments

  1. JZ says:

    5 stars
    This is very good and very quick/easy to make. Loved it! Thank you!

    1. Tatiana says:

      Thank you so much, JZ! Iโ€™m really happy to hear you loved it. Quick, easy, and delicious is always the goal!