Easy Pizza Sauce recipe | Pizza sauce recipe Italian

Last updated on May 27th, 2025 at 05:53 pm

Easy Pizza Sauce recipe - An easy way to make delicious, authentic, Italian Pizza Sauce at home. Perfectly cooked tomatoes by slow simmering make this sauce unbeatable in flavor. You'll never go buy a canned pizza sauce ever again!

I probably cannot live without tomatoes, there are only a couple of dishes that I make which are made without tomatoes. I'm sure that would be the case for many. Be it curries or chili it all needs tomatoes and I love using them be it an heirloom or plum varieties.

It is safe to assume that I wouldn't want to cook without them. However, I'm not a fan of eating anything raw, and that goes with tomatoes as well. I have eaten them raw once or twice in gyros mixed with a beautiful tzatziki sauce and meatballs. Truth be told I didn't notice them tomatoes.

It was because of that reason that I wasn't much of a pizza fan. When given a choice of some other eatable and pizza, I would always pick anything other than pizza. I hated that raw-ish flavor of tomato sauce on pizzas, no matter what it was topped with.

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This definitely changed when I tasted (and then hogged) delicious pizzas in New York City. Since then I make my own New York-style pizza sauce with slight modifications from Spaghetti and meatballs sauce and now I'd choose making pizza any day over other dishes.

This easy pizza sauce recipe gives a completely cooked through the sauce with the flavors of garlic, onion, and herbs. It tastes wonderful on pizza and you're guests will keep coming back for more! Let's move on to the recipe!

What goes in this pizza sauce?

Good quality olive oil is essentially to this sauce, for that's what brings the Italian taste to our home. But if you don't have it, go for any flavorless vegetable oil but refrain from flavor-rich oils like sesame, mustard, peanut oils and such.

Next, come the onions and garlic. I would settle for a pizza sauce without onions but I would never give up garlic. It adds this unbelievable flavor to the sauce and the pizza itself. There are so many versions of pizza sauces that use just tomatoes and a combination of tomatoes and ketchup; called just tomato sauce. But I feel onions and garlic brings about the best flavors in pizzas.

It goes without saying that the next important ingredient is tomatoes. I like to use San Marzano or Roma tomatoes; by using these we stick to the authenticity of Italian pizza sauce as close as possible. I have never tried making this easy pizza sauce recipe or spaghetti sauce with heirloom tomatoes.

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Apart from the true to flavor reason, Roma / San Marzano has thinner skin compared to heirloom varieties, these tomatoes are fleshier and with little to few seeds. That is perfect for making sauces, it gives the right consistency and when making tomato Passata, the leftover skin and seed discard is minimal.

All these combined with a bit of salt and a bit of Italian seasoning or mixed herbs give the beautiful, flavorful, the best pizza sauce!

Consistency of a perfect pizza sauce:

This easy pizza sauce recipe gives a chunky textured sauce solely from the addition of the onions and garlic. You opt for a finely minced onions and garlic and leave this sauce as such and top it on your pizza. It is not very spreadable but I like the texture that it adds to the pizza.

On the other hand, if you would prefer a spreadable pizza sauce, once the sauce is cooked through, remove half of the sauce to another bowl. Using a hand blender or a regular blender, blend that portion of the sauce. Then mix this blended part with the non-blended part and mix it through. This is will give a smooth pizza sauce. I do this when I am serving pizzas to guests, gives a close to restaurant-style pizzas.

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If you prefer a spreadable AND smooth consistency of pizza sauce, blend the entire bowl of sauce!

Serving suggestions:

You can use this sauce on ice cream, blondies, LOL okay.. I'm kidding. Well, obviously you can use this sauce while making pizzas, top the rolled out pizza dough with this pizza sauce before adding the toppings.

Also, you can use this while filling up calzones and you can serve this sauce on the side for you/your guest to dip those calzones into it. Tastes amazing!

Nutrition:

Considering the fact that this recipe uses only about of 2-3 tablespoon of oil, I would say it is pretty healthy. This easy pizza sauce recipe gives 4 portions well enough to be spread on 4 medium-large pizzas. Each serving of sauce has about 260 calories, but then again the pizzas would be split and sliced.

How to store pizza sauce:

This easy pizza sauce recipe makes a batch of storable sauce which you can reach for and use it anytime you wanna make some pizzas! Store this sauce in a clean jar or Tupperware in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. However, it can be frozen in an airtight container for up to a month or more. To reuse, thaw it overnight or in a microwave.

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What I usually do is, split this batch into 4 different portions and store in resealable plastic bags, and freeze it. I just pull out one bag for when we make pizza and place the bag in warm water to thaw it before using it on top of pizza dough.

Variations and substitutions:

You can choose to leave out the onions or garlic or both, that is if you don't have them it is fine to skip them that one time. However, I suggest you use them to get maximum flavor, at least don't skip the garlic. You can reduce the amount of garlic and onions if you like.

Easy pizza sauce recipe - how to make it:

This is a really simple recipe that gives you better than canned, store-bought pizza sauces.

For making this pizza sauce you'll need the following ingredients:

• Olive oil - 3 tbsp
• Onions (red or yellow) - 1 medium or approx. 130g
• Garlic - 3-4 large cloves
• Tomato Passata or puree - 3 cups (26 Oz)
• Italian mixed herbs or Italian seasoning - 1 tbsp
• Salt

Making the sauce:

• Heat a heavy-bottomed pan or a Dutch oven. Add the oil and let it get hot.
• Add the garlic first and sauté until it begins to turn golden brown.
• Next, add the onions and sauté until it turns translucent.
• Finally, pour in the tomato puree/tomato Passata into the pan. Add the salt and the seasonings.
• Simmer uncovered at a low-medium flame for about 20 minutes.
• At this point, you can store it or use it directly on pizzas. Also, right about this stage, you can choose to blend if you prefer.
• Enjoy your best homemade pizza sauce!

Recipe source: adapted and modified from spaghetti and meatballs recipe

Notes:

• Olive Oil: Extra virgin olive oil that is meant for stir-frying works great here. If you don't have olive oil, replace it with any flavorless vegetable oil.
• Onions: Use red or yellow onions. You can choose to use lesser quantity or skip it altogether if you don't have onions or if you're not a fan of onions.
• Garlic: Skip it or reduce the amount of garlic. But I suggest that you use it.
• Consistency: If you are not bothered about the chunky texture leave this sauce as it is. If you want a spreadable sauce, split the sauce into two, and blend one part. Mix it both together. On the other hand, if you want a super smooth and spreadable sauce, blend them all!
• Storing: Store in a clean glass jar and put it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. To store in the freezer, store in an airtight container, or split into equal portions in different resealable bags. 
• Reusing frozen sauce: To reuse, thaw the frozen pizza sauce in the refrigerator overnight or put the freezer bags in warm water.

Made this? Got doubts? Let me know what you think in the comments below!