This is my easy recipe for the best homemade pizza sauce. It’s a tasty red sauce that’s thick, rich, and filled with bright, fresh tomato flavor. Serve it as a base for your favorite homemade pizzas, and this tomato sauce even doubles as a pasta sauce!
This is a sponsored post created in partnership with Red Gold. All opinions are my own.
There’s nothing like making the perfect pizza at home, complete with homemade crust and sauce. I recently shared my recipe for pizza dough. It yields a thin crust with a crisp, chewy bite, and it’s also easy to work with, which is a must. Naturally, I’m sharing my homemade pizza sauce next! I can be pretty judgmental about pizza sauce. The best sauce is thick, rich, and bold, with wonderful tomato flavor, just like this one.
What Makes a Pizza so Special? The Sauce!
This sauce is so simple to make in just 30 minutes, considering how full of flavor it is. I’ve used it in many homemade pizza recipes, from a classic margherita to a cheeseburger pizza and the pepperoni pizza with jalapeños and honey I include later in the post.
What You Can Expect:
- Texture that’s just right. My homemade red sauce has all those same components of a great pizza sauce. It’s thick and easily spreadable, and also dippable. No watery pizza sauce allowed!
- So much flavor. The sauce is anything but wimpy when it comes to flavor. It’s rich and savory, but still full of bright, fresh tomato flavor.
- More than pizza. Use this flavorful tomato sauce for all your favorite pizza-making combinations: pizza dip, pizza bites, and a delicious pizza burger. I even use it to make my pizza grilled cheese. It’s that versatile!
It’s All In the tomatoes
The secret to my super-easy pizza sauce recipe? It’s all about the Red Gold Tomatoes. Once I discovered how much better their tomato products are, I haven’t looked back. You’ll always find Red Gold in our pantry.
A little bit about Red Gold tomato products: Red Gold Tomatoes is family-owned and operated by the Reichart family for four generations, and sources tomatoes from more than 40 Midwest family farms. The tomatoes are picked when they are absolutely vine-ripe-red, eliminating the need to add artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives – nothing artificial. And they are steam-packed fresh to preserve their true tomato flavor. If you compare their products with other brands, you’ll quickly realize exactly what that means. Red Gold is just plain better!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here’s what you’ll need to make this homemade pizza sauce recipe. Scroll to the recipe card for the full recipe with amounts.
- Olive oil – Quality counts!
- Grated onion – I prefer grated onion, so there aren’t noticeable chunks in the sauce. You can use the small holes in a box grater or a food processor to grate the onion finely.
- Minced garlic – I recommend fresh garlic when making pizza sauce.
- Red Gold Tomato Sauce – My favorite. Choose a good-quality tomato sauce or marinara sauce for your base.
- Red Gold Tomato Paste – For added thickness and deeper tomato flavor.
- Sugar – I like to add just a little sugar to balance out the tanginess of the tomatoes.
- Seasonings – In addition to salt and pepper, I add Italian herbs like dried oregano and basil, as well as red chili flakes. Use as little or as much chili as you like. You can also swap the individual herbs for Italian seasoning.
How to Make Homemade Pizza Sauce
All you need is about 30 minutes, and you’ll have enough pizza sauce for several pizzas. Here’s how to make the sauce:
- Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Stir in remaining ingredients – Red Gold tomato sauce and tomato paste, sugar, salt, oregano, basil, black pepper, and crushed red pepper – and cook until thoroughly warmed.
- Simmer for 20 minutes over low heat.
Tips for the Best Sauce
- Use the best canned tomato products. This should come without saying. But I know from past conversations with family and friends that many people get stuck in a rut and don’t tend to try different products. If you haven’t yet experienced the Red Gold difference, I strongly urge you to do so!
- Grate the onion. I like a thick pizza sauce, but not a chunky pizza sauce. That’s why I use a box grater to grate the onion for this recipe.
- Add a little sugar. This is something that Mom taught me long ago. Even just a pinch of sugar in recipes that incorporate tomatoes will bring out a beautiful sweetness.
- Kick up the heat. Or don’t! The great thing about homemade pizza sauce is that YOU control the ingredients. If you like a super kickin’ sauce, then add even more ground black pepper and red pepper flakes!
How to Assemble and Cook Your Pizza
Our youngest is always the first to volunteer to roll out the crust on Family Pizza Night. You can use a homemade pizza crust or a store-bought base. To show this pizza sauce in action, here’s one of my all-time favorite recipes for a spicy pepperoni jalapeño pizza with honey.
- Spread the sauce. Start by schmearing that wonderful pizza sauce over the crust. Use a ladle or spoon to dollop the sauce on top of the crust. Then, use the back to gently spread the sauce into an even layer. Leave a narrow, untouched border around the edges of the crust.
- Add the toppings. Next, add the shredded mozzarella, pepperoni, and slices of jalapeño.
- Into the hot oven it goes. And when I say “hot”, I mean 500° F. This may be your oven’s highest setting. The high temp cooks this pizza to crispy, chewy perfection in just 8 minutes.
- Add honey. When the pizza comes out of the oven, it gets a quick drizzle of honey. This pepperoni-jalapeno-honey combination was inspired by one of my favorite Minnesota restaurants. Their pizzas are famous, and rightfully so!
If jalapenos on pizza don’t sound awesome to you, go ahead and leave them off. But do still drizzle a little honey over that pepperoni pizza. Our kids now request honey on every pepperoni pizza that comes out of the oven!
More Serving Suggestions
You’ll want to use this sauce on more than just pizza! Use it to make pizza rolls and grilled flatbread pizza. I also love it as a dip for cheesy garlic bread. It even doubles as a savory pasta sauce in stuffed shells and lasagna roll-ups!
Make Ahead and Storage
- Refrigerate. This recipe works great to make ahead of time. Simply remove the saucepan from the heat and let the pizza sauce cool to room temperature. Then transfer it to a container with a tight-fitting lid and store it in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Freeze it. To freeze, let the pizza sauce cool to room temperature and then transfer to freezer-safe containers or bags. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months and then thaw in the refrigerator before using.
More Homemade Sauces
The Best Homemade Pizza Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ cup grated yellow or white onion
- 2 large cloves garlic minced
- 15 ounce can of Red Gold Tomato Sauce
- 6 ounce can of Red Gold Tomato Paste
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper
Instructions
- Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add olive oil. Once olive oil is shimmering, stir in onion and garlic. Saute for 2 minutes, or until softened and fragrant, stirring occasionally.
- Add Red Gold tomato sauce and tomato paste, sugar, salt, oregano, basil, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Stir to combine.
- Turn heat up just a bit. Stir occasionally until it is thoroughly warmed, and then reduce heat to low. Let simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every now and then. Remove saucepan from heat.
Use this pizza sauce with my favorite thin crust pizza dough recipe!
Notes
Nutrition Information:
Thank you to Red Gold for sponsoring this post – it has been both an honor and a pleasure to partner with them over the past several years. All opinions are my own.
Awesome pizza sauce. My husband loves it! I didn’t have sauce or paste but did have a large can of puree so used that as a substitute with a like quantity of the two others combined. Came out nice and thick. I love onions in my sauce and my search led me to your recipe.
So glad you liked! Thanks for coming back here to let me know, and to rate the recipe. :)
I put all in a food processor then simmered for 2 hrs. Â I also added 1/2 cup of dry white wine. Â Wow what a fantastic sauce. Â Next time i will make about 2 quarts.
Thanks for introducing me to the Red Gold tomato products. I too have come to rely on their good quality.
Your pizza sauce looks delicious! Can’t wait to sit at your table again and enjoy a pizza with you.
My pantry is well stocked with Red Gold products.
I have mentioned to my family; in order to have a really good pizza, you have got to have a good pizza sauce.
I also grate my onions, not only for the pizza sauce, but for meatballs, hamburgers, meatloaf, etc.
By grating, you get more of that onion flavor; bits of onion as well as the juice of the onion.
When I make pizza sauce, I will make a large batch and put about 1 cup of sauce in freezer safe containers. I just don’t want to be making the sauce every time we want pizza so I always try to keep some stored in the freezer.
Your pizza looks great by the way. This early in the morning it’s making me hungry.
Enjoy your day, as Today Is A Good Day To Have A good Day; so enjoy it & embrace it.
Great