Mary’s Best Pizza Sauce
For all of you craving homemade pizza tonight, my sauce includes a blend of garlic, oregano, and basil, and I promise it's as easy as it is delicious. This easy homemade pizza sauce recipe is perfectly thick, loaded with fresh flavor, and will take your pizza to the next level! Not to mention, it makes for a great dipping sauce on the side of some of my famous garlic knots.
My grandmother always made her pizza sauce from scratch, and trust me, she knew what she was doing! This sauce is a nod to my Italian-American family’s traditions—here’s to keeping them alive! Plus, when you make it yourself, you get to decide how much garlic, basil, and oregano go in. You can make it as herbaceous or garlicky as you like!
History first: Where did pizza come from anyway?
Pizza has a few quintessential components: The flatbread crust, the signature red sauce, and, of course, cheese. Each of these was a precursor to modern pizza in its own right. Flatbreads date back thousands of years, and over 2,500 years ago Persian soldiers were baking them on their shields in the sun (with toppings)! Modern red sauce pizza is believed to have origins in Naples in the 1700s. We also have those same Neapolitan bakers to thank for the pizza dough we know and love today!
The classic Pizza Margherita—with its red sauce, mozzarella, and basil—was created in 1889 to honor Queen Margherita of Savoy. Once you have your sauce mastered, make sure to check out my Margherita Pizza recipe too!
How to Make Pizza Sauce
Making the sauce from scratch is one of the simplest ways to elevate your homemade pizza recipe. It’s all about building layers of flavor with just a few fresh ingredients. The secret to a great sauce is in the quality of your tomatoes, the way you season it, and most importantly, how you simmer it to perfection.
Start with the Right Tomatoes
When it comes to pizza sauce, not all tomatoes are created equal. The best tomatoes for pizza sauce are San Marzano tomatoes, grown in Italy’s volcanic soils. They’re sweeter and less acidic than your average tomato. Their unique flavor profile gives my homemade pizza sauce a richness and depth that’s hard to duplicate. You can find canned San Marzano tomatoes at most grocery stores, and they’re worth seeking out!
Can You Use Pasta Sauce for Pizza?
One question I get asked all the time is: Can I just use pasta sauce on my pizza? Technically, you could, but pizza sauce is typically thicker and more concentrated in flavor than pasta sauce. Pasta sauce, on the other hand, is a bit runnier and often has added ingredients like onions or other vegetables. If you’re in a pinch, you can thicken pasta sauce with some tomato paste, but hear me out: Making your own pizza sauce at home is much easier than you think. Every drop is worth the effort. Once you’ve tried this pizza sauce recipe, you won’t want to use anything else!
What kind of herbs are in pizza sauce?
It definitely has its own distinct flavor, but what exactly does pizza sauce taste like? Well, a good pizza sauce isn’t overloaded with spices. It’s all about balance! The garlic, onion, basil, and oregano in this recipe enhance the natural sweetness of the tomatoes without overwhelming the flavors. You can experiment a little bit with the ratios to find the perfect balance for your taste buds, too!
How Long to Cook Homemade Pizza Sauce
The final step is the simmer. Don’t rush this part. Letting the sauce simmer gently allows the flavors to meld together while thickening the sauce so it spreads easily over your pizza dough. Keep the heat low and stir occasionally to prevent the sauce from burning. How do you know when homemade pizza sauce is done? I go over all those details in the recipe below.
Try this sauce on your own homemade pizza crust.
One more reason to love my homemade pizza sauce recipe is that you can make a big batch and freeze it for later, so you’re always just minutes away from a delicious homemade pizza. Trust me, once you’ve made pizza sauce from scratch, you won’t want to go back to store-bought! Make sure you also try your hand at my family recipe for pizza dough—then you can make all my pizza-themed favorites this Fall!
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Mary’s Best Pizza Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, finely minced
- ¼ cup onion, finely chopped
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- ¼ up tomato puree
- ¼ cup crushed San Marzano or plum tomatoes
- ¾ cup water
- 1 teaspoon fresh chopped basil or ½ teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano or ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- Salt and ground black pepper to taste.
Instructions
- In a saucepan, heat the olive oil on medium. Add the garlic cloves and onion. Reduce heat to low and sauté until softened, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine. Simmer on low heat for approximately 30 minutes until thickened.
- Cool the sauce before using it on a pizza. You don’t want to put it hot on your pizza dough. Once cooled, you can use the sauce immediately or place it in a freezer container for future use.