Homemade Pizza Sauce

Making delicious pizza at home is not difficult at all, as long as all of the components you use are equally well made and delicious. I recently came across a great recipe for pizza dough and shared it with you on my recent post for game day pizza, where we made a white pizza without tomato sauce but with some incredible toppings that made it so memorable that I am still getting compliments from it! Today, I cooked for one of my neighbors who recently had ankle surgery. Her son was visiting from college, so I thought I would make pizza again, after all, who doesn’t love a great homemade pizza? I really loved how the crust turned out last time, so I was going to definitely start using that as my go to recipe.

This time it was going to be something more traditional since her two teenagers were going to be home for dinner. They all wanted a traditional pepperoni pizza, so with this request, I had to make my super easy recipe for delicious homemade pizza sauce. I don’t use any of that canned or jarred stuff, not even in a pinch. I will always make my own because it’s easy and delicious.

I prefer to use crushed tomatoes in this recipe because I love the thick texture it gives to the final product. If you prefer to use something thinner, you can use 1 small can of tomato paste along with 2 1/2 cups of water instead. I make a batch of this which comes out to about 3 cups, and whatever I don’t use I just freeze. This recipe can serve double duty as a great dipping sauce for fried calamari, homemade mozzarella sticks, grilled or breaded vegetables or just about anything that needs that extra something…try it, you will definitely thank me for this one.

Pizza Sauce (makes 3 cups)

1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz)

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

1 ½ teaspoons onion powder

3 tablespoons dried oregano

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons sugar

½ teaspoon paprika

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 bay leaf

3 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese

**Use crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper for a zesty sauce

Add all of the above ingredients except the parmesan cheese to a medium sized pot and cook on low heat for about 10-15 minutes. If you would like to make this a zesty sauce, add your choice of dried peppers. Right before it has finished cooking, add the grated parmesan cheese and pour into another bowl and set aside to cool. Finished pizza below (16”) used 1cup of sauce. Do not add too much sauce or your toppings may come sliding off. You can always serve extra on the side.

Tagged as: dipping sauce for fried calamari, dipping sauce for mozzarella sticks, How to make homemade pizza sauce