Pizza Sauce recipe (3 versions)

A good pizza sauce recipe is essential for an excellent homemade pizza. This recipe contains three options: my go-to super speedy one (2 minutes), a fresh bright one and a rich New York style pizza sauce.

Add your favourite toppings, and healthy dose of cheese then pop it in the oven!

No yeast? No worries! Make this Magic No Yeast Pizza Dough.

Pizza Sauce recipe

To be completely honest, you can get away with just using plain tomato paste with a pinch of salt and pepper as a pizza sauce. Once you pile on cheese and other toppings, it’s still completely scoffable.

However, it really is worth taking a bit of time to make a great pizza sauce! It’s just tastier, it has more flavour and is less harsh than plain tomato paste.

Here are the 3 pizza sauces I use – choose the one that suits your needs, best matches the pizza topping you are using or that you have the ingredients for.

1. Instant Pizza Sauce (my go-to) – made with tomato paste, no cook. This is the one I use most often because it pairs so well with strong flavoured toppings that I enjoy – such as pepperoni, prosciutto and rocket, Meat Lovers’, Supreme. Tastes like store bought Leggo’s pizza sauce (minus the preservatives). Excellent all rounder;

2. Fresh and Bright – made with Tomato Passata, no cook. This is ideal for classic Italian pizzas and lighter toppings (like spring vegetables). It’s a classic Italian style pizza sauce; and

3. New York Pizza Sauce – made with canned tomato, simmered slowly for an hour to cook out the excess water, this one is richly flavoured and is essentially the “all out” version of the Instant Pizza Sauce. I make this if I’m trying to impress friends!

How much pizza sauce to use

Use 1/4 cup of sauce for each 30cm / 12″ pizza.

Spread it evenly across the pizza base (hopefully homemade!) using the back of a spoon, leaving a 1cm / 1/2″ border for the crust.

Sprinkle with 130g / 4.5 oz mozzarella cheese then toppings of choice – here are our Favourite Pizza Topping recipes.

Bake per the directions in this Homemade Pizza recipe or the Magic No Yeast Pizza Dough recipe. Devour immediately upon removal from oven!! – Nagi x

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Pizza Sauces

Author: Nagi

Prep: 5 mins

Mains

Italian, Western

4.91 from 21 votes

Servings4 pizzas

Tap or hover to scale

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Pick the one that suits your needs to make homemade pizza! (No Yeast pizza dough here)

Instant Pizza Sauce - An intense flavour with the signature tang of tomato paste which compliments rich / intense flavoured pizza toppings. Tastes like Leggos pizza sauce sold at the stores. I use this the most often - personal taste and sheer convenience.

Fresh and Bright - A lighter, fresher pizza sauce thanks to the addition of passata. Ideal for more delicate toppings like margherita, vegetable pizzas and most classic Italian pizzas.

New York Pizza Sauce - A richly flavoured New York-style pizza sauce. Based on this recipe from Serious Eats.

Ingredients

Instant Pizza Sauce:

• ▢ 1 cup tomato paste , unsalted (Note 1)
• ▢ 1 tsp salt (Note 1)
• ▢ 2 tsp white sugar
• ▢ 2 tsp olive oil
• ▢ 2 tsp garlic , finely minced (optional)
• ▢ 2 tbsp water
• ▢ 1/2 tsp EACH dried parsley , basil and oregano (optional)

Fresh and Bright Pizza Sauce:

• ▢ 1 cup tomato passata (Note 2)
• ▢ 1 tbsp tomato paste
• ▢ 1 tsp salt
• ▢ 2 tsp sugar
• ▢ 1 tbsp olive oil

New York Pizza Sauce:

• ▢ 2 tbsp olive oil
• ▢ 1 onion (small), finely chopped
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic grated or finely chopped
• ▢ 800g / 28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
• ▢ 1 tsp dried oregano
• ▢ 3/4 tsp salt
• ▢ 1 tsp sugar

Instructions

Instant Pizza Sauce:

• Combine ingredients and mix well.

Fresh and Bright Pizza Sauce:

• Combine ingredients and mix well

New York Pizza Sauce:

• Heat oil in a heavy-based, medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and sautee until onions are soft but not coloured.
• Add tomatoes, oregano, salt and sugar. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced by half (about 1 hour). You will need to stir more frequently towards the end to stop the sauce catching
• Leave to cool before using.

Using pizza sauce:

• Use 1/4 cup of pizza sauce for each pizza (30cm/12" wide).
• Place raw pizza crust on a pizza pan (preferably with holes). Spread sauce evenly using the back of a spoon, leaving a 1cm / 1/2" border for the crust.
• Cover with toppings of choice (less is more!). Standard pizza - sprinkle with 130g / 4.5 oz freshly shredded mozzarella cheese, then 1 cup toppings such as sliced pepperoni. (See this post for pizza topping recipes)
• Bake in preheated 275°C / 530°F oven on top shelf for 10 minutes, rotating at 4 minutes, until cheese has golden specks and crust is crisp. (See this homemade pizza recipe for full cooking directions, or this NO YEAST Pizza Dough recipe)

Recipe Notes:

1. Tomato paste -  It's common to find tomato paste with salt already added (check the ingredients label). If your tomato paste has salt already, reduce the salt quantity to 1/2 tsp.

2. Tomato passata -  pureed, strained pure tomatoes, sometimes labelled Tomato Puree in the US (here's a photo of Mutti Tomato Passata sold at Walmart). Readily available in Australian supermarkets nowadays, alongside pasta sauces. 

Storage and leftovers - all 3 will keep for at least 5 days in the fridge, or freeze in portion sizes for 3 months. Leftover Fresh & Bright and New York-Style sauces make great pasta sauces! Add any ingredients you like or use as-is.

Nutrition for Instant Pizza Sauce, per pizza.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 82cal (4%)Carbohydrates: 14g (5%)Protein: 3g (6%)Fat: 3g (5%)Saturated Fat: 1g (6%)Sodium: 518mg (23%)Potassium: 664mg (19%)Fiber: 3g (13%)Sugar: 9g (10%)Vitamin A: 999IU (20%)Vitamin C: 15mg (18%)Calcium: 26mg (3%)Iron: 2mg (11%)

Keywords: pizza sauce

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