The Perfect Homemade Pizza Sauce ~ Recipe | Queenslee Appétit (2024)

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This Homemade Pizza Sauce is the perfect addition to your homemade pizza. Easy to make and packed with flavour — once you make this sauce, you'll never resort to store bought again!

The Perfect Homemade Pizza Sauce ~ Recipe | Queenslee Appétit (1)

Who doesn't love pizza? I love to order pizza every now and then, but I mostly make it at home because NOTHING compares to homemade pizza! My perfect homemade pizza dough topped with this delicious sauce, along with my favourite toppings makes for the perfect pizza!

The Perfect Homemade Pizza Sauce ~ Recipe | Queenslee Appétit (2)

The Perfect Homemade Pizza Sauce

This sauce is nice and thick. It's the same kind of sauce you put on top of a Chicago style pizza, but I love it so much I had to use it on regular pizzas too! But just because it's called "pizza" sauce, doesn't mean that's all it can be used for. You can use this sauce for dipping breadsticks, topping chicken parm, and more!

Come to think of it, this recipe reminds me of my Homemade Meat Sauce, just without the meat! This is basically a vegetarian friendly sauce you can use in your favourite lasagna or as a spaghetti topping.

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Ingredients for the Perfect Pizza Sauce

This sauce requires 15 ingredients — but don't let that scare you away! These are very basic ingredients that you may have on hand already:

Olive Oil and Butter — this is the base of the sauce. The olive oil is used to cook the onions and spices in, and it's the best type of oil you can have in the sauce. The butter just adds some extra flavour to the entire sauce.

Onion — for this recipe, we don't slice or dice the onions, we grate them. Even tho it's an extra pain in the eyes, it's necessary to add a ton of moisture and flavour to the sauce. I used 1 small onion which yielded about ⅓ cup.

Garlic Cloves — a flavour powerhouse that does great things in this sauce!

Spices — oregano, basil, Italian seasoning, onion powder, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper are all used to season the sauce. Although this is supposed to be the base of a pizza, I still wanted it to be full of flavour.

Tomato Sauce and Tomato Paste — Make sure you choose the best-quality canned tomatoes for the most excellent flavour. When adding the tomatoes, I like to add a little bit of water to the can, swirl it around, and pour it into the sauce. I usually do this to clean the jars completely and get every last bit of tomato in the sauce. Even without the extra water the sauce will be watery, so to thicken it up we’re gonna add a can of tomato paste.

Parmesan Cheese — Yup, you heard right. Or read? Either way, we're gonna add a few tablespoons of parmesan cheese to enrich and thicken the sauce! The flavour is very subtle, but it does wonderful things to the sauce.

Sugar — as with all tomato sauces, we add a tiny bit of sugar to give the sauce a little bit of sweetness and mask the acidity in the tomatoes.

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Time = Flavour

I know a lot of recipes cater to busy people with their "5 minute sauces", but we're not doing that over here. Simmering is what gives a sauce it's amazing flavour! Luckily, instead of simmering for 2 hours like we do in my meat sauce recipe, we only need to simmer this sauce for 30 minutes. We want all the flavours to develop and meld together. Trust me, the extra time will totally be worth it in the end! The simmering also reduces the water and thickens up the sauce. The best part about this is that you can control how thin or thick you want your sauce to be. Thinner sauce = less time, thicker sauce = more time.

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This is enough sauce for about 2-3 large pizzas, or about 3-4 (12-inch) pizzas, depending on how much sauce you like on your pizza. The sauce can be used right away for topping pizzas or stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week or frozen for a few months. To freeze the sauce, allow it to cool completely, then pour it into large re-sealable bags and place in the freezer. Transfer the sauce to the refrigerator to thaw out the night before you plan to make your pizza, then re-heat it on the stove top.

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Planning on Making Homemade Pizza? Give these recipes a try!

The Perfect Homemade Pizza Dough

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Stuffed Crust Pizza

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The Perfect Homemade Pizza Sauce ~ Recipe | Queenslee Appétit (10)

Yield: 2 cups

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

This Homemade Pizza Sauce is the perfect addition to your homemade pizza. Easy to make and packed with flavour — once you make this sauce, you'll never resort to store bought again!

Ingredients

  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • ⅓ cup grated onions (1 small onion)
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely minced
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • ¼ teaspoon onion powder
  • ¼-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 1 (28 ounce) can tomato sauce
  • 1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
  • 3 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon Salt, or to taste
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

Instructions

  1. Add the oil and butter to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the grated onion, minced garlic, oregano, basil, Italian seasoning, onion powder and red pepper flakes, for a little heat (optional). Toss around with a wooden spoon and cook until onions are softened and slightly browned, about 3-5 minutes. Be careful as the garlic can easily burn.
  2. Once the onions are cooked, add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Add a little water to the jars, shake a bit and pour into the pot.
  3. Add parmesan, sugar, salt and pepper. Stir until everything is combined. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes to reduce the water and enhance the flavour. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings to your preference.

Notes

  • The sauce can be used right away for topping pizzas or stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week or frozen for a few months. To freeze the sauce, allow it to cool completely, then pour it into large re-sealable bags and place in the freezer. Transfer the sauce to the refrigerator to thaw out the night before you plan to make a pizza, then re-heat it on the stove top.
  • This is enough sauce for about 2-3 large pizzas, or about 3-4 (12-inch) pizzas, depending on how much sauce you like on your pizza.

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FAQs

When making pizza do you make the sauce or cheese first? ›

Cheese always goes belowthe toppings

You've got your dough as the foundation. Then your sauce. The cheese is the next solid layer. Then your toppings (after all, they're called top-pings and not bottom-ings), and then finally your garnishes like basil, pepper, fresh mozzarella, etc, after the pizza is cooked.

What makes homemade pizza taste better? ›

Cornmeal and olive oil make all the difference

Inspired by the pizza crust often found in delivery pizzas, the publication points to cornmeal as the key to a quality texture and suggests basting the dough with an oil-based spread to enhance the color and flavor.

How to make pizza sauce taste like spaghetti sauce? ›

To turn your pizza sauce into pasta sauce, do the following:
  1. Take your jarred pizza sauce and bring it to a stovetop.
  2. Before turning on the heat, add some pasta water from the boiled pasta.
  3. Add a pinch of sugar and salt until you find the correct balance.
Sep 27, 2021

What is the correct cheese for pizza? ›

Tips for Selecting the Best Cheese for Pizza

Mozzarella, provolone, or Monterey Jack have great meltability. Add aged cheeses like Parmesan or aged cheddar for extra umami and depth of flavor.

Do Italians put cheese on pizza first or last? ›

Italian Pizzas Have Cheese on Top of the Dough.

Authentic Italian pizza has cheese on top of the dough. Pizza dough should be kept refrigerated to achieve this delicious flavor and texture. When preparing toppings, choose fresh buffalo mozzarella, basil, San Marzano tomatoes, and extra virgin olive oil.

What can I add to my pizza sauce to make it taste better? ›

To bring out the flavor in your pizza sauce, you can also use Romano cheese, black pepper, and finely chopped white onion. Be careful in using oregano, which can make the sauce bitter and cause it to go bad in just a few days.

Why does restaurant pizza taste so good? ›

The No. 1 reason restaurant pizza is better than homemade is that they have ovens that can reach 900°F, or even hotter, which makes for perfectly crisp and chewy crusts, with those lovely charred spots, says Kierin Baldwin, chef-instructor of Pastry & Baking Arts at the Institute of Culinary Education.

Is there really a difference between pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce? ›

Although they contain similar ingredients, there is a difference between pasta sauce and pizza sauce. Pizza sauce is prepared with uncooked pureed tomatoes while pasta sauce is made with cooked blended tomatoes and flavorful garlic, herbs, and spices.

What spices make pizza sauce different from spaghetti sauce? ›

Pizza sauce tends to be somewhat simpler in terms of ingredients. While both feature tomatoes in one form or another, a pizza sauce's add-ins are often limited to things like garlic, oregano, basil, and olive oil.

How long to cook homemade pizza at 350 degrees? ›

Bring the sauce to a boil, and then cook for 10 minutes on low heat. Lightly flour a rolling pin, and the surface on which you are opening the dough. Use the rolling pin to stretch the dough out to desired shape. * Bake pizza at 350 degrees; usually cooks in about 20 minutes.

What temperature to cook homemade pizza? ›

Generally, the hotter the oven, the better the pizza will be. The best oven temperature for pizza is between 450 and 500 degrees F (250 to 260 degrees C). Pizza ovens cook at temperatures between 800 and 900 degrees F. You can't get that hot in your home oven, but the higher you can go, the better.

What order do you put ingredients on pizza? ›

In general, the sauce should go on first, then the cheese, then the toppings. This way, the cheese and toppings enjoy the direct heat of the oven, which lets the toppings cook thoroughly while remaining crispy, while the cheese melts, browns, and bubbles.

Can you put pizza sauce on top of cheese? ›

Applying sauce above cheese has some clear benefits. By using the cheese as a barrier between sauce and dough, you can prevent excess moisture from slowing the bake. Tomato also prevents dry cheese from burning.

Do you cook pizza sauce first? ›

Don't Cook the Sauce!

This isn't just for convenience — a no-cook sauce will actually taste better on your pizza, giving you that fresh, zippy tomato flavor, even after it has been baked in a hot oven.

Do you cook pizza sauce before? ›

"Cooking your sauce will make your pizza taste like it was topped with pasta sauce rather pizza sauce. Sauce variants like vodka sauce ought to be cooked, but when it comes to plain pizza sauce, don't cook it when it comes to New York-style pizza."

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