Homemade Pizza Sauce: Pizzeria-Quality Recipe with Crushed Tomatoes or Tomato Paste (2 Ways)

Pizza sauce plays a crucial role in a pizza’s overall quality, often making the difference between a mediocre and an outstanding pie. The following recipes – whether you choose the crushed tomatoes or tomato paste version – will guide you through a few simple steps to create a sauce that rivals the best pizzerias

Making Pizza Sauce: Introduction

Below are two pizza sauce recipes, each using a different canned tomato product:

• Crushed/ground tomatoes – for a fresh, bright tomato flavor.
• Tomato paste (also labeled ‘tomato sauce’ or ‘tomato concentrate’) – for a deeper, more concentrated taste.

Why Use Canned Tomatoes?

Canned tomatoes – whether crushed, diced, whole, paste or pureed – are the best choice for making pizza sauce. In fact, 99% of pizzerias, including the most renowned ones, use canned tomato products for their sauce.

While it may seem counterintuitive, canned tomatoes are fresher than store-bought ‘fresh’ tomatoes. They are harvested at peak ripeness and canned immediately, preserving their full flavor. In contrast, supermarket and produce stores (greengrocers) tomatoes are typically picked unripe, while still green, and artificially ripened using ethylene gas, resulting in inferior taste.

Making pizza sauce from fresh tomatoes is possible, but unless you grow your own or source them directly from a farmer, canned tomatoes will almost always yield a better pizza sauce.

Choosing the Right Tomato Product (Paste vs Crushed)

Each type of tomato product produces a sauce with a distinct flavor profile:

• Crushed tomato sauce – Light, fresh, and bright, with a taste reminiscent of vine-ripened tomatoes. This is the sauce I recommend.
• Tomato paste sauce – Rich, deep, and intense, with a heavier flavor that lacks the fresh, bright notes of fresh tomatoes.

Most high-quality pizzerias make sauces made from crushed tomatoes, allowing the natural tomato flavor to shine. These sauces are typically minimally seasoned, uncooked, and blend perfectly with the cheese and dough.

Sauces based on tomato paste are more common in chain pizzerias, such as Pizza Hut and Little Caesars. This type of sauce is typically thick, sweet (due to natural tomato sugars), heavily seasoned, and often overpowers the flavors of the cheese and dough.

Which tomato product to use ultimately comes down to personal preference. You can also mix crushed tomatoes with tomato paste to create a custom balance of freshness and richness (however, it’s best to try each sauce on its own first to understand their distinct flavors and find out which you prefer).

Note that both sauce recipes below require no cooking.

Crushed/Ground Tomato-Based Pizza Sauce

A sauce made from crushed tomatoes works for any type of pizza. Canned crushed tomatoes are the foundation of most pizzerias’ pizza sauce, and this is the sauce I recommend.

The recipe below serves as a base sauce, allowing you to adjust the salt and seasoning to your preferences.

The recipe uses 400g (14 oz) of crushed tomatoes (a standard can in most countries), which is enough for 3–5 standard-sized pizzas. Use any crushed tomato product you like (for best results – a high-quality one).

Sauce Ingredients and Quantities

Mandatory Ingredients:

• 1 can of crushed tomatoes (400g / 14 oz)
• ¾ teaspoon of salt – Salt is essential for enhancing the overall flavor, bringing out the natural taste of the tomatoes and other seasonings. Without it, the sauce may taste flat.

Optional Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano or 2–3 fresh basil leaves, chopped or torn by hand. It’s generally not recommended to use both herbs together, as they offer distinct flavor profiles – basil provides a fresher, lighter taste, while oregano offers a deeper, more robust taste.
• ¼ teaspoon of sugar – Optional, depending on the natural sweetness of the tomatoes and your taste preference. Taste the sauce first, and if needed, add sugar gradually.
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 1 medium-large clove of garlic, finely chopped, or about ½ teaspoon of garlic powder. Fresh garlic is highly recommended for a more pronounced garlic flavor, while garlic powder offers a subtler, milder taste. If you enjoy the flavors of raw or cooked garlic, don’t skip this.
• Other seasonings of your choice, such as red pepper flakes, black pepper, or a pinch of onion powder.

Making the Sauce

To make the sauce, simply combine all the ingredients in a bowl, and mix until well blended. That’s it – the sauce is ready. Adjust the salt, sugar, and seasoning to your taste.

For a smoother texture, you can blend the sauce in short pulses using a blender or stick blender, or ideally – pass the sauce through a food mill.

There’s no need to cook the sauce.

Tomato Paste-Based Pizza Sauce

A sauce made from tomato paste has a deeper, stronger, and “heavier” flavor compared to one made from crushed tomatoes. It tends to be less “fresh” and more dominant. 

Many would describe a tomato paste-based sauce as similar to a cooked pasta sauce (which also undergoes concentration through cooking). This type of sauce can easily overpower the flavors of the cheese and dough – for better or worse.

If you prefer a sauce with a strong, bold flavor, similar to that found in American-style chain pizzas (such as Pizza Hut or Little Caesars), this sauce will not disappoint you. It’s also often favored by kids for its sweetness, and can work well as a dipping sauce for pizza.

The recipe below uses 150-170g (6 oz) of tomato paste (a standard can in most countries), which is enough for 3–5 standard-sized pizzas. Use any concentrated tomato product you like (for best results – a high-quality one).

Sauce Ingredients and Quantities

Mandatory Ingredients:

• 1 can of concentrated tomatoes product (150-170g / ~6 oz)
• ¾ teaspoon of salt – Salt is essential for enhancing the overall flavor, bringing out the natural taste of the tomatoes and other seasonings. Without it, the sauce may taste flat.
• A glass of water – To dilute the sauce. You can also substitute tomato juice for water.

Optional Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 1 medium-large clove of garlic, finely chopped, or about ½ teaspoon of garlic powder. Fresh garlic is highly recommended for a more pronounced garlic flavor, while garlic powder offers a subtler, milder taste. If you enjoy the flavors of raw or cooked garlic, don’t skip this.
• Other seasonings of your choice, such as red pepper flakes, black pepper, or a pinch of onion powder.

Making the Sauce

Since tomato paste is very concentrated and thick, it needs to be diluted with water to prevent the sauce from being too thick and overpowering.

To make the sauce:

1. Add the tomato paste and seasoning to a bowl, and mix well.
2. Gradually add water while stirring.
3. Start by adding half a cup of water, then gradually add more until you reach your desired consistency.

The final texture and flavor of the sauce depend on your preferences:

• Adding less water will create a thicker sauce with a stronger, more robust flavor.
• Adding more water will produce a thinner sauce with a milder flavor.

Before adding more water, taste the sauce to ensure the flavor remains strong enough for your liking, as additional water will dilute the flavors.

Again, there’s no need to cook the sauce, as it’s already very concentrated.

How Much Sauce is Needed for One Pizza (Calculating Sauce Quantity)

For a standard-sized pizza (30-32 cm or about 12 inches), the typical amount of sauce is between 80-100 grams, or roughly 4-5 standard tablespoons.

To calculate the amount of sauce for a specific pizza type or size, you can use PizzaBlab’s cheese and sauce calculator, which will help you determine the exact quantity based on your pizza’s type and size.

Advanced Pizza Sauce: In-Depth Guide

If you’d like to explore pizza tomato sauce in greater depth, refer to Tomato Sauce for Pizza: A Complete, Advanced Guide [In-Depth Overview & Practical Tips] (recommended).