
There’s nothing like homemade pizza—being able to choose exactly which ingredients you want on your pizza, adding just the right amount of cheese, cooking it until the crust is crispy or soft. Making your own sauce is just another way of personalizing your pizza. Sure, it’s easy to pick a can of pizza sauce off the grocery store shelf, but the list of ingredients is generally either long and confusing or disgusting. It is so quick and easy to make your own sauce. Let me show you how!

Here’s what you’ll need: tomato paste, olive oil, dried oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, maple syrup, red wine, and water.

Put the tomato paste in a small saucepan.

Add the olive oil …

Oregano …

Onion powder …

Garlic powder …

Salt …

Maple syrup …

Red wine …

And water.

Whisk it all together with a fork.

Bring to a boil and simmer a few minutes.

And there you have it! The quickest, yummiest homemade pizza sauce ever. Don’t quote me on that.

Notes:
1. If you don’t have any tomato paste on hand, you can substitute 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of tomato puree or tomato sauce for the tomato paste and water. If using sauce, you may need to adjust the other seasonings.
2. Looking for a pizza crust recipe? Check out my Whole Wheat Pizza Dough recipe. You can also find the pizza dough printable recipe on Tasty Kitchen.
3. Want to learn how to grill pizza? Check out my step-by-step instructions.
And here’s the link to this printable recipe:
Homemade Pizza Sauce
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Erica Berge shares her wonderful recipes and amazing food photography on her blog, Cooking for Seven. She also writes about crafts and posts more of her beautiful photography in her personal blog, EricaLea.com. There really isn’t much that this amazing young lady can’t do, and we’re thrilled she does some of it here.









mary ann on Wednesday, July 27
Thanks for this recipe - I'll try it soon. My husband has mentioned a few times in this last month that he'd like for us to try making our own pizza, so this comes just in time. May your new marriage be a long and happy one. You 2 make a great looking couple! I liked your m-i-l's advice that you should keep cooking for 7. :D1
blume on Wednesday, July 27
Do you know how long I can keep that for - in a glass jar like pictured? Thank you.2
Tabitha (From Single to Married) on Wednesday, July 27
Now this is a recipe I need to keep handy! Looks amazing!3
Allyn on Wednesday, July 27
Love it! The maple syrup is an interesting addition. I always add a little sugar to my tomato based sauces anyway. Hooray for marriage! We're getting married in 10 days!4
Michelle on Wednesday, July 27
Wow! Seriously so easy. Why did it take me so long to wrap my head around homemade sauce? I make pizza dough at least twice a week, now I can whip up the sauce too. I usually just use olive oil which totally works out.5
Amy L on Wednesday, July 27
I usually do make my own sauce, but I'm always looking for more variations and methods. And how perfect - I still have half of your pizza dough recipe in the fridge after making your grilled veggie pizza last night (which was so amazingly good and I raved about it all over Facebook - with photos! I think I was channeling you a bit, PW). I am off to check out your grilled pizza info - only drawback about pizza in the summer is a 500° oven in the house, so grilling would be great!6
CC in NJ on Wednesday, July 27
Going to have to try it...it looks so good and simple! Thank You!7
natalie on Wednesday, July 27
Yum! I cant wait to try that. I attempted my own version of tomato sauce which I ended up calling tomato "sauce" since it didn't really come out like I had planned (but still delicious!). http://blackbirdideas.com/2011/07/12/gnocchi-with-homemade-tomato-sauce/8
Laura W. on Wednesday, July 27
With 3 young boys, who will eventually be able to eat an entire pizza themselves, this will be a lifesaver!! Thank you, thank you!9
AngelaRae on Wednesday, July 27
I wonder if this could be made into bigger batches and canned so I could have just the right amount needed each time we make homemade pizza. Those 1/2 pint canning jars look to be about the perfect amount for a couple pizzas. Love this idea. I'm going to have to give it a try. Thank you Erica!10
ceegee on Wednesday, July 27
Thanks Erica! I've found a pizza dough recipe we absolutely love....and yeah, I'm guilty of grabbing the jar off the grocery store shelf. Can't WAIT to try this one-quick and easy and it looks so good. Carol11
Dream Big on Wednesday, July 27
How long will this sauce keep for? Can you freeze it? Can't wait to try it :o)12
Tricia in Washington on Wednesday, July 27
It looks yummy. My 14 yr son loves to make pizza, dough and all. He will be trying this one next. Thanks13
Mrs C on Wednesday, July 27
I absolutely love making homemade pizzas but the one thing I have never done is the pizza sauce! This recipe looks delicious and I cannot wait to try it out!!! Add a little glass of wine to the mix and I am good to go! www.MrsCapretta.com14
The Mrs @ Success Along the Weigh on Wednesday, July 27
Wow, that looks amazing and I have all the ingredients on hand. Might have to do this on some naan tomorrow night! YUM!15
jojo0676 on Wednesday, July 27
AngelaRae, I'm wondering the same thing. I would love to can a big batch!16
Heather of Kitchen Concoctions on Wednesday, July 27
Nothing beats homemade pizza! I love that this sauce is so simple and can be whipped up in just a few minutes! I think though that I would use honey in place of the maple syrup since it is a pantry staple for me.17
warmvanillasugar on Wednesday, July 27
This sauce sounds lovely! I really like adding a sweetness to my sauce as well. Yum!18
D'Lynn Ewing on Wednesday, July 27
This looks so yummy and easy too! Can't wait to try it. Maybe this weekend.19
Kerrie K on Wednesday, July 27
I also am wondering what is the shelf life in the freezer.20
Debbie J. on Wednesday, July 27
Wow.....it's a one of those light bulb moments for me...... I need to put my home made pizza sause in those little tiny jars too!!!! I usually can it in half pint jars, and that means that I will have to make pizza pretty soon.....cause half pint jars make two batches of pizza at our house. I have often had to throw out the second half of the jar....because we didn't want to eat pizza again so soon. Why didn't I think of that??!? Thanks for a great idea!!! I will give your sauce recipe a try as well.....it seems pretty close to mine, except some of my people object to the wine flavor.21
Erica Lea on Wednesday, July 27
<b>blume and Dream Big:</b> I'm not sure how long the sauce will keep, but I think it would be good for a few days in the refrigerator. I'm sure it would freeze well, too. We usually use up all of the sauce when we make pizza, so we don't have to store it long!22
Skuba on Wednesday, July 27
One more benefit to making your own you control the quality. After our go to sauce changed their recipie again and not for the better, we started making our own. We use honey in ours instead of maple syrup as well as red peper flake.23
Kerrie K on Wednesday, July 27
Whoa Skuba that is amazing tweeking honey and red pepper flakes....gotta give that one a whirl24
Amanda W. on Wednesday, July 27
I love the idea of homemade sauce to go w/ my homemade crust (that we love!) Is there something you can substitute for the red wine? Thanks for a great recipe!!25
Erica Lea on Wednesday, July 27
<b>Amanda W.:</b> If you don't like to use red wine, you can just leave it out. I think the added flavor is wonderful, though.26
Bev Weidner on Wednesday, July 27
I could SO stick my face in that. Right this second. Good. Grief.27
Lane on Wednesday, July 27
Looks great! I always have all of these items on hand. Definitely will make next pizza night.28
Melinda on Wednesday, July 27
I have to tell you I LOVE the pizza crust recipe in your cookbook, it doubles, triples, quadruples ........ and still works fabulous! I've made it on foil pizza pans, professional pizza pans ( I have a friend in the 'biz"), on the grill, in the oven, foil cake pans (no kidding) and the dough always works! So, thanks!29
Rivki Locker (Ordinary Blogger) on Wednesday, July 27
What a super simple pizza sauce. I can't wait to try this (once the weather is cool enough to start using my oven again!).30
SusanP in ON on Thursday, July 28
I'll have to give this a try, it looks good. I have only ever used regular old spaghetti sauce! Doesn't anyone else use that?31
Jennifer on Thursday, July 28
My tomatoes are not surviving the Kansas drought and heatwave. Wish I had some to use to make this lovely sauce!32
Ann T on Thursday, July 28
Same questions as another commenter, can this be made as a large batch and canned using a hot water bath. I guess it all depends on the pH. Perhaps I should just make a batch and check the pH of it.33
Cindy K on Thursday, July 28
If you have the time use real tomatoes and boil them down, it is fabulous for pizza sauce. You just need a lot of them! Well worth the time and effort.34
lisa' on Thursday, July 28
I so wanna can some of this "Goodness"!! ASAP!!!!35
Wenderly on Thursday, July 28
I can just smell all of that gorgeous deliciousness right through my screen. Absolutely stunning!36
Sandy on Thursday, July 28
My daughter in law sent me your web site. I live on an acre (large yard) We have a huge garden and lots of fruit trees, so I have made apricot, blackberry, plum jam and tomato sauce you can freeze, pickles, zucchini relish, and I have a great recipe for zucchini bread. Thanks for a great web site. Sandy37
Jack Parker on Thursday, July 28
Now that's a unique pizza sauce! Very creative and I will definitely try it because I'm very curious about the flavor combinations! When I lived in Italy, an old italian woman taught me how to make "molto buona" (very good) pizza sauce. (She also taught me how to duck quickly when I saw her hand flying at my head because I'd ask a "domanda stupida" - stupid question!) There are apparently three secrets to it: 1) Simplicity. Very few ingredients are needed. 2) Pick the finest tomatoes possible. San Marzano or Muir Glen Fire Roasted are superb. 3) Most importantly, do not cook/simmer your sauce! Combine the ingredients, let it rest so the flavors can marry, and the cooking of the sauce is done in the oven with the rest of the pizza. It really does make for a very fresh tasting sauce.38
Alyssa on Friday, July 29
This looks awesome! I was surprised to see maple syrup on the list of ingredients. I was wondering--is that real maple syrup? I'm a native Vermonter, and we take our syrup very seriously. :P No fake stuff for us. I know there's a difference in sweetness and taste between the two, so I was just wondering.39
Erica Lea on Friday, July 29
<b>Alyssa:</b> Yes, that is definitely real maple syrup! We "harvest" our own maple syrup. I agree: only the real stuff is good enough. The cheap imitation stuff makes me want to gag. ;)40
Elaine on Sunday, July 31
I'd like to know about the canning as well--water bath??41
Shelby B on Tuesday, August 2
I made this last night and it was super easy and delish, plus I had everything on hand. I used fresh garlic instead of garlic powder and fresh basil in place of the dried oregano. I went creative on the toppings and topped with shrimp I marinated in chilies in adobo sauce, EVOO, fresh garlic, salt and pepper then grilled. I also added cashews, craisins and lots of fresh mozzarella. My husband added jalapenos and onions on his half. We will definitely be making this again- both the sauce and the crazy-delicious topping combo!42
Elizabeth Cully Prociw on Friday, August 5
I made this recipe last night, and it brought raves from my husband!43
Daryn Bridwell on Monday, November 14
This sauce is amazing, I quadrupled the recipe and froze in 1/2 pint jars in august. we just finished the last jar so I made another batch (x4) while the pizza was cooking, I didn't want to be without!44