Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce
Making my own pizza sauce from scratch means opening a can of tomato sauce, sprinkle in a little Italian seasoning, a pinch of sugar and maybe a pinch of red pepper flakes if I’m feeling a little crazy. I have since upgraded my recipe to adding garlic powder… I know… fancy.
But on Friday I opened up my pantry to get started on making homemade pizzas and I realized I forgot to buy the dang tomato sauce. Dun… dun.. dunnnn!
{On that note… what’s wrong with me? I always manage to forget something at the grocery store… and I even make a list! Riddle me that one folks.}
Back to my story…
*Gasp!* I only had tomato paste. I had to get creative so I scoured my entire kitchen, including pantry and fridge *wink* “Chopped-style” and whipped up what is probably my favorite pizza sauce to date. Okay so this one is right up there with that roasted red pepper pizza sauce I found last year. Both are equally fantastic in two totally different ways.
While I was on my hunt for ingredients I found a jar of sun-dried tomato in my fridge… I thought that it couldn’t hurt to add these pups in, so I scooped out 8 or so and minced them up. The rest is pretty typical stuff… garlic, oregano, basil, onion, salt and black pepper… but while I was putting the jar of sun-dried tomatoes back in the fridge… I found wine. And you know how I feel about cooking with wine… {I feel like drinking the bottle… that’s what!}
Start by heating up a 10 inch skillet over moderate heat. Once hot, throw in the minced onions…
Grab that garlic press and squeeze in two cloves of garlic.
Give all that a stir and cook until starting to soften.
Add in the minced sun-dried tomatoes… this gives the whole sauce a delicious depth of flavor.
Stirrrr…
Next add in the dried basil and oregano.
Stir and let the heat and oil soften the herbs a bit.
Then hit it with the one-two and pour in four tablespoons of white wine. Use your favorite. {don’t like wine? then go on ahead and just use water}!
Let that simmer and reduce by half.
Plop in the tomato paste…
And pour in the cup of water.
Switch over to a whisk so you don’t potentially ruin that purrrty wooden spoon of yours.
Whisk and reduce the temp to medium-low and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
Season with kosher salt and black pepper and it’s finished!
This sauce is thick and luscious and is absolutely amazing!
Because as you know: there’s pizza sauce and then there’s PIZZA SAUCE.
Now you didn’t think I’d leave you hanging and post a recipe for pizza sauce and not show you what pizza I used it with, did you?
This here pizza is one you’ll like! It’s got this homemade pizza dough topped with “the sauce”, then I topped it with crumbled and cooked Italian sausage, copious amounts of freshly grated mozzarella cheese, crumbled bacon, red onion and if this pizza isn’t insane already… I then sprinkled grated Parmesan over top. Oh. Yes. I. Did!
Bake it at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I rotate my pans AND for the last 10 minutes of baking I put it on the lower rack in my oven, to crisp the bottom.
Make the sauce… make the pizza {and we’ll high-five afterwards}!
Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce
This isn't your average pizza sauce. It's loaded with sun-dried tomatoes, fresh onion and garlic... oh and wine!
Yield: 1 cup
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Total Time: 25-30 minutes
Ingredients:
FOR THE PIZZA SAUCE:
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1/2 cup minced White Onion
2 cloves Garlic, pressed through a garlic press
2 tablespoons minced Sun-dried Tomatoes {that were packed in olive oil}
2 teaspoons Dried Oregano
1-1/2 teaspoon Dried Basil
1/4 cup White Wine {like Pinot Grigio}
1 {6 ounce} can of Tomato Paste
1 cup Water
2 pinches of Kosher Salt
1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper
FOR THE PIZZA:
1 recipe for my Homemade Pizza Dough {link in post}
1 recipe for Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce {above}
2 Italian Sausage Links, skin removed, crumbled and cooked
5 strips Applewood Bacon, chopped and cooked
3-4 cups Freshly Grated Mozzarella Cheese
1 small Red Onion, sliced super thin
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
Directions:
TO MAKE THE SAUCE:
Heat a large {10 inch} skillet over moderate heat. Add in olive oil and when hot, add in the minced onion and garlic. Stir until soft.
Now add in the minced sun-dried tomatoes, dried oregano and basil and stir. The oil and the heat of the pan will soften up the dried herbs.
Pour in the 4 tablespoons of white wine and let that simmer until reduced by half.
Add in the entire can {6 ounces} of tomato paste and the cup of water. Switch over to a wire whisk and stir until combined. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the sauce for 15 minutes before seasoning with kosher salt and black pepper.
Pour in to a jar to cool and store in the fridge for a week, or use right away!
Makes about 1 cup
TO MAKE THE PIZZA:
Split and spread the prepared dough among two lightly oiled sheet pans.
Spread desired amount of sauce among both pizzas. Divide the cooked sausage and sprinkle it on top of each pizza along with the grated Mozzarella, bacon, red onion and Parmesan Cheese.
Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, rotating the pans so the top and bottoms brown and crisp evenly. Let cool before slicing and serving.
{makes two medium thin crust or one large pizza}
Over the past few years I’ve been on a mission to find and create recipes that I can make from scratch. I hope you enjoy the recipes on this blog as they are tried and true from my kitchen to yours! (
What a different take on pizza sauce, I like it.
Wine in pizza sauce? Genius if you ask me!
As if the sauce wasn’t enough…those pizza toppings are my favs!
Love this, Laurie! Homemade pizza is a favorite in my house!
simplyscratch replied: — February 19th, 2013 @ 8:20 am
Ours too Cassie, we make it all the time!
Now THAT is one mofo of a sauce. Llllllick.
simplyscratch replied: — February 19th, 2013 @ 9:15 pm
I just spat out my water when I read this! HAHA!
That sauce looks kick ass! I love making homemade sauces and condiments and you never fail to deliver great recipes.
Beautiful photos! I feel like I can smell the sauce through my screen. Also I want to shove that entire pizza into my face. Truth.
simplyscratch replied: — February 19th, 2013 @ 8:14 am
Thanks Stephanie!
Oh this does sound amazing – so flavourful!
You are adorable. And now I’m pretty sure I’m making pizza for dinner. That is all.
I hate when I look into my pantry and realize I don’t have an ingredient I need! This sauce sounds wonderful and full of flavors!
This pizza sauce looks great! I never would think to use tomato paste! It would be great on my cauliflower crust pizza!
http://www.theluckypennyblog.com/2013/02/the-best-cauliflower-crust-pizza.html
This. Looks. Amazing.
And perfectly timed for me… I’ve been thinking about how I’d make my own pizza sauce for a while. I’m trying to avoid cans of anything but I have some tomatoes I canned myself last fall. Thinking about reducing them to a paste myself but it might be more effort than it’s worth, wish me luck!! Whether it works or not, at least I have a recipe to go by. Thanks!!
simplyscratch replied: — February 19th, 2013 @ 8:13 am
I totally get the whole can thing… but I usually buy organic canned paste and I feel better about it
I absolutely love the sound of this pizza sauce! I think pizza is going to be on the menu at our house very soon!
We actually tried your homemade pizza dough a few days ago when we made pizza for dinner. It was amazing! Can’t wait to try this sauce recipe next week!
simplyscratch replied: — February 19th, 2013 @ 8:12 am
That’s awesome! Glad you liked it Aly!
I love how you made this with tomato paste! It looks great! I always try to set aside small containers for pizza whenever I make my sauce, but sometimes I run out and don’t have all of my normal sauce ingredients. This is so clever!
Amazing! So much better than the storebought stuff.
simplyscratch replied: — February 19th, 2013 @ 9:16 pm
Thank you Meg!
This looks DELISH!!
Love making homemade pizza sauce…it’s sooo much better than the store bought kind! This one looks like a definite “must try” Laurie! Love the sun-dried tomatoes in it…looks like I’ve got a new way to spice up pizza night this week!:)
Wow – that is a seriously killer sauce recipe!
This looks great. I always just use my homemade tomato sauce but this has a little kick to it. Will have to try it soon. Love all your recipes.
simplyscratch replied: — February 19th, 2013 @ 9:16 pm
Thank you Kathy!
We are always eating homemade pizza! I’ll have to try this sauce on the next one!
Stunning sauce! I have 1 hour homemade dough that this would be perfect on! I love the sundried tomatoes in it!
Ohhh the sauce!! With the sun-dried tomatoes! All over a cheeeeesy, poofy crust pizza! I can be so lazy about pasta sauces and your recipe looks simple to make and so tasty!
We make homemade pizza every Friday night and you would not believe how often I forget to buy tomato paste. I think I just assume I will obviously remember to grab a can since we make it every week… and yet more often than I would like to admit, I have totally forgotten it, haha! Anyway, this sauce looks absolutely delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Such a lovely sauce – it looks so rich and flavorful! I bet the aroma is amazing, too!
How easy! I’ll definitely be making my own pizza sauce from here on out!
Well I bet this homemade sauce takes homemade pizza to the next level – yum! It looks and sounds incredible!
I came here looking for a homemade pizza sauce recipe, and I leave with an utterly fantastic kick for my next pizza. I never thought of adding wine. Yum, thank you for the idea!
I just made this and loved it! No leftover pizza in this house tonight. I added about 1/3 cup of finely chopped fresh spinach because I love hiding it in anything and everything.
AWESOME! So glad I found your blog! Google was good to me when I searched “pizza sauce recipe using tomato paste”
I always eye ball and it always turns out different…..SO I will have a great reference to use now! And the Chopped reference….LOVE IT! My hubby says ,”Ok, lets see how good you are, I pick out the ingredietns and you see what you can make….” HAHA!