Pizza Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes
Updated: September 5, 2026, By Swasthi Shreekanth
Make this flavor-packed Pizza Sauce with fresh tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and herbs. It is easy to make, tastes delicious and has zero additives like the store-bought. We have been enjoying pizza more often ever since I started making this homemade classic Pizza Sauce because it’s incredibly tasty with deep flavors.
Like me if you believe a good pizza sauce is essential for a rich and perfectly baked pizza, give this recipe a try. It’s not sweet, or too acidic like a lot of store bought versions because this recipe uses best seasonal tomatoes.
About Pizza Sauce
Traditional pizza sauce recipes call for scoring the skin of tomatoes with a knife before plunging them in a pot of boiling water, followed by dipping in ice cold water to loosen the skin. They are later deseeded, to separate only the pulp and simmer it.
Somehow I feel that’s a lot of work so I always puree the fresh pulpy tomatoes in a blender and cook down the sauce with olive oil and garlic. Later finish with the dried herbs. My recipe bypasses the method of scoring, blanching, peeling and deseeding the tomatoes, saving a lot of time.
My Pizza Sauce is thicker & has deeper flavors due to a longer simmer. This not only goes well on all kinds of Pizzas but it can also be used to make a baked pasta dish, use it to make a dipping sauce for cheese sticks, bread sticks, garlic bread and veg puffs.
Ingredients & Substitutes
- Tomatoes: Start with fresh pulpy seasonal tomatoes as they are richer in flavor. Varieties like plum or roma have less juices and more pulp making them the best for this pizza sauce. However if you happen to use very juicy tomatoes instead of the pulpy, scoop out the juices and seeds before blending. This will cut down your cook time and will yield you better flavor. Substituting with canned whole tomatoes is alright if that’s what you have in hand.
- Garlic: Freshly chopped garlic cloves add more depth of flavors to this pizza sauce. Using dried garlic won’t yield the same flavors but you may still use if that’s your only option.
- Red Chili Flakes add color, pungent flavors and mild heat to the sauce. You may play with the quantities and adjust to your preference.
- Olive oil is used to saute garlic and bring out the flavors. Please do not use any other oil. You can use extra virgin olive oil or regular whatever you have.
- Seasoning like salt and a small amount of sugar is used to balance out the acidity of tomatoes.
- Herbs : You may use fresh or dried basil. I also use dried oregano.
- Black pepper adds pungent flavors and heat which are not too strong.
Expert Tips
- If you want to thicken your pizza sauce faster, you may add ¼ cup of tomato paste while simmering
- Make an instant no-cook pizza sauce by mixing ¼ cup tomato paste with 1½ tablespoons olive oil, salt, garlic powder, black pepper and chili flakes to your taste preference. To cut down the acidity add a dash of maple syrup or honey.
Photo Guide
How to make Pizza Sauce (stepwise photos)
1. Rinse and dice 500 grams tomatoes (1.1 pounds). Add them to a blender.
2. Make a smooth puree.
3. Heat a heavy bottom pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When the oil becomes hot, stir in ¾ tablespoon finely chopped garlic.
4. Fry the garlic for a minute or two until it turns fragrant. Stir in ½ to 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes (optional).
5. Lower the heat and let the chilli flakes fry in the oil for 30 seconds.
6. Pour the tomato puree and stir.
7. Quickly cover the pan as it begins to splash. Cook for about 15 minutes until the tomato puree turns slightly thick.
8. Next add 1 teaspoon sugar & ½ to ¾ teaspoon salt. Sugar helps to balance the flavors.
9. Add ¼ to ½ teaspoon black pepper, ½ teaspoon oregano and ½ to ¾ teaspoon basil. You can add more herbs to your liking.
10. Give a good mix and continue to simmer until pizza sauce cooks down to a thick yet spreading consistency. This takes another 5 minutes. Turn off the stove. Taste test and add more salt if required.
Cool it before spreading on your homemade pizza base.
Cool this completely and store in an air tight clean dry glass jar. It keeps good for 2 weeks in the refrigerator & for 3 months in the freezer.
Faqs
Pizza sauce keeps good in the fridge for 2 weeks if stored well in a clean dry glass jar. For better shelf life use dry spoons. For longer storage it can be frozen.
No both are different. The consistency of pizza sauce is thicker than that of pasta sauce. However you may toss your pasta in pizza sauce and add some pasta cooked stock to help coat your pasta well with the sauce.
Yes you can freeze pizza sauce for 3 months. To retain the maximum flavors and taste, cool it right away after cooking and store it in a freezer safe glass containers and freeze it. You can also freeze in ice cube trays until set, remove and store in a glass container.
Add nothing but simmer longer to evaporate most of the liquid in the tomatoes. This also develops a deeper & richer flavor & thickens your pizza sauce.
You don’t need tomato paste to make pizza sauce, though it gives a much deeper flavor. Just puree fresh pulpy tomatoes and cook them down until the sauce becomes thick.
Related Recipes
This post was first published in March 2014. Updated in September 2026.
Recipe Card
Pizza Sauce Recipe with Fresh Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 500 grams (1.1 pounds) grams tomatoes (ripe or 2 cups fresh tomato puree)
- ½ to 1 teaspoon red chili flakes (adjust to taste)
- ¾ tablespoon garlic fine chopped or minced
- 2 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
- ⅓ to ½ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
- 1 teaspoon sugar (to balance the flavors)
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ to ¾ teaspoon dried basil (or 2 tbsps fine chopped fresh basil)
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed black pepper
Method
- Rinse tomatoes under running water and dice them. Puree them in a blender.
- Heat oil in a pot and add finely chopped garlic. Saute for 1 to 2 minutes until garlic becomes aromatic.
- Then add red chilli flakes if using and give a quick mix.
- Pour the tomato puree and stir. Cover immediately and cook on a medium to low heat until the sauce thickens slightly. This takes about 15 mins.
- Stir in between to prevent the tomatoes from burning. Be careful as the sauce splashes. You may turn down the heat and stir.
- Then add salt, sugar, oregano, black pepper and basil. Mix and continue to cook for another 5 mins, until the sauce becomes thick. When it is done you will see traces of oil on the sides and top.
- Turn off and add more salt if needed. Cool this completely and store in an air tight glass jar.
- Pizza sauce keeps good in the refrigerator for 2 weeks and for 3 months when frozen.
Notes
- I prefer to add the herbs after the sauce is half cooked. If you prefer to add in earlier you may add them along with the red chilli flakes.
- Nutritional values are for the entire yield (1 cup)
Private Notes
Tried this recipe?
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I’m Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me
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Comments
I made this using Roma tomatoes, garlic and basil from my garden. I never want to buy pizza sauce ever again! Next year I’ll have to grow my own oregano, too, but dried oregano was also excellent for anyone making this!
Thank you Karen for trying and sharing back
Had a glut of garden tomatoes, so Looking to use them up. Did have to simmer it a bit longer to thicken it but well worth the time. Colour deepened to a rich red too.
Thanks for sharing back Beverly. Glad your pizza sauce turned out good
Made it, delicious!
Thank you
This pizza sauce was great! I used better boy and roma tomato varieties. Like the article mentioned, it had to cook it down due to the water content. It was worth the wait! First time making pizza sauce and it was better than I expected.
Thank you Crystal. Glad it turned out good for you
Super easy and tasty recipe
Loved by everyone
Thanks Saakhya
This was amazing. I opted to go with the lower end on the chili flakes and followed it perfectly to the end. I will never buy pizza sauce in a jar again. I jotted down the recipe when I made it but found it hard to find you again when I wanted to thank you. Now it’s bookmarked…Whew!
Thank you so much Ronster. Glad the recipe worked well for you
We really love your recipe, thank you so much for sharing. It is not only a very tasty, well balanced sauce, but also very quick and simple to make.
We really love your recipe, thank so much for sharing. It is not only very tasty but also very simple to make. The only adjustment I make is to greatly reduce the chilli
Perfectly delicious!
I used fresh ripe Roma tomatoes, the sauce took longer to thicken, but was perfectly delicious. I don’t know how so few ingredients turned such a complex and wonderful tasting sauce.
You may want to make a double batch because it’s that good!
Love this recipe, it’s my go to. And now I want to can it. Any suggestions? What about adding 1/4 tsp citric acid or 1 TBS lemon juice to pint jars, would that work?
It would be helpful if you mentioned the kind of tomatoes to use. These should be Romas or some other type that are not juicy. I used Celebrity that I grew and there is so much liquid that it is impossible to get the sauce thick without cooking it forever. I am sure that others are finding this out too. Adding tomato paste helps but that changes the flavor.
When using fresh tomato puree in your recipe, the amount of puree stays the same at (2 cups) no matter how much you increase it. This might be confusing for some. Excellent recipe. Thank you from Canada.
I ended up letting the sauce reduce for about 30 minutes before adding the spices. Not sure if I just didn’t squeeze my tomatoes enough or just prefer a thicker sauce, but either way, it was delicious.
My tomatoes had a lot of moisture in them so I had to add about a tablespoon of tomatoes paste to tighten it up. The flavor was amazing and I like mine spicy. Delicious!
Thanks Cindy. Glad to know!
Nice
This recipe is a great way to use fresh tomatoes. I am just making a large batch to freeze. Thank you for sharing!!!
Loved this recipe! I froze it last year and we devoured it all winter long.
Is this recipe safe for canning in regards to acidity levels?
Thanks for the delicious recipe!
Did you ever can? I was thinking of adding citric acid or lemon juice to can it.
I love the recipe – definitely cooked longer to thicken. My sauce is a little too spicy though. Any suggestion what to add to reduce the spiciness for the current recipe?
Hi Amy,
Try adding a little nut butter. It will cut down the heat levels. Thank you for trying
Tastes delicious but I think I added too many red chili flakes. Any suggestions how to make it less spicy? What can I add to my existing recipe?
So tasty! I did not seed or peel the tomatoes. Threw them in blender and pureed. I used four pounds of tomatoes from the garden so I will be freezing this for future use. Definitely took more time to get to the thickness we wanted for our pizza sauce. Cooked for about 15 minutes with lid on the pot, then added the sugar, salt, etc and cooked down for about 45 more minutes. Next I’ll be looking at your spaghetti sauce recipe since this one was so delicious. Thank you!
Love the base! I also add 1 white anchovy and thoroughly smash it up when sautéing the garlic and chili pepper flakes. Though I would tolerate anchovies ON my pizza, they are a game changing flavor booster in the sauce!