Pizza Sauce with Tomato Puree

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This Perfect Pizza Sauce with tomato puree is a quick and easy homemade recipe. Make a big batch…the leftovers can be frozen to use another time.

ingredients for pizza sauce with tomato puree in a pan

Friday nights are the “It’s the weekend, let’s party!” night in our house. We generally makeย delicious homemade pizza and settle down to a movie. In the busyness past year we had gotten away from our pizza night tradition.

Years ago I went on the hunt for the perfect pizza sauce. I stumbled across this homemade pizza sauce recipe with tomato puree years ago and this was the sauce we finally settled on as our favorite. ย 

It’s the perfect blend of spices, tomato sauce, and sweetness for our family. My guess is that you will like it, too!ย 

Easy Pizza Sauce with Tomato Puree:

This best pizza sauce is a scratch version of some of your favorite pizza sauce brands. Here’s what you’ll love about it:

  • simply seasoned with pantry staples
  • tomato puree for intense tomato flavor
  • add as much or as little water as you’d like for a thin or thick sauce
  • leave the sugar out if you’d like to make it Whole30 and Paleo friendly

Is tomato puree the same as tomato paste?

No! There’s tomato sauce, tomato purรฉe, and tomato paste, which all have a different consistency.

Tomato sauce is thin, tomato puree has nice, thick, but pourable consistency.

Tomato paste (also called tomato passata) is so thick you have to spoon it out of the can it comes in. In high school I tried making pizza with just tomato paste as the sauce. It was not good ๐Ÿ˜† It had such an intense tomato flavor that no one liked.

For this recipe, use tomato puree, or tomato sauce if you have it!

How to Make Pizza Sauce with Tomato Puree

There are three simple steps to making the tomato sauce:

  • Pour the tomato puree and all of the other ingredients into a saucepan.
  • Turn the stove on medium heat until it starts bubbling, whisking constantly.
  • Turn down the heat to low and let it simmer for 30 minutes.ย 
tomato puree pizza sauce in a pan

Easy, right? Your very own extraordinary pizza sauce!

I’ve told you that I’m a somewhat picky eater, right? I’m not one for chunks of veggies in my sauce, so this smooth, flavorful sauce is perfect in my book.

Recipe Variations and Substitutions

  • Make pizza sauce from tomato sauce instead. The sauce will be runnier, so to thicken it, simmer for 20-30 minutes longer until it is the thickness you’d like. Stir often as it thickens.
  • Do you like chunks in your sauce? Add a can of drained diced tomatoes. You can also add mushrooms or peppers.
  • Add fresh herbs such as rosemary or marjoram.
  • Add more dried seasonings like onion powder, Italian seasoning or ground black pepper.
overhead view of a homemade pizza in a pan

Storage Instructions

Store leftover sauce in an airtight container in the fridge. You can also freeze the sauce for up to 6 weeks. Store in the freezer, then thaw in the fridge the night before you want to cook with it.

homemade pizza sauce in a jar

What to Serve Pizza Sauce With

Pizza sauce is great on homemade pizza dough, but also on:

pizza sauce with tomato puree in a bowl with a spoon
pizza sauce with tomato puree in a bowl with a spoon

Pizza Sauce with Tomato Puree

4.75 from 28 votes
This pizza sauce with tomato puree is a quick and easy homemade recipe. Make a big batch…the leftovers can be frozen to use another time!
Servings 15 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes

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Ingredients
 

  • 2 cans tomato puree (29 ounces each)
  • 1 1/4 cup water
  • 5 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 5 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
  • 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions
 

  • Mix all ingredients into a saucepan.ย 2 cans tomato puree, 1 ¼ cup water, 5 tablespoon granulated sugar, 5 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice, 1 ½ teaspoon salt, 1 ½ teaspoon dried oregano, ¾ teaspoon dried basil, ¾ teaspoon dried thyme, ¾ teaspoon garlic powder
  • Turn stove onto medium heat until sauce starts to simmer.
  •  Let simmer for 30 minutes. Put it on your pizza or use it as a dip!

Video

Notes

The calories shown are based on the recipe making about 8 ½ cups of sauce, with 1 serving being about ½ cup. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information.**

Nutrition

Serving: 164g | Calories: 37kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 240mg | Potassium: 102mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 124IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 7mg | Iron: 1mg
Course Condiment
Cuisine American
Calories 37
Keyword homemade, italian food
About JulieJulie Clark

About Julie Clark

I'm Julie Clark, CEO and recipe developer of Tastes of Lizzy T. With my B.A. in Education and over 30 years of cooking and baking, I want to teach YOU the best of our family recipes.

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4.75 from 28 votes (24 ratings without comment)
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Sue
7 months ago

Puree has already been cooked (cento brand is decent in a pinch) Pasatta (isn’t cooked before its jarred) is better if you can find.
Pizza sauce is best cooked on the pizza.
Try just mixing it up and store in the fridge a day before : )
We’d make good pizza buddies

Abigail
2 years ago

5 stars
Easy ingredients, easy to make, and delicious! Can’t wait to try your crust recipe!

Stacey Baughman
2 years ago

5 stars
This pizza sauce recipe has become my go-to! Super simple and extra tasty! Iโ€™ve used it multiple times for our Friday night pizza nights. Thank you for this fantastic recipe!

Diane B
4 years ago

Question. Can this sauce be canned?

Mike
5 years ago

Wowsers. That’s a lot of sugar.

I wonder if heirloom tomatoes which are naturally sweet would require sugar at all.

Pravani
6 years ago

5 stars
This was SOOO easy and SOOO delicious! Thanks for catering to the “it needs to be smooth” crowd!

Tom Shrill
9 years ago

5 stars
My family loves to make homemade pizza all the time. I have yet to actually find a sauce recipe that I actually enjoyed until I stopped here. I am so glad I can actually enjoy the homemade version of my favorite food now!

Lisa @ Cooking with Curls
11 years ago

I don’t like chunks in my sauce either, so this will be perfect for me ๐Ÿ™‚ I will have to give it a try next week when we have pizza again. Thanks for sharing!

Carole
11 years ago

Lizzy, that does look pretty perfect. Cheers

Donna Pierce-Clark
11 years ago

WOO HOO
Just printed out this and several more of your recipes.
You’re going viral!!!
Betcha!
Love, Grandma Clark