This no-cook Homemade Tomato Pizza Sauce is quick, easy, and packed with authentic Italian flavors. Made in less than 5 minutes, it's perfect for making in bulk, freezing, and creating the best pizzas with homemade pizza dough, mozzarella, and fresh basil. This vibrant sauce is my go-to for elevating any pizza night!
If you like this recipe you might like my Sourdough Pizza Margherita or my Brie and Ham Pizza.
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Jump To
- Quick Look at This Recipe
- Why You Should Never Cook Your Pizza Sauce
- 🛒 Ingredient Notes
- Equipment you need to make best pizza sauce recipe
- 🍽️ How to make tomato sauce for pizza
- How to spread tomato sauce for pizza recipe
- Recipe Tips
- What to serve with easy pizza sauce
- 🫙 Leftover and Storing
- Some other delicious recipes you'll love:
- 📖 Recipe
- Homemade Tomato Sauce for Pizza
- ❓ FAQ'S
The first time I made this homemade pizza sauce, I was standing in my mother-in-law's sunlit kitchen in Italy. She handed me a can of San Marzano tomatoes, told me to crush them with my hands, and then walked away. No stove. No blender. No cooking at all. That was the whole lesson.
This sauce is bright, fresh, and deeply flavorful. The oven does all the cooking for you, which is exactly how they do it in Italy. I've been making it for years and I still make a double batch every single time because it freezes perfectly and makes pizza night feel like almost no effort at all. If you love this, you'll also want to try my Sourdough Pizza Margherita and my Easy Homemade Pizza for the full Italian pizza night experience.
Quick Look at This Recipe
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Rest Time: 30 minutes (recommended)
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Servings: 3 cups (enough for 3 medium pizzas)
- Dietary Info: Vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free
- Method: No-cook, mix in a bowl
- Technique: Crush whole San Marzano tomatoes by hand and stir with seasonings. No heat needed.
- Flavor & Texture: Bright, tangy, and herbaceous with a chunky, spreadable consistency
Why You Should Never Cook Your Pizza Sauce
Most people assume pizza sauce needs to be cooked before it goes on the dough. It doesn't, and here's why: the oven does the job for you.
When you cook the sauce on the stovetop first, then bake it again on the pizza, you end up with a dull, concentrated sauce that loses its fresh tomato flavor. Spreading it raw onto the dough means it cooks exactly once, at the right temperature, and comes out tasting vibrant and alive.
This is how authentic Neapolitan pizza is made. The AVPN (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana) specifies hand-crushed tomatoes, no pre-cooking. The method isn't lazy, it's intentional.
🛒 Ingredient Notes
Here are the ingredients you need to make this simple no cook red pizza sauce using canned tomato sauce (full recipe below on recipe card):
- San Marzano tomatoes: Try to find the best quality San Marzano DOP tomatoes or use a very good quality tomato passata. San Marzano has the best flavor and the better the quality, the less acidic the flavor is.
- Olive oil: I always use a very good quality extra-virgin olive oil. You don't need to use a lot and it has the most fruity flavor.
- Sea salt: Just a touch of sea salt brings out the flavors of the tomatoes.
- Dried oregano: I always add dried oregano to my pizza tomato sauce. It adds such a nice flavor.
- Garlic: I don't use a lot of garlic, but go ahead and use more, if you like it!
- Italian parsley: Fresh Italian parsley adds a touch of fresh flavor and vibrant color. Dried parsley would not work for this recipe, as it is lacking in flavor.
- Dried bay leaf: My mom adds a dried bay leaf to practically all of her sauces and many of her soups. It's in her Bolognese sauce too! Feel free to leave it out if you don't have any on hand.
- Chili flakes: Red hot pepper flakes are optional, but do add a nice touch of heat to the sauce. Add a pinch to taste for those who like a little heat. Totally optional, but delicious.
Note: this pizza sauce recipe is vegan as written, so you can even make some great dairy-free pizzas with this recipe
Equipment you need to make best pizza sauce recipe
- Cutting board: I love my bamboo boards and I have plastic cutting board. Feel free to use whichever type of cutting board you have.
- Sharp knife: Get out your sharpest knife to cut carrots, celery, and onions.
- Bowl: The sauce ingredients get mixed in a bowl.
- Wooden spoon: You could use a wooden spoon, or any sort of spoon, to stir to combine.
🍽️ How to make tomato sauce for pizza
Here is how to make this pizza sauce recipe (the full recipe is below!):
Gather all your ingredients.
- Step 1: Place the tomatoes in a large mixing bowl. If using whole plum tomatoes, you'll need to break them up with your hands. If they're not a very good quality San Marzano tomato, you'll probably have to remove the hard stem. If they're a good quality, it should be soft and will break up with your hands.
- Step 2: Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl.
- Step 3: Stir to combine.
- Step 4: Let the flavors meld together for at least 30 minutes. You could even make the night before and store in a jar or an airtight container. Be sure to remove the bay leaf before spreading it on .
- Step 5: Spread it on your favorite pizza dough and make some PIZZA!
📃 NOTE: Recipe card with detailed instructions are below! Print it out for later!
How to spread tomato sauce for pizza recipe
- Spoon: If you use a spoon to spoon some sauce onto the dough, just use the back of that spoon to spread the pizza.
- Ladle: You could also ladle out a portion of the sauce and use the back of the ladle to spread the sauce around the dough.
Recipe Tips
- Use the best San Marzano tomatoes you can find. - The DOP label matters. A lower-quality tomato will taste more acidic and you'll end up adding sugar to compensate.
- Let the sauce rest. - Thirty minutes is the minimum. Overnight is better. The garlic, oregano, and olive oil need time to settle into the tomatoes.
- Don't spread too much. - Use 1.5 to 2 ounces of sauce per medium pizza. It should be a thin, uneven layer where the dough still peeks through in places.
- Make a double batch and freeze it. - Portion into small zip-lock bags, label with the date, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
- Taste before spreading. - Every can of tomatoes is slightly different. Season at the end, not just at the beginning.
What to serve with easy pizza sauce
There are different ways to enjoy pizza tomato sauce. Here are some ideas:
- Homemade pizza >>>Spread it on a homemade pizza dough for a classic Margherita or your favorite topping combination.
- Garlic bread >>> Use the sauce as a dip for warm, buttery garlic bread or breadsticks.
- Calzone >>> Use the sauce inside or on the side for dipping these stuffed Italian pastries.
- Mozzarella Sticks >>> Serve the sauce as a warm, tangy dip for crispy fried mozzarella sticks.
- Meatballs >>> Pair with Italian-style meatballs for a hearty and satisfying dish.
- Vegetable Dippers >>> Offer fresh veggies like bell peppers, zucchini sticks, or roasted cauliflower to dip into the sauce.
- Arancini (Rice Balls) >>> Serve alongside these crispy stuffed rice balls for an authentic Italian pairing.
- Flatbreads or Focaccia >>> Drizzle the sauce over flatbreads or serve it with focaccia for dipping.
🫙 Leftover and Storing
- Refrigerate: Let the sauce cool completely before transferring it to an airtight container or jar with a tight lid. Store it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Freeze: As soon as the sauce cools down, you could store it in freezer-safe containers or zipped lock freezer bags and freeze for up to 2-3 months. Make sure you date the containers or bags. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using.
Some other delicious recipes you'll love:
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📖 Recipe
Homemade Tomato Sauce for Pizza
Equipment
- 1 bowl
- 1 large wooden spoon
Ingredients
- 1 28-ounce San Marzano tomatoes, whole peeled tomatoes (look for DOP San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino)
- 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
- 1 large bay leaf
- 2-3 cloves garlic finely chopped or pressed, (or ¼ cup grated onions or finely minced)
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes depending on heat preference
Instructions
- Tomatoes: Pour the tomatoes into a large bowl and using your hands, kitchen shears, or an immersion blender, break the tomatoes down so that they're chunky but not completely liquid.
- Seasonings: Add the rest of the ingredients - olive oil, sea salt, garlic, oregano, bay leaf, parsley - and stir until evenly distributed throughout the sauce. Taste and adjust as needed - more salt, more herbs, more garlic, etc.! Red hot chili flakes are optional, but you could add a pinch, if you like.
- Adjust flavor: Taste and adjust seasonings as you like it.
- Spread onto pizza: Discard bay leaf when ready to use the pizza sauce. Spread onto your favorite pizza dough recipe.
Nutrition Disclaimer
Please keep in mind that the nutritional information presented below is an approximation and may vary depending on the exact ingredients used.
Notes
- Tomatoes: Look for the best quality San Marzano tomatoes. The better the quality, the better the flavor of the sauce. There will be no need to add any sugar.
- Olive oil: Same thing for the olive oil. Use a very high quality extra-virgin olive oil.
- Garlic: If you're sensitive to garlic, you could leave it out. If you like more garlic, go ahead and add to your taste.
- Herbs: You could experiment with the herbs to your liking. I use a very good quality dried oregano my mother-in-law gave me it's from Calabria. I can even find now in Italian markets near me Sicilian oregano.
- Flavors rest: Once you stir the sauce together, let all the flavors come together for 30 minutes. You could even prep the night before. The longer they have time to combine, the better the flavor will be!
- Pizza: Make your own homemade dough or use a very good quality store-bought dough.
Nutrition
❓ FAQ'S
Yes, it is easy to double or triple this pizza sauce recipe.
No, and that's the whole point. Raw sauce goes straight onto the dough and cooks in the oven. Pre-cooking it first dulls the flavor and makes it taste less fresh.
Pizza sauce is typically thicker, chunkier, and uncooked before going on the pizza. Marinara is a cooked tomato sauce served with pasta or as a dipping sauce. They use similar ingredients but the method and texture are different.
For a medium pizza, use 1.5 to 2 ounces. Spread it thin using the back of a spoon or a ladle, leaving a half-inch border around the crust without sauce.
Yes. Portion into freezer-safe bags or containers and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.
You can, but canned San Marzano tomatoes are actually better for this recipe. Fresh tomatoes have more water content and inconsistent flavor. Peak summer tomatoes are the exception, but canned is usually better for pizza sauce.
This was an easy sauce and so fresh tasting!
This turned out so good! It is actually a fairly simple recipe, my kids loved it.
I just made this sauce. WOW! It is delicious! I added extra garlic and extra spice, because we like it extra spicy!