How to Make Homemade Pizza, Part 2: The Sauce

Click here to read Part 1 of this series, How To Make Homemade Pizza: The Dough.

It took me a while to figure out that pizza sauce is not "just pizza sauce". Once I started fiddling with sauce (and not just dumping on a can of plain tomato sauce), I realized that it is the sauce that really makes a pizza. At least for me.

This pizza sauce recipe from Real Mom Kitchen was the first sauce I mixed up and I still love it. I don't use canned tomatoes anymore, though so I've had to branch out usually using homemade tomato sauce and tomato paste from a tube.  I use mostly tomato sauce (around a cup) with just enough tomato paste to thicken the consistency.  While I'm not one for purchased seasoning mixes, I use Pampered Chef's Italian Seasoning mix  in my pizza sauce. A friend gave a bottle to me once and I love it so much in the sauce that I keep buying more. I also add a touch of sugar to flavor my pizza sauce. I played around with the sugar amount and I like just a hint of sweetness.

Like the dough, the tomato sauce is freezable. I like to make up a big batch and throw what I don't use in to the freezer for later.


You can also use a lot of other condiments as your sauce.  I've used barbecue and buffalo sauce and I think that alfredo sauce or ranch dressing would be delicious for a "white" pizza. Any kind of pesto would be delicious and taco sauce is great for a taco pizza. Or you can even go sauce-less! My favorite pizza of all time is Margherita Pizza and it doesn't have any sauce at all. The possibilities are endless.

Do you have a favorite traditional or non-traditional sauce you love on pizza?