Homemade No-Cook Pizza Sauce
This no-cook pizza sauce is so quick and delicious! Throw everything in the blender, and it is good to go. Flavorful and perfect!
I’ve been making this homemade pizza sauce for decades, and it is truly the best. No need to plan ahead; it comes together in minutes!
Every Day Pantry Ingredients
This incredible pizza sauce uses the most basic pantry ingredients.
- diced tomatoes
- tomato paste
- dried oregano
- dried basil
- garlic salt or garlic powder
- touch of sugar (can omit this, but it helps cut the acidity)
- Pinch of crushed red pepper
It is worth keeping all of these ingredients on hand at all times, so you can whip up this sauce at a moment’s notice.
The sauce can be blended until super smooth, or you can cut the processing time down a bit if you prefer a chunkier sauce.
How to Use This Pizza Sauce
This no-cook pizza sauce is fabulous on homemade pizza, calzones, pizza rolls, or the like.
It’s also delicious served as a dipping sauce for breadsticks (cheesy breadsticks, anyone??) or any other dippable that’s calling for a marinara-type sauce for dunking.
If using this sauce for dipping, I suggest warming it up just a bit on the stovetop or in the microwave. It doesn’t need warmed up before using on homemade pizza.
Homemade Pizza Recipes
For the best homemade pizza, these are my go-to recipes and tips:
- this no-cook pizza sauce (literally the only pizza sauce I use)
- quick and easy homemade pizza dough (works well with whole wheat flour, too, and it has over 800 5-star reviews 🤩)
- freshly shredded mozzarella cheese (melts so much better than pre-shredded cheese which is coated with a powdery substance to prevent clumping…but it also makes it melt less well)
- pizza stone (heated for 45 minutes before baking pizza)
- 500 degree oven (don’t be afraid of the high temp!)
With over 500 5-star reviews, this pizza sauce is a true winner of a recipe!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Excellent. Tasted just like pizza parlor sauce. Will use this from now own – so simple to make.
-Jessica
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I planned to make pizza sauce and was out of crushed tomatoes but had cans of diced tomatoes and tomato paste. I found this recipe after a quick google search. I’m blown away how good it is! And no simmering! This is my new go to pizza sauce.
-Catie
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We decided to make pizza tonight and I realized the one item I did NOT have was sauce. So I googled pizza sauce and your recipe popped up first! I had all the ingredients so I whipped up a batch. Outstanding! This will be the go-to sauce from now on. And all the comments helped as well!
-Kathy
One Year Ago: Easy Chocolate Chip Snack Cake
Two Years Ago: Slow Cooker Mexican Beef {Instant Pot Directions Included}
Three Years Ago: No-Bake Peaches and Cream Sensation Dessert
Four Years Ago: The Best Sloppy Joes
Five Years Ago: Easy Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
Six Years Ago: Homemade Canned Spaghetti Sauce {Step-by-Step Tutorial}
Seven Years Ago: Double Chocolate Zucchini Brownies
Eight Years Ago: Tri-Color Pasta Salad {My Favorite Pasta Salad}
Nine Years Ago: Portillo’s Chopped Salad with Sweet Italian Dressing
Ten Years Ago: Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
No-Cook Pizza Sauce
Ingredients
- 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 6-ounce can tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon garlic salt (or garlic powder + pinch of salt)
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- Pinch of crushed red pepper
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender and process until desired consistency.
- Add additional seasonings to taste, if needed.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
Recipe originally posted January 2008; updated September 2024 with new photos, recipe notes, etc.
How can I use fresh roma tomatoes instead of canned tomatoes? Thanks
You could peel them and then blend them up although the taste will be pretty different than using canned tomatoes.
This was a fast and great tasting pizza sauce! I reduced the sugar to a 1/2 teaspoon as recommended by the others. Best part – the ingredients of this recipe all fit into a Bullet drink bender so I can make this and jar it lightning quick with less clean up than using my food processor.
We made your sauce and it was good. We only used 1/2 of it so I put the other 1/2 in the fridge. The following week we made pizza again and I used the leftover sauce. This time the sauce was AMAZING!!! Letting it sit really gave it time to enhance all the flavors. Now I always make it ahead of time and pop it in the fridge overnight.
I was wondering why the sugar is less than in the original recipe? I noticed that in the comments and in the old recipe that it is 1 tbsp instead of the 1 tsp that I see in the recipe.
Just out of preference – you can add more sugar to taste.
Delicioso!
Best pizza sauce ever! I’m a non-cook and not only was this sauce easy to make, it was delicious!!
Loved it, but it definitely didn’t make 3 cups of sauce.
Great quick Pizza sauce. I added some ground Sage, and Herbs de Provence. Delicious. Thx for a keeper recipe.
I had everything on hand and it was quick to make. What a nice surprise when it tasted so good!
This was just what I wanted! No cooking required and tasted great. I used only 1/4 tsp sugar and would leave it out altogether next time. Thanks for a great recipe I will use for all my pizzas made at home.
Great recipe! Thanks so much!
Love this sauce! I followed the recipe to the letter. The only thing I will change the next time is to start with half the sugar and add to taste 1 teaspoon was a little sweeter than I like but some tomatoes are sweeter to start with. Super simple and very good I will never buy jars of pizza sauce again.
We decided to make pizza tonight and I realized the one item I did NOT have was sauce. So I googled pizza sauce and your recipe popped up first! I had all the ingredients so I whipped up a batch. Outstanding! This will be the go-to sauce from now on. And all the comments helped as well!
After many long years of searching for the perfect pizza sauce, this is it!! It is so simple and tastes fresh and delicious…because I like garlic, I added a little more…thank you for the recipe
I was in a hurry to find a recipe and found the most amazing pizza sauce recipe right here. Thanks!!! Love it.
I could eat this sauce plain!!! SO good!
I confess I have
I made this tonight and it turned out fantastic. I just used about 1.5 teaspoons of Italian herbs and a little extra garlic salt. It was wonderful for our pizza. Thank you so much for sharing. 🙂
Julie
This recipe was easy to make and absolutely delicious!
This sauce is far and away the BEST sauce ever. Thank you so much for the recipe
This sauce is so good. It comes together so easily with an immersion blender and I always freeze the leftovers for later, which works great. I haven’t ever tried another pizza sauce because this one always fits the bill for red sauce.
Dried Oregano-would that be ground or leafy.
I use the leafy ground oregano.
This is delicious! I always have sauce leftover that I freeze so we do pizza night often and it’s very little effort. Thanks for another 5-star recipe, Mel!
This is absolutely amazing — and so easy to make!! My favorite pizza sauce ever! Thanks Mel!!!
If you don’t have tomato paste, can you use tomato sauce?
It will lend a different consistency/flavor to the sauce, but you could try.
I went to make this sauce last night to find that I didn’t have tomato paste. Neighbors are all gone for Spring Break and I wasn’t running to the store. I improvised by using two cans of diced tomatoes, pureeing with spices and cooking it down for about 15 minutes on the stove. Cooled it slightly in the sink with a cold water bath and proceeded. Turned out great. Can’t wait to try the easier version with the tomato paste. The flavor will be even better. But we improvise when necessary and hope it works. In this case, just fine. I thought I’d chime in, in case someone else finds themselves in the same boat.
Cook the tomato sauce down until some liquid evaporates, stirring constantly and is about the consistency of tomato paste. I’ve done that before in a pinch and it works out pretty well
This was really great! I added a touch of fennel seed to mine and this will be our go-to sauce from now on! Thanks for helping us out with our fun family night meal 🙂
Best homemade pizza sauce to date! Thank you for being kind enough to share!
We love, love, LOVE this sauce!! Thank you again for sharing!!!
Hello Miranda. Mel doesn’t have access to internet right now so I’m helping her out with comments for the next few days. I am so glad you loved this one! Mel will be happy to hear that. My family loves that sauce as well.
I don’t know if my canned tomatoes aren’t all that juicy (I’ve noticed this in the past), but this was pretty thick for me. I didn’t add about a tablespoon of the paste and added about two teaspoons of water. It tasted very tomato-y (is there a better way to put that… raw? maybe?) but it actually “cooked” enough in the oven and came out beautifully on my pizza. So good!
Love this recipe, I saute some garlic cloves in olive oil, toss the spices in for a minute and then add everything else. so good!
Always my go-to recipe for pizza sauce! Freezes great too!
Thank you Mel you really helped me by teaching this quick recipe
I make this up in a double batch and freeze to use in the next couple of weeks. It is DELICIOUS! I use it not just for pizza but to make other dishes as well. My favorite is over chicken breasts. I brown the breasts on each side then layer on some sauce, cover and cook til the chicken is done. Garnish with parmesan cheese and black olives.
Have you ever canned your pizza sauce? Any tips?
I haven’t canned it, Aggie, sorry!
I made your recipe just like you have written and also made another batch using fire roasted tomatoes and both were delicious! Thank you for sharing!
I was wondering if I need the tomato paste if I use fresh tomatoes to make this. Looking for a pizza sauce to can.
The tomato paste helps thicken the sauce so just keep an eye on the consistency if using fresh tomatoes.
Hey Mel, I love this sauce, it turned out just perfect and very fresh tasting! I have a question, how long do you think it would keep in a sealed container in the fridge?? I have some left and was wanting to save it for ‘pizza night’ next week, do you think it would be ok?
Hey Melanie – I’ve kept it in the fridge for up to a week so I definitely think you’ll be fine for next week. Beyond that, I usually freeze it.
How much sauce would you suggest would go on your most recent easy homemade pizza dough? Like would I cut this sauce recipe in half?
Would this still eork if you didn’t have diced canned tomatoes and just left them out?
Viktoriya – No…it definitely needs a juicer type tomato to help it resemble pizza sauce. Fresh tomatoes could work though.
Mel does this freeze okay as I just need to make one pizza tonight. Thank you.
Melissa – Yes, It freezes great!
It is waiting to be spread on our homemade crust! Can’t wait to taste the finished pizza!
Mel, thank you for this no-cook pizza sauce! Much less cleanup than cooking it, and faster. I am going to use it for no-knead dough to make a mushroom/thyme pizza for dinner tonight. Maybe throw on some kalamata olives I have.
Yep, I am making an easy and tasty dinner with your sauce.
Thanks for your wonderful website
Outstanding! I followed the directions and added a little onion powder. Made two
14 inch pies and had enough sauce left for another smaller one. The crust recipe is outstanding as well. Everyone loved the pizza!
Mel, I use this pizza sauce recipe minus 1 tbsp of honey and minus the anchovy paste, OMG it is soo good!! but I will sure try yours!!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Exquisite-Pizza-Sauce/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=exquisite%20pizza%20sauce&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page
?
This pizza sauce is seriously good. I have an abundance of tomatoes in the garden, and I used up 2 cups of stewed tomatoes in this recipe. After stewing the tomatoes, I just dumped everything else into the pot and simmered the sauce for awhile. I did not have garlic salt, and I like spicy, so I used 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Best sauce ever!
This pizza sauce rocks! I love how thick it is, but the flavor isn’t too overwhelming. Thanks!
I have never made homemade pizza sauce before. I just made this sauce and it is delicious! So much better than any I have purchased over the years.
i am going to share with you a secret my friends Italian mother told me – add some anise seeds to your pizza sauce. it is awesome. i haven’t tried this pizza sauce but if it is as good as you say it is it will be better if you add some anise seeds. i usually cook my sauce first b/c i like to put sauted onions in mine.
Making this right now!
Used this one tonight…hooray for a fabulous recipe! We halved it and got a just-right amount for 1 pizza. The only thing we didn’t halve was the 1 tbsp sugar…and that seemed to be about right for us. So if I used the full recipe, I think we’d use at least 1.5 tbsp sugar.
Thanks yo!
Hooray! I can’t tell you how honored I feel that you made a special sauce link just for me!
Does this pizza sauce cover 2 nice size pizza crusts or would you recommend doubling the recipe? My husband and I are getting together with some friends this weekend and making homemade pizzas with your pizza crust and sauce recipes 🙂stacielk@gmail.com