Homemade Red Pizza Sauce (No-Cook, 5 Minutes)

If you’ve made it this far in the pizza series, you already have your Italian sausage seasoning, your homemade pizza sausage, and your easy pizza dough waiting in the wings. This is the piece that pulls it all together.

Red pizza sauce is one of those things that sounds like it should be complicated — but it genuinely isn’t. No simmering, no reducing, no standing over the stove. You stir a few pantry ingredients into a jar of passata, taste it once, and you’re done. Start to finish: five minutes.

The secret is starting with good passata. It’s smooth, bright, and has a cleaner tomato flavor than crushed or diced canned tomatoes. It spreads onto dough beautifully without making the crust soggy. Once you try it this way, going back to jarred pizza sauce feels unnecessary.

ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS

Passata — This is strained, uncooked tomato purée. You’ll find it in the pasta aisle, usually in a glass jar or tall carton. It has a clean, fresh tomato flavor that’s perfect for pizza because it doesn’t overpower the toppings. In a pinch, substitute 6 oz tomato paste + 15 oz tomato sauce.

Italian seasoning + dried oregano — Yes, both. The Italian blend gives you depth (basil, thyme, rosemary), and the extra oregano brings that classic pizza sauce flavor everyone recognizes. If you made the Italian sausage seasoning earlier in this series, you already know how much a good herb blend matters.

Garlic and onion powder — Fresh garlic on an uncooked sauce can taste sharp and raw after baking. Dried powder blooms into the tomato and gives you a mellow, even flavor throughout.

Kosher salt + black pepper — Don’t skip tasting after you stir. Passata brands vary in salt level, so the amounts here are a starting point, not a hard rule.

HOW TO MAKE IT

Pour your passata into a bowl. Add the oregano, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Stir until everything is evenly mixed through the sauce.

Now taste it. This is the most important step. Adjust the salt if it needs it, add a pinch more oregano if you want it more herby, or a little extra garlic powder if you’re leaning into it. The sauce should taste bold enough that you’d want to eat a spoonful — because it’s going to mellow out once it’s on hot dough under cheese.

Spread it onto your homemade pizza dough (or whatever dough you’re using), add your toppings (like some Homemade Pizza Sausage), and bake. That’s genuinely all there is to it.

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If you make this, I’d love to know what you topped it with. Leave a note in the comments — and if you’re working your way through the full pizza series, pizza night at your house is going to be really good.

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