Looking for a super delicious way to use up those fresh tomatoes? With just five ingredients, you can make delicious homemade pizza sauce from fresh tomatoes!
This simple, 5 ingredient recipe really allows the natural flavors of the roasted tomato and garlic to shine to bring you a fresh and flavorful sauce to achieve the ultimate homemade pizza!
In this recipe, you’ll learn how to get the most flavor out of your tomatoes and garlic by roasting them, how to get the best textured sauce by peeling them, and how to thicken the sauce for the perfect texture.
As a foodie and environmental scientist, making my own homemade sauces is one of my favorite things to do to elevate my meals!
Green tip: Making your own sauces, syrups, and dressings is a great way to avoid extra plastic packaging that eventually ends up in landfills or makes its way into the environment and becomes microplastics.
Pizza Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes Ingredients
This simple recipe only requires 5 ingredients:
- Tomatoes. My favorite to use are tomatoes on the vine, but truly this recipe works with any fresh tomatoes.
- Garlic.
- Olive oil.
- Salt.
- Dried oregano.
How to Make Fresh Tomato Pizza Sauce
Prep the Garlic for Roasting
Simply wash your tomatoes and set them aside to dry. If you don’t have time to wait, you can pat them dry with a clean kitchen towel.
The tomatoes will roast whole, but the garlic does need to be prepped before adding to your baking sheet for roasting.
No worries—it’s super simple! Lay your head of garlic on its side on your cutting board. Use a sharp knife to chop off about 1/2 inch off the top.
This will allow the olive oil and heat to easily permeate the skin and will also give you an opening to squeeze the roasted garlic out of the skins to add to your blender.
Roast the Tomatoes and Garlic
Line the prepped garlic head and whole tomatoes up on a baking sheet and drizzle the olive oil on top.
Roast them on the top rack at 425°F for about 30-35 minutes until the skin on the tomatoes is wrinkly and the garlic starts to brown.
Then, set them on a cooling rack and allow to cool for at least ten minutes, until the garlic and tomatoes are cool enough to handle comfortably without burning yourself.
Peel Your Tomatoes and Garlic
Once roasted and cooled, both the tomatoes and garlic become very easy to peel.
For the tomatoes, pluck them off the vine and peel away the outer skin. Add the fruit of the tomatoes to the blender.
Grab the garlic and squeeze from the bottom. The cloves should easily push out of their peels. Add the roasted garlic cloves to the blender, too.
Blend Until Smooth
Once the fruit of your tomatoes and cloves of garlic are in the blender, add the dried oregano and salt.
If you want a little heat in your sauce, you can add some black pepper or crushed red pepper, too. Make it your own! This recipe is intentionally paired back to allow the flavors of the roasted garlic and tomatoes shine.
Blend the pizza sauce on high until everything is smooth. If they’re still really hot and you notice a lot of steam, it’s best to open the fill cap to allow the steam to escape. Place a kitchen towel on top to avoid splatter.
Thicken Your Pizza Sauce
This step is super important! Releasing excess liquid from the sauce is what ultimately gives you the most flavorful sauce, and a sauce that won’t result in soggy pizza crust.
Add the pizza sauce to a large pot over medium heat and thicken until the sauce almost resembles a tomato paste. Stir occasionally so that the sauce doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.
I like to half cover my pot to avoid splatter but still ensure there is enough space for the steam to escape. The liquid will cook off in the form of steam, so trapping the steam will not get us the consistency we want.
Serving Your Homemade Pizza Sauce
Now that your pizza sauce is hot and ready, it’s ready to use on your homemade pizza!
This is a super fresh and flavorful pizza sauce with notes of roasted garlic and dried oregano. It works great with just cheese or any other pizza toppings of your choice!
It’s also great on pasta, spread on a sandwich, or in shakshuka.
How to Store Homemade Pizza Sauce
This recipe yields roughly 2 cups of homemade pizza sauce which will make anywhere from 2-4 pizzas depending on the size of pizza you’re making and how much sauce you like on your pizza.
Generally, for a 1-pound store-bought pizza dough, I use about 1 cup of sauce. So, you may find yourself with some leftover pizza sauce.
This sauce can we placed in a jar with an airtight lid and store in the refrigerator for about a week. It can also be frozen for up to 6 months.
If you’re loving this Homemade Pizza Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes and want more delicious ideas for your using fresh tomatoes, check out this Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup and this Grape Tomato Confit.
Homemade Pizza Sauce From Fresh Tomatoes (5 Ingredients!)
Print Save RateIngredients
- 10 whole tomatoes on the vine (~2 pounds tomatoes)
- 1 head garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Rinse your tomatoes and chop the top off your head of garlic. Place the tomatoes and garlic on a small baking sheet and coat with olive oil.
- Roast the tomatoes and garlic for 30-35 minutes until the skin of the tomatoes is wrinkly. Remove from oven and set aside until cool enough to handle (about ten minutes).
- Remove the tomatoes from the vine and peel the outer paper-thin layer off, adding the fruit of the tomato to a food processor or blender. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of the skin into the blender.
- Add the salt and dried oregano to the blender with the tomatoes and garlic and blend on high until completely smooth.
- Add to a large pot and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally to thicken the sauce. You want most of the liquid to cook off, until it is almost the consistency of tomato paste. This sauce can be jarred and kept in the refrigerator for 7-10 days or served immediately on pasta, pizza, sandwiches, etc.
Pro Tips
- While my preference is to make this sauce with tomatoes on the vine, it works with any variety of tomatoes, though cherry and grape tomatoes will not be as easy to peel!
- Make this own by adding extra dried herbs like basil, rosemary, or thyme.
- If you want a little kick in your sauce add black pepper or crushed red pepper (or both!).
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2 thoughts on “Homemade Pizza Sauce From Fresh Tomatoes (5 Ingredients!)”
This sounds like a delicious marinara sauce, which is all I use.
Yum