People often assume great pizza sauce involves secret recipes, long ingredient lists, or several hours standing over a hob.
It doesn't.
In fact, a good pizza sauce is one of the simplest parts of making pizza at home.
The goal isn't to create something complicated.
The goal is to let good ingredients do most of the work.
How to Make Pizza Sauce: The Simple Version
What You'll Need
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High-quality finely chopped tomatoes
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1–2 cloves of garlic, chopped and crushed
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Oregano
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1 teaspoon of salt
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Plenty of black pepper
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A generous drizzle of olive oil
Step 1: Combine Everything
Add the garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil to your tomatoes.
Give everything a good mix until it's evenly combined.
That's it.
No cooking. No reducing. No special equipment.
Just mix.
Step 2: Sauce Your Pizza
Spread the sauce evenly across your stretched pizza base.
Leave around 1 to 1.5 inches uncovered around the edge.
That uncovered border will become your crust.
It might feel like you're leaving valuable pizza real estate unused, but trust us on this one.
Step 3: Don't Overdo It
A thin, even layer is all you need.
Too little sauce can leave a pizza dry.
Too much can leave the centre heavy and soggy.
The sweet spot sits somewhere in the middle.
The dough should still be visible through the sauce in places.
Why Simple Pizza Sauce Usually Wins
One of the most common mistakes people make is trying to improve the tomatoes.
Ironically, this often makes the sauce worse.
When you're starting with good-quality tomatoes, most of the flavour is already there.
The tomatoes bring sweetness, acidity and freshness.
The garlic adds depth.
The oregano adds that unmistakable pizza aroma.
The olive oil rounds everything out.
You don't need much more than that.
Pizza sauce isn't supposed to steal the show. It's there to support everything else.
Why Tomato Quality Matters
If there's one place worth spending a little extra money, it's the tomatoes.
Pizza sauce is mostly tomatoes.
Not exactly groundbreaking information, but it's surprising how often people overlook it.
Better tomatoes tend to have a richer flavour, better natural sweetness and a more balanced acidity.
That means you spend less time trying to fix the sauce with extra ingredients.
It's one of those rare occasions in cooking where the simplest option is often the best one.
Why We Don't Cook Our Sauce
This surprises some people.
Many pasta sauces benefit from slow cooking.
Pizza sauce is different.
When the pizza goes into a hot oven, the sauce cooks on the pizza itself.
Cooking it beforehand can sometimes dull the fresh tomato flavour you're trying to preserve.
Keeping the sauce uncooked helps maintain that bright, clean tomato taste that works so well on pizza.
The Importance of the Crust Border
We've mentioned leaving 1 to 1.5 inches around the edge uncovered, but it's worth repeating.
That border is where the magic happens.
As the pizza bakes, the air trapped inside the dough expands.
The uncovered edge rises, puffs up and develops into the crust.
If sauce runs right to the edge, it weighs that area down and makes it harder for the crust to develop properly.
A little restraint here goes a long way.
More Sauce Doesn't Mean More Flavour
This is probably the hardest lesson for pizza lovers to accept.
Pizza should be balanced.
The dough, sauce, cheese and toppings should all have room to contribute.
Too much sauce can overwhelm everything else and make the pizza harder to bake properly.
A lighter hand often produces a better result.
It's one of those situations where less genuinely is more.
A Final Thought
Making pizza sauce doesn't need to be complicated.
Good tomatoes. A little garlic. A few seasonings. Some olive oil.
That's really about it.
When the ingredients are good, the best thing you can do is get out of their way.
Save the effort for deciding what toppings you're putting on it.
That's where the real arguments usually begin.
