This simple pizza sauce recipe uses basic ingredients and is ready in no time – no need to wait for a pizza delivery!
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Some days, I’m like, man, I want some pizza. (Ok. Most days).
On those days, if you’re like me, you’re torn between actually ordering a pizza (read: spending money that you could spend on shoes save) and making your own. Is it worth it to make the crust? Because crust takes time. Do you have enough cheese? Not if you eat half of it before it makes it to the pizza. Do you have any pizza sauce? No? …Crap.
SO. In the interest of homemade pizza and shoe shopping penny pinching, I devoted some time over the last year to finding shortcuts that would get me to a hot pizza faster. And now, I’m going to share those shortcuts with you! Today, a 25-minute pizza sauce. Tomorrow, I’m posting a fifteen minute pizza CRUST. If you make the crust while this sauce simmers, you’ll have a hot, homemade pizza in less time than it takes to wait for the delivery guy.
Ingredients
- 1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce
- 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 Tbsp. chopped yellow onion (about 1/4 of a medium onion)
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- 1/4 tsp. dried lemon peel
- pinch of nutmeg (about 1/16 of a tsp)
- a bay leaf
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a medium sized sauce pan. Add garlic, onion, salt and pepper and saute until onions are translucent, about 3 minutes.
- Pour tomato sauce into saucepan. Add oregano, basil, lemon peel, nutmeg, and the bay leaf. Stir until all ingredients are incorporated.
- Cover the saucepan and simmer sauce for 25 minutes so the flavors can meld. Use immediately or keep in the fridge for up to a week.
I already had a 15-minute pizza dough recipe, so this is exactly what I’ve been waiting for! Thank you!
Two questions:
1) Can you freeze the sauce?
2) Do you blend it at all, or do the onions break down pretty well with all that simmering?
You can absolutely freeze the sauce! I like to freeze it in 1-cup portions so that it’s easy to defrost enough for just one pizza.
The onions break down quite a bit (especially if you chop them very finely!) and with cheese and toppings you don’t even notice the texture of the sauce. If you want it to be absolutely smooth, though, you can always give it a whirl in a blender to even out any chunks of onion or garlic.