This best pizza sauce recipe is straightforward once you have got the technique down.
A good pizza sauce is simple, quick, and transforms a pizza. The key principle of Neapolitan pizza sauce is that it’s not cooked before going on the pizza — it’s a raw crushed tomato sauce that cooks in 90 seconds inside the oven. Cooking it beforehand concentrates it too much and removes the fresh, bright flavour that makes it work.
The Classic Neapolitan Pizza Sauce
Ingredients (Enough for 4 Pizzas)
- 1 x 400g tin of good quality San Marzano tomatoes (or best quality whole plum tomatoes you can find)
- ½ tsp fine salt
- A few fresh basil leaves (optional)
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (optional)
Method
Open the tin and pour the tomatoes into a bowl. Crush them by hand — squeeze each tomato to break it down into a chunky pulp. Remove any tough core pieces or skin if you find them. Add salt and stir. That’s it. Do not blend, do not cook, do not add anything else unless you want to. The sauce should be thick enough to spread but loose enough to flow slightly — if it’s too watery, pour off some liquid before using.
Apply a thin layer to the pizza base with the back of a spoon, spreading in a circular motion from the centre outward. Leave a 2cm border for the cornicione. Less sauce than you think — about 60–80ml per 12-inch pizza.
Choosing the Right Tomatoes
The quality of your tinned tomatoes matters more here than in a cooked sauce. San Marzano tomatoes (grown in the volcanic soil near Naples) are the gold standard — they’re sweeter, less acidic, and have thicker flesh with fewer seeds. Look for “Pomodoro San Marzano dell’Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP” on the label for the real thing.
Good UK alternatives: Mutti Polpa (finely chopped, works well), Cirio Peeled Plum Tomatoes, or any whole plum tomatoes labelled “San Marzano style.” Avoid chopped tomatoes in juice — they’re waterier and have a sharper flavour. Whole tinned plum tomatoes that you crush yourself give the best texture.
Why Not Cook the Sauce?
At 450°C, your pizza cooks in 60–90 seconds. The tomato sauce placed directly on the dough hits intense heat immediately and cooks through fully in that time. Pre-cooking concentrates the tomato, dulls the bright acidity that gives Neapolitan sauce its character, and can make the sauce too sweet. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana specifically prohibits pre-cooked sauce in authentic Neapolitan pizza.
The exception is lower-temperature cooking — if you’re cooking Detroit style, New York style, or in a domestic oven at 220–250°C where the pizza takes 8–12 minutes, a briefly cooked sauce (5 minutes in a pan with garlic and olive oil) works better, as the longer cooking time risks the raw sauce becoming too acidic.
Variations
Garlic and Olive Oil Base (Aglio e Olio)
For white pizzas (no tomato), the simplest base is a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil, a thin smear of very finely minced or grated garlic, and a pinch of salt. This is the base used for clam pizza, mushroom pizza, and any topping where tomato would clash.
Cooked Tomato Sauce (For Lower-Temperature Cooking)
Warm 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add 1–2 cloves of minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the crushed tomatoes and simmer for 10–15 minutes until slightly thickened. Season with salt and a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes are sharp. Use for New York style, Detroit, or domestic oven pizza.
Fresh Tomato Sauce (Late Summer)
When good ripe tomatoes are in season (July–September), halve them and squeeze out the seeds, then crush by hand as you would tinned tomatoes. The flavour of ripe fresh tomatoes in season is better than any tinned alternative. Outside of peak season, stick with good quality tinned.
Storage
Leftover pizza sauce keeps in the fridge for 5–6 days in a sealed container. It also freezes well — freeze in ice cube trays and transfer to a bag once frozen, so you can defrost individual portions. One or two cubes is typically enough for one pizza.
For the full pizza recipe this sauce is used in, see our Margherita pizza recipe and Neapolitan pizza dough recipe.
