I use jarred tomato based spaghetti sauce such as Prego as a pizza sauce. Sometimes I will add garlic and dried pepper flakes for added flavor. This may not help you, if you don't have any spaghetti/pasta sauce on hand.

For your canned tomatoes, I would give them a spin in a food processor or blender and then season with garlic, pepper flakes, oregano and basil. Salt if needed. I would also simmer it a while to cook the sauce down in order to thicken and concentrate the flavor.

I have started using Rao pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce, but if you have spaghetti sauce you like, just use very little of it. I'll go and try to find my scratch one.

I usually use hunt's tomato sauce...it's thicker and sits well on the dough. Not sure how canned tomatoes will work...you'd need to drain them really well and squeeze them to keep them from getting too wet on the dough I'd think.

The thing that makes it taste like "pizza" for me is marjoram, plus all the usual "Italian" herbs. Cook down your tomatoes to steam out some of the water and thicken it up--oh, Dawn already said that. :) Add some good olive oil after you reduce the heat, for more body and flavor. It doesn't take much oil.

Just go for it.

If you have tomato paste, you can use that instead or in addition. A friend taught me a quickie tomato paste sauce, but it's not like your normal pizza or pasta sauce. Cut up a whole small onion and a few cloves of garlic, and saute them in olive oil. Season liberally with pepper and herbs, plus salt to taste. Add the tomato paste and thin, as needed, with red wine. Adjust herbs and add some grated carrot or sugar if it's too acidic. Simmer. The concentrated flavor of tomato in the paste is what makes this sauce different.

Scratch spaghetti sauce

9 links of hot and mild Itallian sausage, can use all mild, chop when done

3 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 green bell pepper, finely chopped

1 cloves garlic, smushed in garlic press, smushed is a technical term, lol

tomatoes,2 cans (28oz) puree/2 cans(15 oz) sauce/2 (8oz) paste

sugar to taste

dried oregano, basil,rosemary, parsley, and thyme. (I use 2 teaspoons each)

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook sausage in water until done. Saute vegetables in olive oil. Add sauce and spices and simmer for about 2 hours. Add mushrooms if you want whenever. Makes a lot. freezes well. Use a small amount for pizza.

ETA: You add the sausage to everything else and just simmer like doing a chuck roast.

Pizza sauce should not be watery. From what I've seen, there are two schools of thought, one is to have a very light sauce with just chopped tomatoes, spices, a bit of olive oil. The other is to have a thicker 'Italian Sunday gravy' type of cooked down sauce which can include tomatoes, puree, chopped tomatoes, and paste.

So for today, for this particular pizza, you can have either. Here I found a recipe for a light margarita sauce:. In a large saute pan over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons olive oil, the minced garlic, thyme and oregano. Cook until just fragrant then add the crushed tomatoes and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Lower the heat and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes to reduce and concentrate the flavor.

If you want a thicker sauce, and all you have on hand in the way of tomatoes and you are not going to risk going to the store for a pizza, is canned tomatoes, you need to start cooking them down now if you want a thicker more intense sauce, and add some of the ingredients tigereye lists above.

Good luck I'm excited for you and can't wait to hear how your pizza comes out!

I would do it the way Lucille does, but I use red pepper flakes as well. The important herb is oregano, but marjoram will work also. Since you have so many toppings, you don't need much.

I made a pizza of sorts using ciabatta bread that I cut in half lengthwise. Besides the sauce, the only toppings were olive oil and cheese - Provolone, Parmesan, and Mozzarella. I only added oregano and red pepper flakes to the sauce.

Crushed tomatoes. Add a bit of garlic powder, a bit of basil and a bit of salt. Stir. Then add a bunch of grated cheese (Parmesan or Romano or a combo). I like to add a few drops of olive oil. But, I also use olive oil in the dough that I make.

Generally, you won't need much sauce. So make a lot and freeze it in small containers that can be quickly thawed and used in the future.

I put the oregano on the top of pizza. That is part of the great smell of a good pie.

Fennel seed is the quintessential pizza flavor for me, besides oregano, garlic, and others.

Spaghetti sauce. A light sprinkle of oregano or basil or add fennel--whichever I'm in the mood for. I like fennel on a Hawaiian pizza.