Kirby Kitchen Pizza Sauce
Bright tomato. Fresh onion. Garlic, herbs, and a little fennel.
A simple, flavorful pizza sauce built around crushed tomatoes, fresh white onion, garlic, oregano, basil, and fennel seed. No tomato paste and no added sugar. Just a balanced sauce designed to complement the crust, cheese, and toppings without taking over the pizza.
Good pizza starts underneath the toppings.
Pizza sauce doesn't need to be complicated.
It needs to be balanced enough to support everything that comes afterward.
Kirby Kitchen Pizza Sauce starts with crushed tomatoes and builds from there with slowly softened white onion, fresh garlic, oregano, basil, and fennel seed.
The fennel is subtle, but it adds that little extra depth that makes the sauce taste more like something from a great pizzeria.
There's no tomato paste and no added sugar.
Just tomatoes, aromatics, herbs, and enough time to let them come together.
Recipe at a Glance
Yield: About 3 cups
Serving Size: ¼ cup
Servings: About 12
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20–25 minutes
Ingredients
1 can (28 oz / 794 g) crushed tomatoes
½ medium white onion, very finely diced
3–4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1½ tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
½ tsp fennel seed, lightly crushed
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp coarse-ground black pepper
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes, optional
Instructions
1. Prepare the Aromatics
Warm the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat.
Add the finely diced white onion.
Cook for approximately 5–7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion has softened and become translucent.
Don't rush this step. The goal is to soften the onion and bring out its natural sweetness without heavily browning it.
2. Add the Garlic & Fennel
Add the garlic and lightly crushed fennel seed.
Cook for approximately 30–60 seconds, stirring constantly.
The garlic should become fragrant without browning.
Kirby Rule: Fresh garlic and fennel only need a little heat to release their aroma. Burn them here and you'll taste it throughout the entire sauce.
3. Add the Tomatoes & Herbs
Pour in the crushed tomatoes.
Add:
Oregano
Basil
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Crushed red pepper flakes, if using
Stir until everything is evenly combined.
4. Simmer
Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer.
Reduce the heat to low.
Simmer uncovered for approximately 20–25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
The onion should become completely tender and the sauce should thicken slightly while retaining enough moisture to spread easily over pizza.
Kirby Kitchen Tip: You're not trying to cook this down into tomato paste. It should still spread easily across the crust and continue cooking when the pizza goes into the oven.
5. Taste & Adjust
Taste the sauce.
Adjust the salt, black pepper, oregano, or red pepper flakes as needed.
The fennel should be noticeable as a background flavor, not the first thing you taste.
6. Cool
Allow the sauce to cool before using.
For the best flavor, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before making pizza.
The flavors will continue to come together as the sauce rests.
How Much Pizza Sauce?
🍕 12-Inch Pizza
Use approximately ⅓ cup.
🍕 16-Inch Pizza
Use approximately ½ cup, depending on how heavily sauced you like your pizza.
🫓 Joseph's Pita Pizza
Start with 2–3 tablespoons.
🫓 Joseph's Lavash Pizza
Start with approximately ¼ cup.
Kirby Rule: More sauce doesn't automatically mean better pizza. Too much sauce adds moisture and makes it harder to keep the crust crisp.
Performance Notes
🍅 No Tomato Paste
This sauce intentionally skips tomato paste.
The goal is a brighter, fresher tomato flavor rather than a heavily concentrated sauce.
The crushed tomatoes provide everything we need.
🧅 Fresh White Onion
Instead of onion powder, fresh white onion is cooked into the sauce.
This gives the sauce a more rounded savory flavor and a subtle natural sweetness as the onion softens.
🌿 Keep the Herbs Simple
Oregano and basil provide the familiar pizza-sauce foundation without overwhelming the tomatoes.
🌱 Don't Forget the Fennel
Fennel seed gives the sauce a subtle warm, aromatic quality that pairs especially well with sausage, pepperoni, Italian meats, and rich cheeses.
Lightly crushing the fennel before adding it helps release its flavor throughout the sauce.
🌶️ Heat Is Optional
The red pepper flakes are intentionally low.
The goal isn't to make the sauce hot. It's to add a little background warmth.
Make It Your Own
More Garlic: Add another clove of fresh garlic.
More Fennel: Increase to ¾ teaspoon for a more pronounced fennel character.
More Heat: Increase the crushed red pepper flakes.
Chunkier: Leave the onion slightly larger.
Smoother: Briefly blend with an immersion blender after simmering.
Fresh Herb Version: Replace part of the dried basil with fresh basil just before the sauce finishes cooking.
Put It to Work
Kirby Kitchen Pizza Sauce works especially well with:
Traditional pizza
Joseph's pita pizza
Joseph's Lavash pizza
BBQ chicken pizza
Pepperoni pizza
Sausage pizza
Meatball subs
Calzones
Stromboli
Pizza rolls
Chicken Parmesan
Mozzarella sticks
Fuel Profile — Estimated Per Serving
Calories: ~30 kcal | Protein: ~1 g | Carbohydrates: ~4 g | Net Carbs: ~3 g | Fiber: ~1 g | Fat: ~1 g
Based on approximately 12 quarter-cup servings. Nutrition is estimated and will vary depending on the crushed tomatoes, olive oil, onion, and specific ingredient brands used.
Storage
Refrigerator
Transfer the cooled sauce to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5–7 days.
Freezer
Freeze in small portions for up to 3 months.
Freezing the sauce in ¼- to ½-cup portions makes it easy to pull out exactly what you need for pizza night.
Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.
Kitchen Wisdom
“Good pizza sauce doesn't compete with the toppings. It gives them something worth standing on.”