Thick, flavorful and hearty, this freezer pizza sauce is an excellent way to use up excess tomatoes from the garden. Made with fresh tomatoes, garlic and all your favorite Italian spices. The pizza sauce is so scrumptious, it will leave you hoping every night is pizza night!

Freezer Pizza Sauce With Fresh Tomatoes

For many people, Christmas is their favorite time of year. Twinkling lights, singing Christmas carols, attending Christmas Eve service at church, wrapping gifts for loved one and decorating the tree. There are so many marvelous things about December.

However, while I do love Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year for me has nothing to do with holiday festivities. My favorite season only comes once a year, beginning into August and lasting until some time in October, usually.

Can you guess what my favorite season is?

Tomato time!

Only one time a year can you pick a juicy, flavorful tomato right from the vine. They are so fresh and sweet, like natures candy. I consume as much as them as I can by tossing them onto salads and burgers, into salsa and of course popping those little cherry tomatoes straight into my mouth after I gather from the garden.

There is just no better time than tomato season.

Sadly, fresh tomatoes only last a short period of time. To preserve the bounty, I water bath can jar upon jar of diced tomatoes. I also dehydrate them and toss handfuls of tomatoes into various ferments. 

But what are some other ways to use homegrown tomatoes?

Especially when you have an abundance of tomatoes.

Homemade pizza sauce!

Freezer pizza sauce made from fresh tomatoes is perfectly delicious. Plus it is easy-to-make, quick and requires no special knowledge or tools like canning does. My recipe for pizza sauce using fresh tomatoes is perfect for freezing. Simply mix up a batch, divide the sauce into containers and freeze. I prefer to make this freezer pizza sauce in bulk to save me lots of time during the busy harvest season. When I’m ready to use the freezer pizza sauce, I pull a container from the deep freeze, thaw it for a few hours, give it a quick stir and spread it generously over my homemade pizza. Delicious!

What Kinds of Tomatoes Do You Use to Make Pizza Sauce?

Lots of pizza sauce recipes call for Roma, San Marzano or paste tomatoes but I have found that when making freezer pizza sauce, any tomato in your garden will work well. Since you are not canning the tomatoes, you do not need to worry about the acidity level of the tomatoes. Do you have cherry tomatoes? Dad’s sunset tomatoes? Amish paste? Beefsteak tomato? Toss them in! The melody of flavors will blend to create a flavorsome pizza sauce.

Do You Need to Peel Tomatoes to Make Pizza Sauce?

No. It is not necessary to remove the peels from the tomatoes before making the pizza sauce. Just chop the tomatoes into chunks and toss into the stockpot. Once the tomatoes and other ingredients have cooked down, you will use an immersion blender to purée the sauce so that no tomato skins remain.

Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe

With notes of sweet summer tomatoes, garlic and plenty of seasoning, this homemade freezer pizza sauce recipe is a wonderful addition to pizza night! It is also an excellent way to preserve a bumper crop of tomatoes!

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. In any case, I only link to products we actually use on our homestead and that I believe can truly benefit to you. See my full disclosure here. 

Homemade Pizza Sauce Ingredients

Makes: 10-12 cups

1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cups diced onion
3/4 cup diced celery
6-10 cloves of garlic, minced
5.25 lbs (84 oz) tomatoes, chopped
3 cans (18 oz) tomato paste
1 Tbs dried basil
1 Tbs dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground pepper

How to Make Pizza Sauce With Fresh Tomatoes

In a large pot over medium low heat, add olive oil. Add diced onion and celery; cook until onion begins to brown slightly. Toss in garlic and cook, stirring occasionally for about 2 minutes.

Increase heat to medium. Add chopped tomatoes into pot (no need to peel). Cover and allow to simmer for 15 minutes to begin to break down the tomatoes.

Remove lid and mix in tomato paste, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Replace lid and bring mixture to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes.

Using an immersion blender, purée sauce until completely smooth. (If you do not have an immersion blender, you can ladle the sauce into a blender to purée. Be careful as the sauce will be very hot.) Cover and bring sauce back to a simmer and cook for an additional 20-30 minutes, until slightly thickened. Remove pot from heat. Let sauce cool completely before freezing.

To freeze pizza sauce, divide equally among containers (I love these ones) or plastic freezer bags. Remove as much air as possible if using a freezer bag. Label with the name and date. Freeze.

To use pizza sauce, thaw for a few hours then give it a stir until it is smooth again. Spread about 1/4-1/3 cup over pizza dough. Add the rest of your pizza toppings and bake according to your homemade pizza instructions.

Tips for Success

This homemade pizza sauce using fresh tomatoes from your garden can easily be cut in half or doubled depending on the amount of tomatoes you have.

Looking for more ways to use up excess tomatoes from your garden? Try my homemade freezer salsa recipe.

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