Pizza Sauce

I've used Prego spaghetti sauce as pizza sauce for a long time and I had not given much thought to making my own sauce until I stumbled upon a very easy looking recipe for pizza sauce.  After giving it a shot, I think it's definitely worth it to make your own sauce.  It wasn't very difficult but it did take a little time because you need to cook out as much water as possible so it doesn't make your pizza soggy.  I think my tastes are changing because previously I didn't like anything spicy but lately I've been able to tolerate it more and even like it in some cases, like this pizza.  The recipe that I used was a little on the spicy side but it was still really, really good.  This recipe made a lot of sauce and I've put the leftovers into a cleaned out glass jar in the fridge.  I would think it would keep a week or two and if you make pizza as much as we like to around here, it works out great.  However, I'm sure it would also be good as a dipping sauce or tossed with some pasta.

Zesty Pizza Sauce
via Coconut & Lime

Makes about 22 oz of sauce
 
Ingredients:
1 small onion, minced*
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes**
2 tablespoon olive oil
28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
freshly ground black pepper
salt

Directions:
1.  In a large saucepan, saute the onions, red pepper flakes and garlic, in olive oil, 3-5 minutes or until fragrant.
2.  Add tomatoes, tomato paste, remaining spices and stir. Cook 30-40 minutes on low or until thickened to the point when you run a spoon across the bottom of the pan "parting" the sauce and virtually no liquid trickles into the middle. The thicker the sauce, the less likely your pizza will be soggy.

*I didn't mince my onion fine enough this time around.  It didn't really bother me, but next time I'll try to make the onion not so obvious.
**If you really don't like spicy, cut this amount down a bit.

My Pizza Dough recipe can be found here.