Easy Pizza Sauce and French Bread Pizzas

I'm cheap. Let's just go ahead and state the obvious. I'd just as soon not pay for something if I can make it, especially if it's simple to make. Pizza Sauce falls into this category. I used to buy pizza sauce until one night I was in the middle of making pizza and discovered that I didn't have any pizza sauce.

Whoops.

I already had the crust prepared, the veggies chopped, the meat – everything - but no sauce. I desperately searched through the cupboards and found a can of tomato paste. It would just have to work. I thinned it out with some water, added some sautéed onion and garlic, salt, pepper, spices, and parmesan cheese and it was pretty good. I've tweaked the recipe several times and have a few different versions I like to make depending on the kind of pizza I'm going for but for under a dollar you can have homemade pizza sauce with no preservatives, extra salt, and what the heck else they put in jarred pizza sauce to make it keep for two years. The thing I like is that one can of tomato sauce can be used for so much else than just pizza sauce. So instead of buying something that has just one purpose you can buy an ingredient that can be used several different ways. Definitely more economical if you ask me.

I'm going to give you a few options on the recipe so you can customize it to what you have on hand. So let's get our ingredients and get cooking!

Easy Pizza Sauce

This should make enough for two medium sized pizzas, but any left-overs can be refrigerated and used later.

1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon dehydrated onion or 2 tablespoons finely minced onion or 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil (or a little more)
2 tablespoons water
salt and pepper to taste

If using fresh onion and garlic heat the one tablespoon of olive oil in your sauce pan and sauté until the onions are translucent, two or three minutes - do not brown. Add tomato sauce and other ingredients, simmer for 5 minutes.

If you are using all dry seasonings simply combine tomato sauce and all other ingredients in a sauce pan, bring to a simmer, and cook for 5 minutes stirring often.

Spread on your crust and top with your favorite ingredients!

I posted this picture of Hawaiian French bread pizza the other night and was asked for the recipe. It's very simple and now that you have a brand new sauce reciepe let's try it out!

Hawaiian French Bread Pizza

Easy Pizza Sauce
French Bread
Mozzarella Cheese
Pineapple chunks
Cubed ham

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Cut a piece of French bread about 5 or 6 inches long and slice in half. Lay the pieces of French bread on a cookie sheet cut side up. Spread the bread with pizza sauce and sprinkle on a thin layer of cheese. Top this with the pineapple and ham and finish with another sprinkling of cheese.

Bake at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cheese is all melted and the French bread nice and crusty.

That's it! Easy peasy! I hope you like it and if you try it please let me know what you think! Have a great Friday my lovelies and we'll see you next week!