Pizza Sauce

Homemade pizza sauce using fresh ingredients enhances the taste of any pizza. This sauce is a favorite with my family. We like it because it is very versatile. You can change the ingredients based on what you have in the pantry. While tomatoes are used as the base, there is no need to buy a specific kind. You can use any type of tomato in this sauce.

Ideally you would use vine ripened salad tomatoes preferably from a farmer's market. But if the only tomatoes you can find are the barely ripe grocery store variety then use a handful of cherry or grape tomatoes with it. Roma tomatoes or tomatoes or different colors everything works. Add them to some onion, garlic and oregano and you have great tasting pizza sauce.

You will need (for 6 hand tossed 10 inch pizzas)
28 oz of chopped tomatoes (6 salad tomatoes or 4 salad and 12 cherry or any other combination)
1/4 cup chopped onion
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 tbsp. dried oregano
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. fresh oregano (use dried if fresh is not available)
salt and black pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and dried oregano. Mix together until fragrant.

Add the tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook for 15-20 minutes on medium heat until the tomatoes are completely mushy. Turn off heat and let it cool down.

At this point you can mash them, use a hand blender or transfer to a blender/food processor and puree. Add fresh oregano and continue to cook the mashed/pureed sauce for another 5 minutes. Turn off heat and cool completely.

You can store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

Variation:
Add half a red bell pepper to the sauce.