Within the past year or so, I’ve been making recipes related to pizza. Calzones, pizza quesadillas… I’ve even started making my own pizza crust in my bread machine! For the longest time, I’ve just bought jars of pizza sauce. It’s convenient and tastes good, but I knew I could make my own somehow! I found this recipe and tried it recently, and I’m never buying jarred pizza sauce again. The best part is that it makes so much, I can freeze the rest in individual sized bags to use in future recipes!
What you need:
Tomato paste
Tomato sauce
Parmesan cheese
Italian seasoning
Vegetable oil
Garlic powder
Honey
Salt and pepper
Water
Add all ingredients except Parmesan cheese in the slow cooker and give it a good stir. Set to LOW and cook for 4 hours, making sure to stir every 30 minutes to prevent the sauce from sticking.
After 4 hours, add the cheese and stir again, and then serve however you like!
We used ours as the dipping sauce for pizza quesadillas.
After the sauce has cooled, store the leftovers in quart-sized freezer bags. How many just depends on how much sauce you like to use for each recipe. We were able to get 3!
If you lay the bags flat like this in the freezer, they’ll stack easily once frozen to save room in your freezer!
So because I’m a nerd and love seeing how much money I’m saving, here’s a breakdown of the cost of this versus a jar of pizza sauce:
1 jar of Ragu pizza sauce, 12 ounces: $1.29
This entire recipe, which makes about 45 ounces, or almost 4 jars: $2.20
- Price per “jar”: $.55!
That’s a pretty big savings! Plus you control the ingredients that are being put in and can freeze the leftovers, saving even more money!
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:6]
(Linked up on: Simply Wright )
Rowan says
Pinned this! This is genius. Thank you for sharing!
Jaime says
Thank you! I was so excited to see how easy this was.
Ashley says
Pinned this for later! This looks so good!
Jaime says
It is delicious!
Hannah @ CleanEatingVeggieGirl says
What a super awesome idea! I love pretty much anything that I can throw in a slow cooker 😉
Jaime says
My slow cooker is my best friend this year. =)
Tirralan @ Tinseltown Mom says
What a fun, economical recipe for the family!
Bethany Magnie says
I used to make my own sauce but have never used honey! I’ll be giving that a try soon.
Jaime says
I’ve never heard of honey being used in pizza sauce, but it’s pretty good!
annabelt says
I love making pizza too! That’s a great idea, freezing the sauce in bags too
Jaime says
It’s so convenient to be able to just take it out of the freezer, and it thaws easily, too!
Sara says
Looks awesome, I’ve been buying my sauce because I don’t have time to make it but I could totally do this and freeze some!
Jaime says
I had never even thought about making my own until I saw this recipe!
Lynda@fitnessmomwinecountry says
Jaime, you had me at Pizza, that was it right there LOL
Great idea and great recipe, thanks for sharing, this will be great for quick meals for the kids and after weekend sports 🙂
Jaime says
Right? Anything with pizza just makes me drool. I saw another blogger who introduced me to pizza fries; another thing to add to my list!
Christina says
Yum! Thanks for sharing. I am going to try this. I love slow cooker recipes. So easy for the family.
Logan Cantrell says
This looks so yummy! I love homemade pizzas, so I will definitely have to try this! Pinning!
Jolleen Ruiz says
This looks delicious and so easy to make! Thanks for sharing!
Ashleigh says
This looks really good…I love slow cooker recipes and pizza, so this is a win, win! Thank you for sharing! I invite you to please come share this and link up with me now at http://www.wrightsimply.com/2015/04/not-so-wordless-wednesday-linky_14.html
I think others will love this! xx Ashleigh @SimplyWright
Jaime says
Thank you! And thanks for the link, I signed up for the link party. =)
Jennifer says
This looks so good! I never would’ve thought to do pizza sauce in the slow cooker!
Jaime says
Right?? I’m never looking back now!
Miss Angie says
This is such a great idea, and it also looks delicious!
Suz @ 2 cats & chloe says
I have never even thought to use the slow cooker to make sauce! This is so smart and sounds like a great recipe!
Allison - Celebrating Sweets says
I must admit, I’ve never made pizza sauce before. This recipe looks so easy. I’ll have to try it!
TheFrugalChicken.com says
This look so good! I’ve been looking for an easy recipe for pizza sauce, hadn’t thought of the crock pot! I can’t wait to try this one!
Nicole says
Awesome recipe, and bonus for being able to use the slow cooker!
Jackie says
Oh yum!!! We’re just coming into Winter here in NZ so this type of sauce will be perfect to keep warm on a cold evening 🙂 Can’t beat winter slow-cooker recipes.
Great post, Thanks.
Jackie @StyleMePetite.com
Brittany says
What a really great idea! I always love making my own sauces! Number one, because it is way cheaper like you showed and number two, because there is was less salt then if you were to buy it! Thanks for the recipe!
Eva says
I am definitely giving it a try. I hate using canned stuff and i don’t use slow cooker enough. Win win! Plus kids love pizza! Thanks for sharing