Keto Pizza Sauce
Published August 4, 2019 • Updated June 14, 2026
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I make this keto pizza sauce from whole canned tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil. At 1.2g net carbs per serving, it's the only red sauce I use for pizza night.
Homemade Pizza Sauce
I used to grab whatever jar was on sale at the store. A couple had about 3g carbs per quarter cup, which seemed fine, but they all had added sugar and that flat, tinny taste you get from processed tomato sauce. Not a little flat. Completely bland. I wanted something with actual tomato flavor that I could pull together fast when the pizza mood hit.
So I started making my own. Whole canned tomatoes, a food processor, garlic sauteed in plenty of olive oil, salt. That’s the whole ingredient list. What surprised me is how different it tastes. Pureeing whole tomatoes yourself gives you a brightness that crushed or pre-made sauces don’t have. The tomatoes aren’t sitting in a can pre-broken-down and losing flavor. You’re starting with the highest-quality canned product and processing it right before cooking, so everything stays intact. Reader Megan told me she’d tried six or seven other keto recipes before landing on this one, and her take was the same: “Pureeing the whole tomatoes yourself instead of opening a can of crushed is what does it. The flavor’s just different.”
The olive oil matters here too. Four tablespoons bumps the fat to 2.3 grams per tablespoon of finished sauce, which makes a real difference for your macros. Standard jarred tomato sauce has zero fat. And the recipe yields about 12 servings (2 tablespoons each), so one batch covers anywhere from six to twelve pizzas depending on how heavy you pour.
I don’t just use this for pizza, either. It works on my crustless pizza, in pizza bowls, as a dipping sauce with keto focaccia, and as the base for cottage cheese pizza bowls. Once you have a batch in the freezer, you start finding excuses to use it. That’s the part I didn’t expect when I first made this. The sauce itself is simple, but having it on hand changes how often pizza night actually happens.
Dina brought a pizza made with this to her sister’s birthday dinner. Her brother-in-law, who avoids anything labeled “keto,” had two slices and asked what brand the sauce was. That’s what whole tomatoes done right taste like. People just taste good food, not a diet workaround.
How to make homemade pizza sauce?
Four ingredients, one saucepan. Olive oil, garlic, canned whole tomatoes, and salt.
I puree the tomatoes in a food processor first (8-10 seconds, no more). Then I saute the garlic in olive oil over low heat until it’s fragrant, about 1-2 minutes, add the puree, and bump the heat to medium. The sauce thickens as the water cooks off, usually 10-15 minutes. Salt goes in at the end.
The whole thing takes under 20 minutes. I’ve made this enough times that I can have it done while the oven preheats.
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Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil -
2 cloves garlic, minced
-
1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes
-
salt and pepper to taste
Step by Step Instructions
Step by Step Instructions
Puree the tomatoes
Using a food processor, blender, or immersion blender, puree the whole tomatoes for about 8 to 10 seconds or until all tomatoes are broken down.
Sauté the garlic
Preheat a medium saucepan over low heat, then add olive oil and garlic. Sauté until garlic is fragrant, about 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the puree
Add tomato puree and increase heat to medium. Cook sauce until slightly thickened, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Add the salt & pepper
Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.
Nutrition disclaimer
The nutrition information provided is an estimate and is for informational purposes only. I am a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.); however, this content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or other qualified health provider before making any lifestyle changes or beginning a new nutrition program.
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Get My Macros + Recipes →Frequently Asked Questions
How many carbs are in this sauce?
Each serving (2 tablespoons) has 1.2g net carbs and 1.6g total carbs. I've compared this to most store-bought options, and it comes in lower than anything I've found on the shelf, especially once you factor in the added sugars most jars sneak in.
Is Rao's a good store-bought alternative?
Rao's is one of the better options if you need something fast. Their marinara runs about 3g net carbs per half cup, which isn't bad for a jar. But I stopped buying it once I started making my own, because the flavor gap is real. Whole tomatoes pureed fresh give you something a low-carb jarred sauce can't. If you have 20 minutes, make this instead.
Is this a sugar free recipe?
No added sugar at all. There's a small amount of natural sugar from the tomatoes, but that's unavoidable with any tomato-based sauce. I've checked the labels on "sugar-free" store brands, and they still have the same natural tomato sugars. By industry standards, this qualifies.
What's the difference between using tomato paste and whole tomatoes?
I've tried both. Tomato paste is concentrated, so the carbs per tablespoon are actually higher, but you use less of it. The real difference is flavor. Paste gives you a thick, dense sauce that tastes cooked-down and heavy. Whole tomatoes pureed fresh taste brighter, more like actual tomatoes. I go with whole every time for this recipe.
Do I need to add a sweetener to cut the acidity?
I don't add any sweetener. The olive oil and the natural sugars in the tomatoes balance the acidity enough for my taste. Some people add a pinch of baking soda to neutralize acid, but I've never felt this sauce needed it. If yours tastes too sharp, try cooking it a few minutes longer. The acidity mellows as the sauce reduces.
Can I make a no-cook version with tomato paste?
You can mix tomato paste with olive oil and seasonings for a quick no-cook sauce, and I've done it when I'm short on time. But the flavor isn't close. Cooking the garlic in olive oil first and then simmering the puree is what builds the depth. The no-cook version works in a pinch, but I always come back to the cooked one.
Can I use this as a pasta sauce or dipping sauce?
I use it for both all the time. It works on anything that needs a red sauce. I've used it as the base when I make keto alfredo dishes that want a drizzle of red on top, as a dip alongside sugar-free ketchup on appetizer boards, and stirred into scrambled eggs for a quick shakshuka-style breakfast.
Four tablespoons of olive oil looks like too much until you taste it. I've made this five or six times and my one note is that the base runs pretty neutral without additional seasoning, more general tomato sauce than pizza sauce. Adding dried oregano when the garlic goes in fixed that. At 1.2g net carbs it was already worth making, now it's exactly what I wanted.
the hiss when chili flakes hit the oil, better sauce
Still figuring out cooking honestly, and this was the recipe where I figured out garlic has kind of a narrow window before it goes from fragrant to bitter. Burned it twice before I connected the dots. What actually fixed it was setting a phone timer for two minutes and just staying in the kitchen, because I cannot be trusted unsupervised apparently. The recipe says low heat and it genuinely means low heat, I kept thinking that was a suggestion. The puree goes in and the sharp edge smooths right out, which was a relief because for a while I thought I was just bad at this. Also found that a tiny pinch of red pepper flakes added with the garlic is really good, not spicy, more like a background warmth that builds. If you've been ending up with sauce that tastes slightly off and couldn't figure out why, those are probably the two things.
Diane, that flake trick is real. I add them with the garlic almost every time now, they just disappear into the sauce but you'd notice without them.
Sauce darkens right as it thickens. Four servings, done.
That color shift is the tell. Once it darkens like that the water's cooked off and you're getting the real concentrated flavor.
Probably batch eight by now. Switched to San Marzano whole tomatoes a while back, the sweetness is already there so I haven't touched a thing. Still 1.2g carbs and noticeably smoother.
San Marzano have been on my list. The lower acidity does that, you don't need to add a thing. Good to know the carbs hold at 1.2.
Made this twice and my sauce keeps coming out too thin to spread on pizza. I'm reducing it on medium but it barely thickens. How long do you actually cook it down, and is there a visual cue to watch for?
Amber, medium is usually the culprit. I start on medium-high until they're actually bubbling, then pull it back down, and I break the tomatoes apart with a spoon as they cook, otherwise the liquid just pools around them and won't cook off. Watch for when the bubbling slows down and the sauce starts clinging to a spoon instead of running off. That's usually around 15-20 min from when the garlic goes in, but pan width matters. A wider pan reduces faster than a deep saucepan.
backyard pizza night, next time I'm doubling the sauce.
Doubling it is the right call for a group. Freezes well too if you end up with extra at the end of the night.
Third or fourth batch this month and I've stopped measuring the garlic, just go heavy. The low-heat sauté is the part you can't rush, I pushed it to medium once and the flavor went flat in a way that took me two more batches to trace back to that. San Marzanos if you can find them, the sauce comes out noticeably sweeter and less acidic. 1.2g carbs for how much flavor you get is just absurd.
My daughter decided she was going to find a store-bought replacement for this over the summer, just to give me a break from making it. Three brands later she told me none of them had the garlic flavor right. Which, fair. Sautéing garlic low and slow in olive oil before adding the tomatoes does something no jarred sauce bothers to do. Double batching from here on out.
Sounds like your daughter did the work I already did years ago. No jar has time for that garlic step at scale. I start mine on the lowest setting, barely a sizzle, and let the garlic go soft before the tomatoes go in. That's where all the sweetness comes from. Rush it even slightly, and the whole sauce tastes sharp and unfinished. I double batch too, freezes fine.
I always bought jarred sauce because I figured homemade was more effort than it was worth. Four ingredients, I thought there had to be a catch. The catch is that it actually tastes like pizza sauce is supposed to taste, which most jarred stuff never quite pulls off for me. Sautéing the garlic in olive oil first on low heat is what makes the difference. That smell when it hits the pan sets the whole thing up. At 1.2g net carbs I can stop rationing it too, which was half my problem with store-bought stuff. Surprised this came together so fast. Sunday pizza nights, sorted.
Rationing sauce is the worst part of jarred. That garlic step is maybe two minutes, Roberto, and the smell alone makes it worth the switch.
Growing up, Sunday meant garlic in olive oil from my mom's kitchen. She made her sauce almost exactly this way. Went keto four years ago and switched to Rao's, the only jarred option not loaded with sugar. Fine, but never quite right. Made this two weeks ago and the moment the garlic hit the pan I stopped what I was doing. That smell is specific. Can't get it from a jar. The whole tomatoes cooked down into this clean sauce, bright in a way I'd forgotten existed under all the herbs and added sugars every other recipe piles on. I cried a little, which is embarrassing, but pizza night hadn't felt real in years and now it does.
Two cloves in olive oil and suddenly it's your mom's kitchen. That smell is impossible to fake. Glad pizza night is back.
Never thought to make my own pizza sauce before but the garlic sautéing in the olive oil had the whole kitchen smelling incredible. Came together way faster than I expected. One question though: can I freeze this in portions or does it lose something when it thaws?
Yeah it freezes fine. I do ice cube trays for portioning, then transfer to a bag once frozen. The oil separates a little when it thaws but just give it a stir.
When I went keto two years ago, pizza night was what I mourned most, the sauce especially. Jarred low-carb versions taste metallic, and I'd just made my peace with that. Made this Saturday with San Marzanos; garlic sautéed in olive oil is what does it. Doesn't taste like a compromise. Still tweaking the simmer time to get my thickness right, which is the only reason I'm at four stars. This is the one I'll keep making.
Thickness is all in the simmer. I go 20-25 minutes and check with a spoon drag through the center. San Marzanos take a little longer to break down so you might need the extra time.
Swapped in fire-roasted instead of regular whole tomatoes. Smoky depth you can't go back from. Carbs track the same if you're counting.
Can't go back is right. I've had both in the pantry for months and the regular ones just sit there.
Brought this to pizza night and my friend who slow-simmers her sauce for three hours asked for the recipe when I told her it was just a can of whole tomatoes and two garlic cloves.
Three hours vs two garlic cloves and she still asked for the recipe. That's the whole argument for this sauce right there.