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10 Minute Spicy Pizza Sauce Recipe With Calabrian Chilis

ByNicole Langdon Hours Updated on
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Spicy pizza sauce is the key to leveling up homemade pizza nights! Chopped Calabrian chilies and red pepper flakes bring fiery heat to a traditional tomato sauce that will ignite your tastebuds. It cooks in just 10 minutes on the stove and makes a large batch so you can enjoy spicy pizzas over and over again.

A wooden spoon scooping freshly made spicy Calabrian chili pizza sauce out of a ceramic saucepan.

A few years ago, Alex and I did a “pizza of the month” challenge where we came up with a new, completely unique pizza recipe once a month for a whole year. One of those pizzas – our spicy sausage pizza with fresno and hot cherry peppers – was the answer to Alex’s question: “How hot do you think we can make a pizza?”

Turns out, you can make a pizza quite hot with a spicy red sauce and loads of spicy toppings. We loved it so much, we thought the spicy pizza sauce deserved its very own place on our blog.

Made with Calabrian chilies and pantry staples, it’s got a peppery heat to it that just might knock your socks off. Use it on any of your favorite pies to add a kick, or go all out like we did and pair it with spicy toppings, too.

What To Expect

  • Great for: Leveling up homemade pizza with a spicy kick!
  • Ready in: 10 minutes.
  • Serves: About 3 and a half cups of sauce.
  • Flavor profile: Savory tomato and garlic with fiery red pepper heat.
  • How to make it: Bloom the garlic, Calabrian chilies, and red pepper flakes in oil over medium heat, then stir in crushed tomatoes and dry spices and simmer until flavorful.

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Why We Love This Recipe

Homemade pizza sauce tastes so much better than any store-bought option, and we love knowing it’s better for our bodies since it’s made with minimally processed ingredients. The added spice is perfect for pizza nights when we’re craving some heat!

– Nicole & Alex

Spicy Pizza Sauce: Key Ingredients

Ingredients for spicy pizza sauce: crushed tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, minced garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, calabrian chilies, cayenne, paprika, dried oregano, and sea salt.
  • Chopped Calabrian chilies – Calabrian chilies are the secret ingredient to a great spicy red sauce! You can often find them already chopped in a jar of oil (usually in the condiments aisle), but if you can only find whole chilies in a jar you can always chop them yourself. Just make sure to chop them finely (and wear gloves!), otherwise you might end up with a surprise extra-spicy bite of pepper in your sauce 🙂
  • Crushed tomatoes – Canned crushed tomatoes are a convenient way to make pizza sauce without having to pull out the blender. Look for a minimally processed “no salt added” option at the store so you can control the salt levels in your sauce.
  • Cayenne and paprika – These two spices add even more heat to this pizza sauce. We wouldn’t typically use them in a red sauce, but for a spicy sauce they add a little extra oomph that makes a difference.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

How To Make Spicy Pizza Sauce

  1. Add the oil, minced garlic, chopped Calabrian chilies, and crushed red pepper flakes to a saucepan over medium heat. Cook until sizzling and fragrant, stirring often to prevent sticking or burning. This step brings out extra flavor in the garlic and peppers.
  2. Stir in the crushed tomatoes, cayenne, paprika, oregano, and salt until well combined. Simmer over medium-low to low heat for about 5 to 10 minutes until hot, stirring occasionally, then taste and adjust salt if needed.
  3. Remove from heat and use for pizza, or let cool and store in the fridge or freezer.

Expert Tips

  • Bloom the aromatics – Cooking the garlic, chilies, and red pepper flakes in oil helps bring out their flavor. It will also help the peppers soften so they almost disappear into the tomato sauce, adding spice without impacting the overall texture.
  • Simmer until warm – This is an easy way to tell if you’ve let the sauce simmer long enough for the flavors to really combine. Taste your sauce around the 5 to 7 minute mark and if it’s not flavorful enough, you might just want to give it a few more minutes on the stove.
  • Store perfectly sized portions – We almost always use a half cup of sauce for one pizza, so we like to freeze this sauce in our half cup Souper Cubes tray. On pizza night, it’s easy to just pop a cube out and defrost it in a few minutes. We’re longtime fans of Souper Cubes and highly recommend their products if you like to batch prep homemade sauces, soups, and condiments!
A perfectly cooked slice of spicy sausage and pepper pizza on a round pizza pan.
Our spicy sausage and pepper pizza, made with spicy pizza sauce.

FAQs

We like to cook pizza sauce to bloom the aromatics (garlic, Calabrian chilies, and red pepper flakes) as it brings out more flavor. This step also softens the Calabrian chilies, which helps their texture disappear into the sauce nicely.

You can store pizza sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also freeze pizza sauce for up to 6 months. We like to freeze half-cup portions in our Souper Cubes tray so it’s easy to pop out the right portion on pizza nights!

Spicy pizza sauce is a great place to start, but other spicy toppings we love for pizza include hot peppers, spicy Italian sausage or chorizo, chipotle mayo, or buffalo sauce. Check out our spicy sausage pizza with hot cherry peppers or our sheet pan buffalo chicken pizza for two different (yet equally delicious) spicy pizza options!

Yes! Pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce are basically the same thing, so you can use this sauce to make a spicy spaghetti dinner. Try it with our slow cooker Italian meatballs for a spicy twist on an Italian classic.

Other Homemade Sauce Recipes To Try

Love this recipe? You may enjoy these recipes, too:

Tell us what you think!

We hope you enjoy this recipe! When you try it out, please leave a review and a star rating in the comments below. Happy cooking! – Nicole and Alex

10 Minute Spicy Pizza Sauce Recipe With Calabrian Chilis

Nicole & Alex Langdon
Spicy pizza sauce is the key to leveling up homemade pizza nights! Chopped Calabrian chilies and red pepper flakes bring fiery heat to a traditional tomato sauce that will ignite your tastebuds. It cooks in just 10 minutes on the stove and makes a large batch so you can enjoy spicy pizzas over and over again.
5 from 1 vote
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Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Course Ingredient, Sauce
Cuisine American, Italian
Servings 3.5 cups
Calories 119 kcal

Equipment

  • Saucepan

Ingredients
 
 

  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1½ teaspoons chopped Calabrian chili peppers
  • 1½ teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
  • 28 ounces canned crushed tomatoes no salt added
  • 1 teaspoon ground red cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions
 

  • Add the oil, minced garlic, chopped Calabrian chilies, and crushed red pepper flakes to a saucepan over medium heat. Cook until sizzling and fragrant, just a minute or so, stirring often to prevent sticking or burning. This step brings out extra flavor in the garlic and peppers.
  • Stir in the crushed tomatoes, cayenne, paprika, oregano, and salt until well combined. Simmer over medium-low to low heat for about 5 to 10 minutes until hot, stirring occasionally, then taste and adjust salt if needed.
  • Remove from heat and use for pizza, or let cool and store in the fridge or freezer.
One last step:Please consider leaving a review to let us know how it was!

Notes

Chopped Calabrian chilies – Calabrian chilies are the secret ingredient to a great spicy red sauce! You can often find them already chopped in a jar of oil (usually in the condiments aisle), but if you can only find whole chilies in a jar you can always chop them yourself. Just make sure to chop them finely (and wear gloves!).
Crushed tomatoes – Look for a minimally processed “no salt added” option at the store so you can control the salt levels in your sauce.
Storing pizza sauce – We almost always use a half cup of sauce for one pizza, so we like to freeze this sauce in our half cup Souper Cubes tray. On pizza night, it’s easy to just pop a cube out and defrost it in a few minutes. We’re longtime fans of Souper Cubes and highly recommend their products if you like to batch prep homemade sauces, soups, and condiments!
Serving suggestions – Check out our blog post for pizza topping ideas and other uses for spicy pizza sauce.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cupCalories: 119kcalCarbohydrates: 19gProtein: 4gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gSodium: 513mgPotassium: 715mgFiber: 5gSugar: 10gVitamin A: 1033IUVitamin C: 24mgCalcium: 94mgIron: 3mg
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If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.

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90% of Nicole’s thoughts are about food. She’s had a passion for cooking (and eating) for as long as she can remember! Growing up, she started cooking with her mom at a young age, learned family recipes from her Italian grandmother, took every opportunity to make cookies (so many bake sales), and always loved going out to restaurants to try new foods.

Nicole currently works part-time as a marketing professional for OmieLife while also working nonstop on The Candid Cooks. As a former mechanical engineer, Nicole has consistently found herself at the intersection of creativity and logical reasoning. She credits not only her passion for photography, design, and writing, but also her problem-solving nature and desire to learn, as the foundation on which The Candid Cooks was built.

Nicole’s hobbies include anything that gets her moving - mainly hiking, skiing, ice skating, and dancing - as well as reading fantasy novels and scrapbooking. Her favorite food is a big plate of nachos, as long as they’re cheesy enough!

5 from 1 vote

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One Comment

  1. 5 stars
    I love how easy it is to make this for homemade pizza nights! The Calabrian chili flavor really comes through, so it’s a great addition to any classic pie for some heat.

    Reply