How to Make Freeze Dried Pizza Sauce
Freeze dried pizza sauce is a great way to preserve tomatoes when they are in season. It is also delicious and freeze drying keeps a lot of the nutrition and fresh flavor!

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This post contains affiliate links. Here is the full disclosure.
What is Freeze Drying?
Freeze Drying is a process in which a completely frozen sample is placed under a vacuum in order to remove water, allowing the ice to change directly from a solid to a vapor without passing through a liquid phase.
Freeze drying is a relatively new process of preserving. At the time of writing this there is only one main company that sells at home freeze dryers and that is Harvest Right. In full disclosure, I am a Harvest Right affiliate. You can learn more about Harvest Right and shop their freeze dryers HERE.

Why Freeze Dry Pizza Sauce rather than Can or Bottle Pizza Sauce?
There are three main reasons that I freeze dry rather than can foods.
#1 The number one reason being nutrition is preserved! A great deal of heat is used in canning and much of the nutrition is diminished during processing.
#2 The second reason is extra long shelf life. If I want to preserve something a really long time 15+ years, the only way to do that with pizza sauce or any other vegetable for that matter is to freeze dry it and store it in proper conditions.

#3 The third reason to freeze dry rather than can food is you can be creative with the recipe! Canning is a science and due to safety reasons all recipes must be tested and followed as it is written. With freeze drying the water is removed and bacteria can’t grow. Therefore you can make any adjustments to a recipe you like!
Is it Pizza Sauce or Seasoned Tomato Sauce?
We actually use our pizza sauce in recipes that call for tomato sauce as well. It’s nicely seasoned and can stand alone or be added to a soup or other dish.
One of our favorite ways to eat it aside from on pizza is a dipping sauce for homemade pretzels.

How to Make Freeze Dried Pizza Sauce
Ingredients
- 12 lbs tomatoes it’s best to use a paste variety like Roma or San Marzano
- 4 heads garlic small-medium size
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 small onions or 2 medium size, diced
- 1/2 cup fresh basil finely chopped
- 2 Tablespoons fresh oregano finely chopped
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400ºF.
- Cut tomatoes in half and place on a parchment lined baking sheet cut side down. It will take several baking trays to do all 12lbs.
- Put the trays in the oven and set the timer for one hour.
- Meanwhile, cut the tips off the garlic heads and drizzle with a teaspoon of olive oil. (The less oil you use the longer it will last in storage, so less is more here) Wrap garlic completely and tightly with foil. Place on one of the baking trays in the oven and let cook for the rest of the hour bake.
- While the tomatoes and garlic are roasting take the diced onion and sauté it in a skillet on medium heat until soft. You can also chop up and measure the herbs as you wait.
- When the timer beeps for the tomatoes, pull out the trays and set the garlic aside. Run the tomatoes through a food mill or sauce maker and then pour it all in a large mixing bowl. The one I use can be found HERE, it’s a good one. See note below for alternative method if you don’t have a food mill.
- Then place cooked onions in a blender, squeeze out all the roasted garlic into the blender, and add a cup of tomato sauce. Blend throughly.
- Pour the blended onion/garlic sauce into the bowl with the roasted tomato sauce. Add salt, pepper, basil, oregano, sugar, and red wine vinegar. Stir.
- No need to heat it up, pour directly into freeze dryer trays. It should fit into four medium size trays.
- Place directly into your freeze dryer or alternatively, freeze in a freezer then place in freeze dryer. We prefer to do the latter. Follow the instructions on the freeze dryer display to freeze dry.
- After the freeze dryer is finished drying take out the trays and flip them onto a baking sheet. Crush with a rolling pin just enough to get it to easily fit in mason jars or mylar bags. We didn’t blend it because we wanted chopped herbs left in larger bits in the sauce upon rehydration.
- Package and store. There are several options, here is what we do. When we use mylar bags we add an oxygen absorber and seal with an impulse sealer. If we use mason jars you could also use an oxygen absorber or you can use a vacuum sealer for jars.
- Rehydration: Heat water to a simmer. Pour the amount of sauce you’d like in a bowl. Slowly add the water and stir until it becomes the thickness and consistency you desire.