I'm On A Quest To Find The Ideal Tomato Pizza Sauce....

[global1]

To me it's the sauce that makes the pizza. I don't like sweet pizza sauces. I like the savory tomato flavored sauces where the emphasis is on the tomato. One in particular I like but don't have the recipe for uses some tomato paste in the recipe I'm told.

So your mission if you choose to accept it is to post recipes for tomato sauces that I can use for pizza and also may double as a pasta sauce as well. I watch a lot of food/cooking shows and I'm always hearing of sauces past down for generations that are secret recipes. If anyone has one of those recipes that they'd like to share - I would appreciate it.

I've traveled to Europe quite a bit and learned that the tomatoes there actually taste like tomatoes. They are more flavorful. I don't know what they do with tomatoes here in the U.S. - but most are bland and tasteless.

So any recommendations you can provide to me for a flavorful tomato/pizza/pasta sauce would be appreciated.

[unblock]

1. as for the vegetables in europe, imho it's the soil.

dark, rich soil makes for delicious vegetables right out of the ground.

not sure how they maintain it, but my impression is that american farmers have a more exploitative attitude toward their soil and tend to deplete it of the nutrients that make good veggies.

[mr_lebowski]

2. I don't have a recipe as such, but a pretty solid 'starter' for any such sauce IMHO ...

https://www.target.com/p/cento-san-marzano-peeled-tomatoes-28-oz/-/A-14772994

Throw in blender or food processor and whack it for a few secs, then start cooking/adding spices.

REAL long simmering times are highly recommended (4-6 hours) in any kinda tomato sauce.

Also, note Cento makes other, similar-looking (and cheaper) products ... make sure you get the 'Product Of Italy' label.

Can never go too wrong with those tomatoes above, some sea salt, fresh ground pepper & basil & oregano, couple cloves of pressed garlic, granulated onion, and a dash of olive oil ... I also like a teaspoon or two of sugar, it doesn't make it sweet but brings out the flavor. That combo, simmered 6 hours, makes a great/versatile tomato sauce that's good on pizza or pasta.

[Heartstrings]

3. Ever heard of Pastorelli's?

Has always been my go to for pizza sauce...

www.pastorelli.com

[fierywoman]

4. When I lived in Venice, Italy, my favorite pizza place made the sauce by

taking the whole, peeled tomatoes out of the can (without the liquid around them) and putting them in the food processor. And then spreading it on the pizza. Try this with a can of tomatoes (yeah I know $$$) from Italy and see what happens. What I learned from living in northern Italy for 8 years is that less is more ... you don't want a sauce that boils for hours on a pizza!

As for a basic tomato sauce for pasta, it cooks as the pasta cooks: 1 crushed garlic clove in a little olive oil, add above type tomatoes scrunched (broken up) with your hand, maybe the tiniest bit of liquid from the can, salt (my neighbor would say: to suck out the flavor!). Before you serve it, you remove the garlic clove. "Grana" (parmesan cheese) sprinkled lightly on top of the pasta. If you've put the proper amount of sauce on the pasta, there should be no sauce remaining at the end, and you should always be able to taste the pasta through the sauce. While we're at it: portion of dry pasta per person: 90-100 grams (yeah, they measure it. ) It's a way different way of looking at food than what we do in the US.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. You might want to check out this sauce recipe from Lidia Bastianich.

NEAPOLITAN PIZZA SAUCE

https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/neapolitan-pizza-sauce/

It uses just a few ingredients and the focus is on the tomatoes.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

6. I make one from scratch with San Marzano tomatoes

fresh basil, minced garlic and minced shallot (both fresh), salt and ground black pepper. Run through a blender and slow simmered for a couple hours. I usually use one 28 oz can of tomatoes, 2-3
cloves of garlic, and a large shallot, everything else to taste.

[Retrograde]

7. I start with a can of diced tomatoes

Canned tomatoes are a cupboard standard: to make a sauce, I saute some diced onions and garlic, then add the tomatoes and liquid, maybe add a squirt* or two of tomato paste, some wine (I'm partial to Two Buck Chuck for cooking), some oregano from the garden, some bay leaves from the neighbor's tree (they help themselves to my rosemary hedge in turn). Let it simmer for an hour or so, then buzz with a stick blender and continue to cook until it's the right texture. Fennel seeds are a nice addition if I have them: they remind me of East Coast pizzas. If I want basil or other herbs on the pizza I add them fresh.

I gave up using canned sauces because I found them much too sweet. Now, tomatoes are themselves pretty sweet - they are a fruit - but at least they don't have added sugar.

*I use the tubes of tomato paste, because while they seem to cost more, you're not opening a can just to use a teaspoon and having the rest go moldy while you're wondering what to do with it.