Home Made pizza sauce....

[Moose]

Here's what I've been using of late:

Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 (28-ounce) can tomato puree
• 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Directions
Over medium heat, heat oil in a saucepan until hot. Saute garlic until done, then add all ingredients, cover and bring to a boil. Uncover, lower heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. Let cool before you apply to pizza dough.


This is a good full flavored sauce for traditional type pizza, but not Chicago style pies. For that, I use something similar to IronStomach's. You can also use whole canned San Marzanos and puree them in the blender before you cook the sauce.

[LMAJ]

Originally Posted by BBQchef33

Mines a simple uncooked sauce.

first I heat some good olive oil aand add some(4-5 cloves) fresh garlic put thru a press. Then 2 cans of D.O.P San Marzano tomatos(on edit, 2- 28 ounce cans) and a small can of tomato paste. A handful of fresh chopped basil, tablespoon of oregano and tablespoon italian seasoning. Salt and black pepper to taste. i dont cook it, just let it sit for about 20 minutes.

How many pies do you make with this?

[BBQchef33]

Originally Posted by IronStomach

What's wrong with sugar? It's not like it's MSG.

I usually use my canned tomatoes, and if I don't add sugar, I'd have to cook them down for three hours to cut the acidity. No where near enough sugar that you can taste on the tomatoes, but wow on the acidity if it's not there!

EDIT: definitely agree with you on crushing by hand, gives a better presentation anyway and you can easily control how fine or course it is. I doubt a blender's blades would be able to cut the tiny seeds of tomatoes though.

LOL.. It depends who u ask. If you ask my stubborn old italian grandma about sugar in the sauce, she will flash you the stink eye, throw up the horns and start yelling in italian something about making her turn in her grave.

Shaved carrots or vidalias just take out the bitterness without adding sweetness or chaging flavor. Its more like a neutralizer.

i have found(and as vinny eluded too) that different brands have different levels of acidity. There are some brands that I avoid all together(red pack for instance) becase the tromatoes are very bitter compared to others. Rienzi, Centos, Luigi Vitelli, Nina, and the D.O.P san marzanos will yield a sweeter sauce than most store brands or domestic. Also, if you break the sauce by allowing it to come to a rapid boil will also make it bitter.


I have started liking the precrushed tomatoes lately.. i like the consistancy for a pizza sauce. if I want it to be chunkier, i will add one can of whole tomato crushed by hand and drained to the alredy crushed can, or do like diFara does and add a few hand crushed tomato right on top of the pie.

Also since I add a can of paste, that may also negate the need for adding sugar(or carrot). I find whe i add the paste it gives it a deeper flavor and without the paste, you have a lighter sauce.

[Bride of Roo(BQ'n)]

Originally Posted by LMAJ

Yes Char - Come for dinner....

Maybe I can get the pilots to over-fly Denver by 1700 miles (not infeasible these days)....and Ill see you at 7

[BBQchef33]

Originally Posted by LMAJ

How many pies do you make with this?

That depends. But making a traditional thin crust NY sytle I would say 3 or 4 22 inch pies.

Sometimes I go thin crust, light on the sauce where its almost translucent and you can see the dough, and other times when im making sicilian style thick crust, I go heavy on the sauce where the dough is completed covered with a layer of sauce.

[cmcadams]

I used the one from Varasano's, and I like it a lot:
http://slice.seriouseats.com/jvpizza/

[IronStomach]

Originally Posted by BBQchef33

LOL.. It depends who u ask. If you ask my stubborn old italian grandma about sugar in the sauce, she will flash you the stink eye, throw up the horns and start yelling in italian something about making her turn in her grave.

i have found(and as vinny eluded too) that different brands have different levels of acidity. There are some brands that I avoid all together(red pack for instance) becase the tromatoes are very bitter compared to others. Rienzi, Luigi Vitelli, Nina, and the D.O.P san marzanos will yield a sweeter sauce than most store brands or domestic. Also, if you break the sauce by allowing it to come to a rapid boil will also make it bitter.

It's funny, I'd probably react exactly the same way as your grandmother, but my pizzas are the only time I'll use sugar in tomatoes. My Italian wife doesn't understand why I'll cook down a batch of bolognese for four hours either. I can't stand the taste of sugar in pasta sauces, but it doesn't take much to tone down the tomatoes for the pizza and I can never taste it. Usually since there isn't much compared to the cheese and toppings.

Since I don't actually sauce the tomatoes, I'm not sure carrots or vidalias would work, though it's a good idea, if I ever make a non-Chicago style pie I'll give it a try, thanks!

I hear you on the variety of the tomatoes, this was the first year for the garden for my wife and I and our tomatoes... well... the heirlooms kick butt, but the romas, not so much. Super incredibly bitter when canned. Ah well.

[leanza]

There are a couple of ways to deal with acidity. Get a certian kind of tomato, like the San Marzano DOP which can be four or five dollars a can.

Or you can try a secret my Nana taught me. She was a chef and ran restraunts for many, many years.

You take a pinch of baking soda and drop it in. It reduces acidity.

[BBQchef33]

Originally Posted by IronStomach

It's funny, I'd probably react exactly the same way as your grandmother, but my pizzas are the only time I'll use sugar in tomatoes. My Italian wife doesn't understand why I'll cook down a batch of bolognese for four hours either. I can't stand the taste of sugar in pasta sauces, but it doesn't take much to tone down the tomatoes for the pizza and I can never taste it. Usually since there isn't much compared to the cheese and toppings.

Since I don't actually sauce the tomatoes, I'm not sure carrots or vidalias would work, though it's a good idea, if I ever make a non-Chicago style pie I'll give it a try, thanks!

I hear you on the variety of the tomatoes, this was the first year for the garden for my wife and I and our tomatoes... well... the heirlooms kick butt, but the romas, not so much. Super incredibly bitter when canned. Ah well.

opps.. your right.. My brains thinking tomato sauce in general, not pizza sauce. I can see a small amount(sugar) in pizza sauce not doing any harm. I like my pizza sauce to tastw like nothing more than fresh tomatos.

Try the shreadded carrot once.. just run a knife down the sides of a carrot to get some pulp and add it to a sauce that went bitter.

[BBQchef33]

fyi folks.. regarding the San marzano tomatoes. These are tomatoes that are grown in the San Marzano region in Italy, which is supposed to have some perfect volcanic soil for growing tomatos... The D.O.P certification on the can guarantees that the tomaotes are grown in the San Marzano region.

There is a brand called San Marzzano, which are grown in california. They are not the same. LIARS!!! marketing ploy.. The D.O.P certified cans are much richer, sweeter and darker than other tomatos.

Also, when buying the cans.. Shake them. The ones that feel very watery will be so and the contents will be more acidic. If the contents feel thicker(puree like), they will be better, darker and sweeter.

[LMAJ]

Thanks for everyone's input - here is what I did tonight, with what I had...
Diced up 4 cloves of garlic and threw it in some olie oil - put that in the Egg to warm it all up.
Took come diced tomatoes, added some of the garlic/oil mix, oregano, basil, salt and pepper.
1st pizza got this sauce topped it with some fresh mozzarella, shredded mozzarella, and some parmesan. Into the Egg at 500 degrees for about 8 minutes.
The tomatos were a little chunky and rich. Very tasty.


The second pizza was a white pizza - took some of the garlic/oil mix as a base, added the same cheese mix and some extra pepper - into the Egg for 8 minutes....


It didn't suck....

[jgh1204]

I usually start with a Yankee chili recipe and leave out the beans.

[jgh1204]

Sorry, I was thinking spaghetti sauce.

[GreasePig]

Nice Pie!

I LIKE PIE!

[Saiko]

I've found that with pizza sauce, less is more. Like MilitantSquatter, I keep my sauce for pizza very simple: I puree San Marzano tomatoes and a little tomato paste in a food processor, and add salt and pepper. After tasting, I may add a little sugar if the sweetness just isn't there. That's it.

Now my base tomato sauce for pasta is more complex, but for pizza I just want the tomato to stand out. You can also run the tomatoes through a food mill if you want to filter out the seeds and leftover skin, that is what most restaurants do. I'm too lazy and don't mind the rustic look of seeds in my sauce.