Pizza sauce question

theeggcellentchef

Forgive me if this has already been addressed but do the pizza makers in this forum pre cook their sauce?  In the past I’ve run canned San Marzanos through a food mill and added salt, oil
and oregano with good results but now wonder if the cooking sauce would improve finished product 

Carolina Q

I do what you've been doing, with the addition of a dusting of garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper. Haven't pre-cooked it in a while now.

HeavyG

Try it both ways and see what you like best.

TN_Egger

San Marzanos, oil, s&p, garlic, basil. simmer it for 20-30 minutes.  into the fridge to wait until pizza night.

SciAggie

I make my sauce a lot like @TN_Egger. I cook it mainly to reduce the moisture. I think it helps with keeping the crust crisp. 

hoosier_egger

I usually don’t cook but may have to try it. I always taste and add sugar to tone down the acidity. Really depends on the particular can of tomatoes 

Hoster05

Can of San marzanos, drain a little of the water, little oil, little S&P.  Throw into blender and blend just to break up the tomatoes.  Takes 5 minutes.  

AprèsSki

I usually do both: soften onions in butter, add a minced clove of garlic, once it starts to smell nice add 2/3 of a can of San Marzanos either crushed or whole that I crush by hand followed by herbs of choice before simmering for 1/2 hour.

Then I puree with an immersion blender and add the remaining crushed San Marzanos. If using whole I puree the uncooked in the can before adding.

Best of both worlds, the cooked tomato flavor punched up with uncooked tomato brightness. 

paqman

Once a year, I make a batch of arabiatta sauce (cooked) that I also use as pizza sauce.

For everyday pizzas, I use Emma or Mutti canned pizza sauce.  Emma is pretty hard to beat.

For « special » pizzas, I use hand crushed and drained San Marzanos with salt and olive oil.  The leftover juice makes the best bloody mary!

northGAcock

paqman said:

Once a year, I make a batch of arabiatta sauce (cooked) that I also use as pizza sauce.

For everyday pizzas, I use Emma or Mutti canned pizza sauce.  Emma is pretty hard to beat.

For « special » pizzas, I use hand crushed and drained San Marzanos with salt and olive oil.  The leftover juice makes the best bloody mary!

@paqman Any chance you would share the Aribiatta sauce method with me? PM if it is simi-top secrete. 

paqman

@northGAcock The only secret is Star Anise 👀

Look up this old thread for the method:  https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1186265/ot-homemade-pizza-sauce-with-san-marzano-tomatoes-from-my-garden

When tomatoes are in season (August) I purchase a big box (sometimes 2) of Italian tomatoes and process them using the method described in the thread above but I also add spicy chili peppers.  I don’t have an exact recipe, I basically add whatever herbs I have in the garden (basilic, oregano, thyme) or even a dry mix from the pantry.  Salt to taste. A tiny bit of sugar... and lots of star anise.  Sometimes onions or shallots, garlic.

buzd504

paqman said:

@northGAcock The only secret is Star Anise 👀

Look up this old thread for the method:  https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1186265/ot-homemade-pizza-sauce-with-san-marzano-tomatoes-from-my-garden

When tomatoes are in season (August) I purchase a big box (sometimes 2) of Italian tomatoes and process them using the method described in the thread above but I also add spicy chili peppers.  I don’t have an exact recipe, I basically add whatever herbs I have in the garden (basilic, oregano, thyme) or even a dry mix from the pantry.  Salt to taste. A tiny bit of sugar... and lots of star anise.  Sometimes onions or shallots, garlic.

Wow, beautiful pepper plant.

As often as not, I will just simmer some herbs (usually oregano and basil) and some garlic in olive oil and then strain it and just use that, rather than the tomato sauce.  It works well for most of the pizzas we do.

northGAcock

paqman said:

@northGAcock The only secret is Star Anise 👀

Look up this old thread for the method:  https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1186265/ot-homemade-pizza-sauce-with-san-marzano-tomatoes-from-my-garden

When tomatoes are in season (August) I purchase a big box (sometimes 2) of Italian tomatoes and process them using the method described in the thread above but I also add spicy chili peppers.  I don’t have an exact recipe, I basically add whatever herbs I have in the garden (basilic, oregano, thyme) or even a dry mix from the pantry.  Salt to taste. A tiny bit of sugar... and lots of star anise.  Sometimes onions or shallots, garlic.

Wow....beautiful plant. Thanks for the link. 

NDG

paqman said:

Once a year, I make a batch of arabiatta sauce (cooked) that I also use as pizza sauce.

For everyday pizzas, I use Emma or Mutti canned pizza sauce.  Emma is pretty hard to beat.

For « special » pizzas, I use hand crushed and drained San Marzanos with salt and olive oil.  The leftover juice makes the best bloody mary!

@paqman how do you buy EMMA sauce ??  Went to their website and looks like its sold in canada . . do you order online?

paqman

NDG said:

paqman said:

Once a year, I make a batch of arabiatta sauce (cooked) that I also use as pizza sauce.

For everyday pizzas, I use Emma or Mutti canned pizza sauce.  Emma is pretty hard to beat.

For « special » pizzas, I use hand crushed and drained San Marzanos with salt and olive oil.  The leftover juice makes the best bloody mary!

@paqman how do you buy EMMA sauce ??  Went to their website and looks like its sold in canada . . do you order online?

It is a Canadian specialty brand, it is ridiculously cheap and good compared to other brands sold around here.  I am located in Canada 🤷‍♂️, not sure if and where it is sold in the US.  I only tried it because their parent company is the distributor of Caputo flour in Canada and I was pleasantly surprised.

mickyb55

I always cook. My method is to sweat garlic in a little olive oil add tinned tomatoes (I don’t think our fresh British tomatoes are up to the job) and reduce. I then add salt and black pepper. I think reducing the sauce this way intensifies the flavour. Cool the sauce before putting it on pizza though. The sauce is good for pasta as well.

fishlessman

uncooked i use my canned marzanos from the garden. cooked i use canned pizza sauce and add an inch of good pepperoni that i run thru a grinder

paqman

fishlessman said:

cooked i use canned pizza sauce and add an inch of good pepperoni that i run thru a grinder

😳

paqman

@NDG

Just paid 1$CDN per can (0.75$US) l.  At this price l, it is not worth the trouble to make my own and it is really good with nice chunks of tomatoes and good oregano flavor.  Ingredients are just tomatoes, oregano, basilic and salt.  When the border reopens, I can ship you a few cans.

Carolina Q

paqman said:

@NDG

Just paid 1$CDN per can (0.75$US) l.  At this price l, it is not worth the trouble to make my own and it is really good with nice chunks of tomatoes and good oregano flavor.  Ingredients are just tomatoes, oregano, basilic and salt.  When the border reopens, I can ship you a few cans.

That's what I use. A ladle of Cento whole peeled tomatoes followed by a dusting of onion powder, garlic powder, dried oregano and dried basil. Also some salt and black pepper.

If I could get Emma, I'd probably just do that.

theeggcellentchef

has anyone else tried microwave assisted extraction of the spices before adding them to the sauce?  I did this time and the flavors came through more.  I put the oregano dried basil onion and garlic powder and added enough water to just wet them then microwaved at 30% power level for 2 minutes. Once they came to room temp I added them to the tomatoes. The oregano especially really benefited. 

Botch

theeggcellentchef said:

has anyone else tried microwave assisted extraction of the spices before adding them to the sauce?  I did this time and the flavors came through more.  I put the oregano dried basil onion and garlic powder and added enough water to just wet them then microwaved at 30% power level for 2 minutes. Once they came to room temp I added them to the tomatoes. The oregano especially really benefited. 

I'd be interested in trying a side-by-side taste test, using water versus oil.  Hmmm.  

paqman

Oregano is a spice that is better dried than fresh IMHO.  Microwave trick is interesting.