Boss of the (pizza) sauce
 

Hello,

I've been slowly perfecting my pizza kung-fu over the years. I'm on the part now where I need to make my own sauce- the store-bought ones suffer from different deficiencies that I can't live with anymore. Does anybody have a good, solid pizza sauce recipe? Or know where I can get one?

www.foodtv.com never failed me.

This one sounds good:
4 cups ground pear tomatoes (not canned, fresh only)
1/2 cup ground onions
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

that sounds good -- except i'd leave out the sugar and add some basil instead...

(I can't stand sugar in tomato sauce -- it makes it taste like pizza hut :)

since you probably can't get good fresh tomatos this time of year - I'd probaby use canned whole tomatoes and crush 'em.

the pain in the ass thing about making a pizza sauce is that you don't need much. One 16" pizza (XL in most pizzarias) only needs about a ladle of sauce and it won't keep for long. You end up tossing out more than you use.

But it's freezable isn't it? I don't have a problem with long term storage, I've done the same with spaghetti sauce and it works out fine. Not as excellent as fresh off the stove, but when you live alone, there really aren't any portions just for you.

I freeze tomato sauces all the time..

helpful hint from maleficent..

when freezing tomato sauces - -especially in small quantities - I use heavy duty zip lock style bags.. they take up a lot less room than plastic containers and they can be tossed out and you don't have to worry about the stained containers... (just use a sharpie to write the date you froze the sauce on it - and don't keep it for more than 2 -3 months...

hmm, i didn't think it woudl freeze very well. that opens a whole new realm of possibilities for me!

I've wanted to make pizza at home for a long time. The sauce will be easy, the challenge will be finding the right pizza dough. I've never made dough before so I wouldn't know what type of recipe would work. I'd like it to be soft, but not doughy and rise a descent amount. Will the dough freeze ok in a regular freezer? I guess mixing dough in small portions shouldn't be too difficult...

Also when making pizza in a regular oven, is heat input much of a problem? The pizzarias I worked at kept the oven at about 500F but in addition to the heat there was a lot of circulating air. Will the longer cooking time affect the taste?

There was another thread that ovens were mentioned.. i wouldn't cook a pizza in a home oven unless I had my trusty oven bricks - you can get them at various places fairly inexpensively - and they get a nice even heat - and make an amazing crust... (they are also great for bread baking as welll ) and a few spritzes in a hot oven with a spray bottle of water makes for enough humidity in the oven to give your crusts a bit of chewyness....

I freeze bread dough a lot - and have never had a problem with it - the only bread doough that doesn't freeze well is sourdough...

I'm still perfecting my pizza dough... haven't had the inclination to do it lately.. but one of the best recipes that I've used was a very old recipe from the Frugal Gourmet (jeff smith) the big difference between his recipe and others - his recipes were done in poundage - not cups of flour.

I never considered putting bricks in my oven. TY, Mal! I agree about the dough, I think it's the most important part of a pizza. I've been working with dough recipies (pizza, sourdough, and pie crust) for years.

Just so we're talking about the same thing - found this on a quick google.. but practically every manufactur makes them -- in every price range..

Pizza stone

I love my pizza stone. They are excellent for regulating temperature as well (i.e. you let out the heat when you open the oven but the stone helps maintain the current temp).

Soups, chilis, tomato sauces all freeze well. Some even "develop" in the freezer. Freezing extra pizza sauce in small containers is a great idea.

Thanks to my wife's recycling mania, Mal, we have about 10-15 Corning Pyrex storage containers in various sizes with plastic lids, so as not to use throwaway plastic bags or containers, and to avoid the stainage problem with plastic containers. They're fine in the freezer or the microwave, cost about $20 a set, and should last forever if we don't drop them!

I forgot to ask, how long do I stew the sauce? And can you freeze dough too?

yup you can freeze dough...

for the sauce - the longer you cook it - the more the flavor changes on it -- so it's kind of up to you... I'd probably cook it 15 - 20 minutes... but you can go a few hours for a richer sauce..

You probably even *should* freeze the dough, to keep it from rising too much. Though this probably depends on what sort of crust you like.

for those pizza nuts...

these guys are hardcore!!!

and of course you should check out the mecca of slices, SliceNY.com

Pizzamaking Forum

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/ind...0;id=181;image

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/ind...0;id=183;image

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/ind...0;id=186;image

I give you... The Ridiculously Thorough Guide to Making Your Own Pizza.

Haven't tried that particular dough recipe yet, though it's next on my list to try...

Post Mortum:

I tried the sauce, although I substituted onion powder for onion because I misread my handwriting in the super market. Here are some observations:
-I couldn't get fresh pear tomatoes, so I bought whole tomatoes in a can. I don't believe this affected the outcome.
-I did indeed add basil and leave out sugar. The tomatoes smelled sweet enough.
-The sauce was stewed for about an hour. It thickened up somewhat, but not greatly.
-It looked like I put a ton of sauce on the pizza, but after baking, the volume went down. There was still sauce left in the pot, but you really can't add it after the pizza is done. Use all of the sauce, even if it looks like too much!
-The flavor was wonderful! I didn't measure the spices, so this will be hard to duplicate in the future. Next time I will measure them and tweak as necessary.

I may add a little tomato past next time to give the sauce a little more volume.

The last tme I made pizza I just used canned crushed tomatos. I thought the fresh flavor was great. Just a thought.