In The Kitchen: Basic Pizza Sauce

ingredientsauce

On Monday, when I made pizza , my goal was to make it as much from scratch as possible. While the dough was a challenge, I already knew I could make pizza sauce easily! You can do this yourself, and don’t have to buy some Frankenfood brand in a jar or can. And best of all: you get to choose the seasoning!

This is for a very basic sauce, lightly flavored with Italian spices. Here’s the setup.

/images/basic-pizza-sauce/pzasaucesetup.jpg

Equipment

blender

flat bottomed, heavy-gauge pan

Ingredients

2 cups diced tomatoes

1 cup dehydrated tomatoes

hot water

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup diced brown onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dry Italian seasoning mix

1 tablespoon dry oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Put the dried tomatoes in a bowl and cover with hot water. Let rehydrate for 5 to 10 minutes. Drain, reserving water.

Put the diced tomatoes, drained dehydrated tomatoes, oil and all of the spices in the blender.

/images/basic-pizza-sauce/pzasauceblender.jpg

Blend on high speed until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the blender jar as needed.

Pour the mixture into a large, flat bottomed pan over medium heat.

/images/basic-pizza-sauce/pzasaucewet.jpg

Stir in the onions and garlic. You’re going to cook the mixture until the onions are tender.

/images/basic-pizza-sauce/pzasaucedry.jpg

If the mixture is too dry for you, you can add more of the liquid from soaking the dehydrated tomatoes. In my case, I wanted a drier sauce because I didn’t want it to soak into the baked pizza crust.

This is my finished sauce.

/images/basic-pizza-sauce/pzasaucedone.jpg

As you can see, there is some liquid, but it’s pretty dry.

Notes

You can change up the seasoning to anything you like. For example, a handful of chopped, fresh basil and some parsley would give you a really nice pasta sauce.

You can also add more chopped veggies, such as mushrooms or grated zuchinni.

If the straight tomato sauce is too acidic for you, add a teaspoon of sugar to take the edge off.

You can make larger batches of this and freeze it, so it can be on hand any time you want pizza!

The diced tomatoes I’m using are home made. I make these from fresh tomatoes and freeze them in batches so they are ready whenever I need them. However, you could use canned ones if you don’t have these on hand.

Conclusion

This worked really well on the pizza. It didn’t make it soggy, and it added a really great tomato pop under the cheese and veggies!

Here it is spread on the pizza crusts before baking.

/images/basic-pizza-sauce/pzasaucepza.jpg

Enjoy!

Basic Pizza Sauce

Basic Pizza Sauce

Equipment Required

  • blender
  • flat bottomed, heavy-gauge pan

Ingredients

2 cups tomatoes, diced

1 cup tomatoes, dehydrated

water, hot

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup brown onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon italian seasoning mix

1 tablespoon oregano, dried

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

Directions

Put the dried tomatoes in a bowl and cover with hot water. Let rehydrate for 5 to 10 minutes. Drain, reserving water.

Put the diced tomatoes, drained dehydrated tomatoes, oil and all of the spices in the blender. Blend on high speed until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the blender jar as needed.

Pour the mixture into a large, flat bottomed pan over medium heat.

Stir in the onions and garlic; cook until onions are tender.

If the mixture is too dry, add more of the liquid from soaking the dehydrated tomatoes.

Notes

You can change up the seasoning to anything you like. For example, a handful of chopped, fresh basil and some parsley would give you a really nice pasta sauce.

You can also add more chopped veggies, such as mushrooms or grated zuchinni.

If the straight tomato sauce is too acidic for you, add a teaspoon of sugar to take the edge off.

You can make larger batches of this and freeze it, so it can be on hand any time you want pizza!

Images

Basic Pizza Sauce
Basic Pizza Sauce
Basic Pizza Sauce
Basic Pizza Sauce
Basic Pizza Sauce
Basic Pizza Sauce