Pizza Sauce - What is it?

  Parent Pizza Cooked 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac.

Jill has now submitted this question TWICE, so I figure it's high time I answered it.

Dear Foodmomiac,

Every time I try to make pizza sauce it tastes like spaghetti sauce.  Can you share your recipe and help explain the difference between the sauces?

Thanks,
Jill

OK, I didn't answer this for a reason. I had NO clue. But, after getting a lecture from Michael on all of the questions I was ignoring, I decided that I should probably do some research.

Now, when WE make pizza, we have a few things we do in terms of sauce. On pizzas I make for myself, I often forgo sauce all together. I prefer a white-style pizza with ricotta, mozzarella, garlic, carmelized onions, toasted pine nuts and olive oil. But, the rest of the family thinks I'm nuts, so we usually do use sauce. In Toledo, we bought our pizza sauce from Sofo's, the local Italian market. Here in Chicago,  we've tried all sorts of things, many of them from Trader Joe's. Our reliance on canned pizza sauces is probably the source of my dislike of the sauced pizza.

Your question really made me curious, though, Jill. I don't really understand what the difference is between spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce, and to be able to tackle this in a homemade fashion, I realized that I needed to do some research.

I did some googling, which led me nowhere, really. I found some crappy recipes (one can tomato paste, one can tomato sauce, blah blah blah). I found a lot of commercial sauces. I decided to turn to eGullet, and that's where things started to become clear.

On eGullet, they have these Cook-Offs, where anyone who wants to can cook a certain item and then discuss it with others making the same thing. There have been a Chili Cook-Off, a Bibimbap Cook-Off, a Fried Chicken Cook-Off. Lots of Cook-Offs. The Cook-Off that helped me, though, was the Pizza Cook-Off.

So, here's what I found out. True, Neopolitan pizza has an uncooked pizza sauce. You want San Marzano tomatoes (canned is fine). Crush them, and you are basically good to go. Seasoning is very limited. You really don't need any seasoning at all, because that's what the pizza toppings are for. Want a basil flavor? Put basil leaves on the pizza. Want garlic? Crush some directly onto the pie. This kind of sauce is right up my alley. It's simple, it's pure, it's not overloaded with all of the heavy-handed seasonings that personify pasta sauce.

Hope this helps Jill!

Comments

[Caren]

I just recently tried "white pizza" with all that you mentioned (minus the pine nuts) and feta cheese and spinach leaves. It was soooo good!

[Randi]

I agree about San Marzano tomatoes. Its all I use now for anything calling for canned tomatoes. They are so good. So sweet and low acid.

[Elizabeth]

I have to agree with you on the white pizza.On pizza night at our house all the kids and hubby use red sauce and I have my white pizza all to myself.I really enjoyed reading about pizza sauce though.We make lots of pizzas in the spring and summer and I am definitely going to try this method with fresh herbs from our garden.Thanks.Great blog-love to read it!!!

[Jill]

What, no magic answer? I will happily buy the San Marzano tomatoes and see what my family thinks of an uncooked sauce. Sounds yummy to me (as does the white version).

thanks for responding!

[Carol]

This was frustrating as the question was really never answered.

"I don't like pizza sauce and someone told me I should be using plain crushed tomatoes so problem solved"..

No. Not for those who DO like sauce! And herbs ON the pizza give a different taste when they are IN the sauce..

[Cheryl]

I have tried white sauce and red sauce on pizzas. I have also tried the spicy sauce for Hawaiian pizza at "Roundtable" ;it was quite good. However I noticed a definite difference in the tastes of spaghetti and pizza sauces. Pizza sauce seems sweeter. Kind of like the difference between Chili Sauce and Cocktail Sauce. I sure would like a recipe for it though and not just a bunch of crushed tomatoes on a crust.

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there is a distinct tanginess in pizza sauce that I have not been able to reproduce. I have never tasted it in spaghetti sauce. I have been looking on hundreds of cooking sights and most people think the 2 sauces are interchangeable. Canned pizza sauce definetly tastes different than canned spaghetti sauce. What is the mysterious spice that I am missing. I prefer homemade to store bought.