There are four very important elements to any great pizza, whether it’s from Melbourne, Chicago, Rome, or wherever – the pizza dough, the pizza sauce, the cheese, and the toppings.  I’ve covered how to make pizza dough in a previous post, so today I thought I would share how to make easy pizza sauce for beginners!

Easy Pizza Sauce

Making pizza sauce can be much easier than you might think. You can always buy a jar of prepared tomato sauce from the grocery store and use that as a pizza topping but why would you? A fresh, homemade pizza sauce has lots more flavor than any of those leading brands that are sitting on the shelves of your local supermarket.

Just imagine the tang and savory goodness that you and your family will taste when they sample that pizza sauce that you prepared right in your own kitchen. Homemade foods beat getting takeaway or delivery any day of the week and creating the right balance of flavors is easy to do.

The perfect pizza sauce means different things to different people. Some people want a smooth, meaty flavoured sauce and others prefer a sauce that is chunky or sweet. You should keep your own palate in mind when you are creating one of these savory, rich sauces. Hot and spicy? Heavy on the herbs? Sweetened with sugar?  The final choice of ingredients will be up to you, but for a delicious pizza sauce there are a few simple tips to keep in mind.

Simple Tips For Making Pizza Sauce

Fresh ingredients are a must.

Use unbruised, ripe tomatoes and avoid those that are too firm to the touch. Roma tomatoes are often one of the best varieties to use in a pizza sauce (they’re my favourite for any sort of cooking, such as oven roasting for breakfast with eggs on toast, delicious!).

Herbs add an extra depth of flavor to any pizza sauce. Dried herbs are acceptable but fresh herbs are the best way to go.

Be wary of adding too many flavors at once. You have to sample the sauce as you prepare it to make sure that the taste is to your liking.

Don’t be afraid to experiment when you are trying to make the perfect pizza sauce. It is always a good idea to follow the directions of a recipe if you are making sauce for the first time, but in most cases you can always improve on the original recipe when you individualize some of the ingredients to suit your own personal taste.

Overcooking or undercooking is something that you should avoid because even a great recipe can be ruined if the ingredients are not cooked properly. Most sauces will need to simmer to extract all of the flavours from the ingredients so be careful of both the time involved and the stove setting.

Here is one example of an easy pizza sauce recipe that you may want to try at home. This recipe allows you to use canned ingredients but feel free to substitute fresh Roma tomatoes if you prefer.

Easy Pizza Sauce For Beginners

1 can of (any brand) crushed tomatoes (400g)

3 cloves of freshly minced garlic

1/3 cup of tomato paste

1 ½ teaspoons of onion powder

2 tablespoons of fresh oregano leaves

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

Dash of cayenne

1 tablespoon of freshly chopped basil leaves

½ teaspoon of sugar

¾ teaspoon dried marjoram spice

2 teaspoons of a red wine

How To Make Pizza Sauce

Add all of these ingredients to a small saucepan and cook on medium heat until you see bubbles forming on the surface of the liquid.

Now you should reduce the heat to low and allow the pan of ingredients to simmer for 20 minutes and your perfect pizza sauce will be ready to use in the recipe of your choice.  Now you know how to make pizza sauce, and the great thing about this recipe is that it’s so versatile, it’s a great addition to pizza and chicken parmas, pastas, wet dishes such as stews, and a ton of other sorts of easy food recipes, so have fun experimenting and cooking great food!

Mick Reade

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