When I made my pizzas yesterday, I wanted to do them completely from scratch. For the red sauce, I was looking for a few things: ease of construction, simple ingredients, and the right taste. You don’t see pizzerias stressing over clover honey and stripping herbs; you see them ladling sauce on dough. Simple should equal good here. I checked a few, then took a sauce from Serious Eats (an actual Kenji sauce!) and made a few minor adjustments to suit my palate. Here’s the recipe as written. I’ll make some notes at the end, detailing my observations and changes.
Homemade NY-Style Pizza Sauce
Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook Time: 75 mins | Servings: 2 to 4 servings
Ingredients:
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
1 tablespoon (15 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon (15 ml) unsalted butter
2 medium cloves garlic, grated on microplane grater (about 2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Pinch red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and split in half
2 (6-inch) sprigs fresh basil with leaves attached
1 teaspoon sugar
Directions:
Process tomatoes and their juice through food mill, pulse in food processor until puréed, or purée with immersion blender. Purée should not be completely smooth, but should have no chunks larger than 1/16th of an inch. Set tomatoes aside.
Combine oil and butter in medium saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until butter is melted. Add garlic, oregano, pepper flakes, and a large pinch of salt and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant but not browned, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, onion halves, basil sprigs, and sugar. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to lowest setting (bubbles should barely be breaking the surface), and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced by half, about 1 hour. Discard onions and basil stems. Season to taste with salt. Allow to cool and store in covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Source: https://www.seriouseats.com/new-york-style-pizza-sauce
NOTES
To simplify the instructions: puree the tomatoes, lightly sautée the garlic, then mix everything together and simmer it for an hour.
If you use chopped tomatoes, or diced, or tomato puree, or passata, or tomato sauce, it will probably taste different than this. I don’t know if it will be the same, better, or just different. I will say that if all I had was a 28oz can of tomato sauce, or diced tomatoes, or whatever, I probably would have used that. I’m no purist. Good ol’ tomatoes are fine here. If you prefer San Marzanos, do it.
2 cloves of garlic is a good place to start. Use 3. I started with 2, and at first taste test, 30 minutes into the simmer, I added a teaspoon or so of granulated garlic. I used a garlic press, I’m not microplaning garlic.
Same with the oregano. My oregano is just-purchased, I actually broke the seal for this cook. I checked at the half hour mark, then added another teaspoon or so. Like a heaping one.
Salt to taste. It needs salt, like a real amount, not just a pinch. But start slow.
I took out the onion at the end, but left in the leaves of the basil. I ate the onion with some salt, it was delicious. I thought about pureeing it up and adding it back in, that would probably taste really good.
It needs the sugar. I didn’t think it would, but it does. I started without any, then at the half hour mark added 1/2 teaspoon, then 20 minutes later added the other 1/2. Check for yourself, though.
In my kitchen, it took 90 minutes to reduce to half. That gave a sauce without any runniness, and no wateriness, that dried onto the crust as it baked without soaking it.
Homemade NY-Style Pizza Sauce
Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook Time: 75 mins | Servings: 2 to 4 servings
Ingredients:
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
1 tablespoon (15 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon (15 ml) unsalted butter
2 medium cloves garlic, grated on microplane grater (about 2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Pinch red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and split in half
2 (6-inch) sprigs fresh basil with leaves attached
1 teaspoon sugar
Directions:
Process tomatoes and their juice through food mill, pulse in food processor until puréed, or purée with immersion blender. Purée should not be completely smooth, but should have no chunks larger than 1/16th of an inch. Set tomatoes aside.
Combine oil and butter in medium saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until butter is melted. Add garlic, oregano, pepper flakes, and a large pinch of salt and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant but not browned, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, onion halves, basil sprigs, and sugar. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to lowest setting (bubbles should barely be breaking the surface), and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced by half, about 1 hour. Discard onions and basil stems. Season to taste with salt. Allow to cool and store in covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Source: https://www.seriouseats.com/new-york-style-pizza-sauce
NOTES
To simplify the instructions: puree the tomatoes, lightly sautée the garlic, then mix everything together and simmer it for an hour.
If you use chopped tomatoes, or diced, or tomato puree, or passata, or tomato sauce, it will probably taste different than this. I don’t know if it will be the same, better, or just different. I will say that if all I had was a 28oz can of tomato sauce, or diced tomatoes, or whatever, I probably would have used that. I’m no purist. Good ol’ tomatoes are fine here. If you prefer San Marzanos, do it.
2 cloves of garlic is a good place to start. Use 3. I started with 2, and at first taste test, 30 minutes into the simmer, I added a teaspoon or so of granulated garlic. I used a garlic press, I’m not microplaning garlic.
Same with the oregano. My oregano is just-purchased, I actually broke the seal for this cook. I checked at the half hour mark, then added another teaspoon or so. Like a heaping one.
Salt to taste. It needs salt, like a real amount, not just a pinch. But start slow.
I took out the onion at the end, but left in the leaves of the basil. I ate the onion with some salt, it was delicious. I thought about pureeing it up and adding it back in, that would probably taste really good.
It needs the sugar. I didn’t think it would, but it does. I started without any, then at the half hour mark added 1/2 teaspoon, then 20 minutes later added the other 1/2. Check for yourself, though.
In my kitchen, it took 90 minutes to reduce to half. That gave a sauce without any runniness, and no wateriness, that dried onto the crust as it baked without soaking it.
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