Pizza Sauce

[Jenise]

Today for lunch we went to a new Pizzeria in Surrey (my 'other' neighborhood on the other side of the border). I was especially intrigued by their ovens--the pizzas bake for 90 seconds a 900 degrees. Billing itself as Neapolitan, I realized as I sat down that I have no real understanding of what that means other than referring to the Naples area.

In this case, their pizza red sauce is merely ground canned tomatoes. They were from Italy--supposedly--but still, canned tomatoes. As a base, it's bland. I've had this one time before: a friend, who was a terrible cook, once made pizza for us based on pizza they 'learned' from an Italian exchange student who'd stayed with them briefly. His sauce, too, was just canned tomatoes scooped out of the can.

That got me to wondering: who does this? Is it really Italian tradition vs. a complex seasoned thick sauce of the type I'm used to in America? And if it's Italian, is it specifically Neapolitan? I know I've had pizza in Italy, and while I can't recall anything specific about the sauce I know none were bland.

So when you say they were 'just from the can' do you mean they weren't pureed into a sauce? Just spread around the pizza dough?

I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure they used canned tomatoes in Italy for pizza. Tomatoes are only in season for a few months! But, not all canned tomatoes are created equal.

And I'm not sure about your reference to 'complex seasoned thick sauce' because I'm not sure that's always desirable for pizza. Depending on the pizza you often just want a light dressing of the sauce and especially if the tomatoes are fresh (barely cooked then pureed) the sauce is far from complex, seasoned or thick.

Jenise I don't usually think of pizza sauce as being particularly complex. All my books are packed as we are moving house so i can't check my go to sources (sauces hoho) so I did a google and this is pretty much what I do (with ever the variation of course) and from memory what I have been shown by Italian cooks. Properly seasoned good quality tinned tomatoes as a fresh tasting base for your toppings.
Would be interested if you would share your take on pizza sauce.

To make the sauce, it's really important you use good quality tinned Italian plum tomatoes. We use San Marzano tomatoes from Campania. No need to cook them: just blitz them up with a pinch of salt and the basil, keeping a bit of texture.

We use our regular Italian Tomato Sauce for pasta on Pizza. It uses canned San Marzano's and much more.

Pizza sauce should not be complex, but it ought to be as fresh as possible.

Come to think of it, most Italian sauces are more valuable when freshness is considered over complexity.

Yes, agree with Barb. You must remember that in a wood fired oven the pizza cooks simultaneously from bottom and top and the top heat totally changes the consistency and taste of the raw tomato. In my oven the top temp is often higher than the floor and almost instantaneously vaporizes the moisture and carmelizes the toppings.

[Jenise]

So when you say they were 'just from the can' do you mean they weren't pureed into a sauce? Just spread around the pizza dough?

I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure they used canned tomatoes in Italy for pizza. Tomatoes are only in season for a few months! But, not all canned tomatoes are created equal.

And I'm not sure about your reference to 'complex seasoned thick sauce' because I'm not sure that's always desirable for pizza. Depending on the pizza you often just want a light dressing of the sauce and especially if the tomatoes are fresh (barely cooked then pureed) the sauce is far from complex, seasoned or thick.

Rahsaan, in the case of this restaurant, pureed, albeit a chunky puree. Light in color, not smooth. In the case of the friend I mentioned, scooped straight out of the can, not pureed.

This compares to what in west coast pizzerias closer to the texture of tomato paste and most of the time it's pre-cooked with some wine and herbs to create a more complex flavor than tomatoes or tomatoes and salt alone. It's spread on the pizza with a spatula--not nearly as wet as the canned tomatoes, you would not scoop it with a spoon.

[Robin Garr]

Just for the record, I can testify that Italian pizzerias generally do use canned San Marzanos. At least this is certainly true in the Northeast where I had a chance to get behind the scenes, and I have no reason to doubt that it's even true in Naples. It's not just seasonal availability but intensity that matters.

But they certainly don't just open a can and pour some on the base! They use it to make sauce.

Just for the record, I can testify that Italian pizzerias generally do use canned San Marzanos. At least this is certainly true in the Northeast where I had a chance to get behind the scenes, and I have no reason to doubt that it's even true in Naples. It's not just seasonal availability but intensity that matters.

But they certainly don't just open a can and pour some on the base! They use it to make sauce.

It seems virtually impossible for a successful restaurant/pizzeria to have year-round access to fresh tomatoes, and sometimes canned can be almost as good. Cora offers quite good canned San Marzano tomatoes.

The problem is when the sauce is over populated with stuff.

[Jenise]

Just for the record, I can testify that Italian pizzerias generally do use canned San Marzanos. At least this is certainly true in the Northeast where I had a chance to get behind the scenes, and I have no reason to doubt that it's even true in Naples. It's not just seasonal availability but intensity that matters.

But they certainly don't just open a can and pour some on the base! They use it to make sauce.

I'm totally cool with canned tomatoes--to make sure I was clear, canned vs. fresh wasn't my complaint. It's about canned tomatoes straight from the can, not used as a sauce base. And at the pizzeria we were at this weekend, those canned tomatoes had no intensity. They were especially light--on a scale of 1 to 10 where Muir Glens would be 10's, these were a 5-6.

[Robin Garr]

I'm totally cool with canned tomatoes--to make sure I was clear, canned vs. fresh wasn't my complaint. It's about canned tomatoes straight from the can, not used as a sauce base. And at the pizzeria we were at this weekend, those canned tomatoes had no intensity. They were especially light--on a scale of 1 to 10 where Muir Glens would be 10's, these were a 5-6.

Yeah, totally agree. As I said in the prior post, they use it to make a garlicky, delicious sauce, not just tomatoes from the can!

Just for the record, I can testify that Italian pizzerias generally do use canned San Marzanos. At least this is certainly true in the Northeast where I had a chance to get behind the scenes, and I have no reason to doubt that it's even true in Naples. It's not just seasonal availability but intensity that matters.

But they certainly don't just open a can and pour some on the base! They use it to make sauce.

I'm totally cool with canned tomatoes--to make sure I was clear, canned vs. fresh wasn't my complaint. It's about canned tomatoes straight from the can, not used as a sauce base. And at the pizzeria we were at this weekend, those canned tomatoes had no intensity. They were especially light--on a scale of 1 to 10 where Muir Glens would be 10's, these were a 5-6.

Oh, yeah. I remember many years ago a restaurant in LA tried to get away with that trick over pasta. We said we would pay for the wine but refused to pay for the food that we could not eat--they argued, then they relented, and we went for hamburgers.