Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I don't know how many different pizza's I have made over the years but have not up to now been able to make the exact pizza I want. I am pretty close, the crust is good, the cheese is good but the sauce isn't right. If anyone grew up in the Boston area and ever went to Riviere beach when it still had amusement and great pizza and clams. I am pretty sure the pizza came from the North end of Boston which wasn't far but don't know for sure. I hope I haven't already posted this here, if so my apologizes. My present sauce which is ok but not right is Diced tomatoes, garlic, basil and Italian seasonings.

Does anyone have a great pizza sauce they would like to share, someone from the Italian part of town would be great, I think that is where all the great pizza comes from.

Thanks,
Barry

Wish I could help on this, but my wife really dislikes traditional pizza sauces. I have moved to using fresh plum tomatoes that are grown locally. After skinning and removing the seeds, we cook them, but only for an hour or so. Depending on their sweetness, we may add a bit of sugar, but only if necessary. Salt, pepper, a small amount of red pepper flakes, and that is pretty much it. Italian spices such as oregano or basil are added very lightly.

I like the longer cooked and more richly spiced sauces, but I like sharing pizza with my wife more, so we meet in the middle.

Sometimes I do add a small anchovy to the sauce if it is for myself and I am going to use the sauce with a pork or beef topping like pepperoni, Italian sausage, hamburger, or similar meats.

Might be sacrilege, but we really like the Muir Glen pizza sauce. It's more pizza hut than authentic Italian though (which is often more like plain crushed tomatoes with just a swirl of evoo than the cooked sauce style).

I use my marinara sauce, which is from an old Mama Leone's cookbook but when I can get good fresh tomatoes, I dice them and marinate them for a few hours in olive oil, fresh basil, oregano, parsley and minced garlic. It is my favorite topping.
Ilene

I guess you know your a pizza person when you have a stone and a pizza paddle.

I have been trying different commercial sauces and they are OK but no cigar yet.

Barry

I just sauté some garlic, red pepper flakes, dried oregano, and an anchovy (or two) in about 2 tablespoon of olive oil. Add a 32-oz. can of crushed tomatoes (or diced tomatoes pulsed in the food processor), simmer for 15-20 minutes, finish with some fresh basil and, voila! Pizza Sauce. Makes enough for 3-6 pizzas, depending on how saucy you like it.

Jesse, that sounds like a good recipe but what I am looking for is a very specific taste and I don't have a clue how to get it. I have made so many different sauces looking. Armato's is a pizza joint here in Maine and their sauce is good but not quite right. I found another thread on another site talking about jarred sauces and I thought well may be one of them has the right taste. The ones I have had to this point all taste just about the same. CI had a pizza sauce I made for a couple years and it is pretty good, much like your recipe.

Barry

Barry-
Try writing down how the flavors you get now are different from what you want. Is the sauce too sweet? Need more garlic? More tomato flavor? Finding the exact flavor you want will require you to figure out what your current sauce lacks.
And, the final flavor may well be a result of how the pizza is baked. If it goes in a really hot brick oven, that may not be replicable in your home.
Good luck!

Sometimes tasting different herbs and seasonings on their own (or in a little olive oil on some neutral flavoured bread) is a good way to learn what they taste like so that you can become good at knowing what might be in things that you like and recreate them at home. The more ingredients you can identify by taste, the easier it is to know how to adjust your recipes too, to be more to your liking.

Thanks guys, interesting, I really never thought of coming at it to determine what is different from what I can make or buy I am not very good at figuring which spice or herb makes what flavor. The more I think of it, it is definitely more of a tomato taste than garlic or other spice or herbs although I suspect those are used in lighter amounts than what I make. Right now I have several different bottled sauces from various manufacturers so before I do any more experimentation I will need to use these up and who knows maybe one of them will be a winner. I almost always will opt for the from scratch approach even if I can buy something just as good but in this case if I could find a good brand I would probably go with that one. I may try adding some tomato paste and more oregano to some that seem to have potential to see if I can get a less herb flavor. AT one time I was using my wife's spaghetti sauce and that was totally wrong and then I had to tell her I didn't want to use her sauce, I was trying to avoid that but eventually I bit the bullet. It is a great spaghetti sauce but really off for pizza, I am sure some of the pizza parlors use their spaghetti sauce and I stay away from those places. I also think the good sauce had a more maroon look meaning it was cooked more, so I might try taking some store bought sauce and cooking it until it looks right.

Thanks,
Barry