Base sauce

[cec]

What does every body use as a pizza base tomatoe sauce ?
Tinned tomatoes blended ?
Tomatoe purée ?
I'm gona try and cook one this weekend if the weather is ok .

[Tom B]

I use a tomato passata with garlic and black pepper added.

[turkey]

I have not got to that stage yet so a little jealous however all this time procrastinating has given me plenty of time to search the internet

Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe
www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

has the recipe for a new york pizza clone down to miniscule details. I think its well worth a read even if you only take some ideas from it, it really does cover everything. Ohh and has loads of photos, and I am a sucker for photos

[cec]

Wow that's a read turkey , I think Iv took some of it in .

[webbaldo]

I cheat and use Napoli bolognese sauce if I havent got the time to make one from scratch.

[surfingspider]

I do a tin of chopped toms (with some of the juices poured out) and add a crushed garlic clove and salt, pepper and a little splash of red wine vinegar and fresh oregano from the garden. Give it a few pulses with a stick blender. There is no need to cook it as tinned tomatoes are cooked in the tin. You get a 2 minutes really nice fresh sauce, it really is no effort. I do mine when I have just set out my dough to rise so the flavours gets chance to mingle and the sauce comes to room temperature.

What we don't use gets cooked up into a simple pasta sauce in the next couple of days with some olives capers and possibly some chilli flakes.

Love that link turkey, will have to find time to read through it all.

[pizzaofdreams]

I tried chopped tomatoes and passata - too wet
Tomato puree - too concentrated
Jars of sauce for pasta - hit and miss and a bit thin on flavour.

If you can get to a bookers or makro they do a tin of spiced pizza sauce, we add a little water to it and it is perfect. Tasty, a bit herby and a consistency between puree and a jar of bolognese sauce.
A thin spread over the base (so you can see through it in places) and bob's your uncle!

If you go down the route of too wet a sauce you will struggle to cook the Pizza to a nice crisp base as it will be waterlogged.

[pizzaofdreams]

Oh, I forgot to say. Obviously a 2kg tin is a bit large for just a Pizza or two, but if you decant it into a tupperware box it'll keep in the fridge for a week or two and makes a fantastic base sauce for any pasta dish, bolognese and lasagne. about £2.20 a tin makes it great value as well.

[cannyfradock]

pizzaofdreams

On commercial events with my mobile oven I also use Pizza sauce from a 2KG tin. I have been advised to water it down a touch but after a bit of trial and error I find it best used as it comes. (really difficult with the commercial protocol in what you would like to do.....and what you must do...prepping "on site" etc). On private functions I make a sauce very similar to surfingspider, but start off rendering down some speck and finish off sieving the sauce.....squeezing out as much of the sauce/flavours as I can.

Terry

p.s...P.O.D.....you're welcome to put a link to your website in your signature.....if you want.

[cec]

I might go and have a look in makro then , Iv got a card .in fact I might be passing one tomorrow ,I will report back as to what I get ,
Does every one use the round balls of mozzarella og grated ?

[cannyfradock]

cec

You can now get grated Mozzarella as well as cheddar. The best mix I find is 70% Mozz 30% cheddar.

What I find good is to sprinkle some of the grated mix on the pizza sauce....add the toppings and ...then add some slices of the Mozzarella balls......I've bought the value mozz balls from Morrisons and the ones from Lidl.....they both work fine.

All the best for your first pizza bash.

Terry

p.s......don't forget....keep sparking up those slow curing fires...your oven will need slowly drying out.

[Tom B]

I only use a very thin film of passata on my bases which stops them getting wet. I also heat the sauce to thicken it slightly, so no problems there.
A great cheese to use with mozzarella is monterey jack.

[rivergirl]

I make a paste of oven dried toms or red peppers with garlic , purree it up and freeze it, it works fantastic for loads of things , not just pizza bases

[stevejhunt]

Two Kg can Vienna Gold Spicy Pizza Sauce from Adams. Needs to be let down a touch as it's 'extra heavy' and what you've got left will freeze in the little plastic containers your take away curry comes in! Cheap too at a couple of quid a tin.

[surfingspider]

After reading the link turkey put up (yes I got to the end of it, it did take me an entire train journey home) I think I will try sieving all the juice from my tin of toms next time. I do get a bit of pooling going on. I always thought it was from the fresh moz.

Terry What do you mean by "rendering down some speck"? I am always interested in trying new methods