No pot, no hour
Homemade pizza sauce
Homemade pizza sauce: crushed San Marzano, salt, oil. No simmer. Why cooked sauce tastes like pasta, and which tin to buy.
Shop these on AmazonMeasurements
Pizza sauce is crushed tomato, salt, and oil. Garlic if you want. Oregano if you are making a New York pie. The oven does the cooking.
Sauce, not a pot
A pie wants crushed tomato. A simmered jar wants pasta.
| Tin | Crush raw | Already sauce | DOP stamp | Weeknight | Buy this |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cento San Marzano | Yes | No | Sometimes | Yes | Yes |
| Rega pomodoro | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Sometimes |
| Mutti pizza sauce | No | Yes | No | Yes | Sometimes |
Tick = yes. Dash = no or not the job. Bar = only sometimes.
What to buy
Every row is a product we would buy. The tomato button opens Amazon. Prices and stock live there.
- Check Amazon.com
Rega San Marzano Style TomatoesCheck Amazon.comTomatoes
Mutti Pizza SauceCheck Amazon.comTomatoes
Partanna Extra Virgin Olive OilCheck Amazon.comOlive Oil
As an Amazon Associate, The Slice Guy earns from qualifying purchases. Prices and stock live on Amazon.
A jar that already tastes like Sunday gravy belongs on pasta. On a 90-second pie it just steams.
What owners repeat
Not planted quotes and not five-star theatre. These are the two lines that keep showing up when people have paid: the reason they keep it, and the reason someone sends it back.
Cento San Marzano
They keep it becauseCrush, salt, a thread of oil. That is the sauce. No pot.
They complain thatNot every Cento tin is DOP. Read the stamp if you care.
Mutti pizza sauce
They keep it becauseOpen and spread. Honest for a Tuesday when you will not mill tomatoes.
They complain thatSweeter and cooked. Fine on a NY slice. Wrong on a 90-second pie.
Common questions
- Do you cook pizza sauce?
- Not for a hot oven. Crush Cento Certified San Marzano Tomatoes, salt, oil. The oven cooks it. A simmered sauce tastes like pasta on bread.
- What tomatoes for homemade pizza sauce?
- Peeled whole tomatoes. San Marzano if you can. Blend or crush by hand. Skip the jar labelled pizza sauce unless it is a weeknight NY pie.
- How much sauce on a pizza?
- Less than you think. A thin layer almost to the rim. Puddles make a soggy centre, especially under fresh mozzarella.
Then bake
ItalianPizza Marinara
From Naples
Tomato, garlic, oregano, oil. No cheese. The oldest pie still on a Naples menu.
NeapolitanSunday Margherita
From Raffaele Esposito
Tomato, mozzarella, basil — the pie that taught the world what pizza wanted to be.
New YorkFolded NY Pepperoni
From New York
The slice you fold in half on the sidewalk: crisp undercarriage, extra cheese, cupped pepperoni that pools a little oil.
GrandmaGrandma from the Sheet
From Umberto's
Thin, olive-oiled, bright with tomato. The Long Island sheet pie that tastes like somebody loved you.
Also read Pizza starter kit, Best San Marzano tomatoes for pizza, Fresh mozzarella vs low-moisture for pizza, How to make pizza dough.