How to Make Pizza Sauce from Tomato Paste
Everyone goes crazy about pizza. That is right! That’s so exciting to put together the crust, the sauce, and different variations of topping, experimenting, creating new tastes and aromas. You can find a gazillion of ideas and recipes!
The crust has not changed a lot through the years. You still use wheat crust or, rarely, almond or corn flour crust. Vegan pizza works well with a cauliflower or broccoli crust. The pizza toppings are really hard to duplicate. You mix and combine everything you can find in the depth of your kitchen. But the sauce has no intentions of changing!
But pizza is not pizza without a pizza sauce. Let us explore how to make pizza sauce from tomato paste the easy way. In fact, several; ways.
Tomato pasta by itself is not best way to flavor your pizza. Making pizza sauce from tomato paste is not too complicated. You will need to add olive oil, white vinegar. Also add spices such as salt, garlic, oregano, pepper, or other Italian spices. The pizza sauce is cooked with pizza. Below you will find a few specific instructions and recipes to make real pizza sauce out of tomato paste.
Cooking Pizza
Cooking pizza with your own hands is worth a lot. It is much better than microwaving it. Why?
First of all, it’s cheaper than taking pizza from the store every evening. If you are a pizza lover, you can save up to 20-30% of your monthly budget in case you will cook pizza on your own instead of running to the grocery once and again.
Secondly, cooking pizza is a magic process you can share with your kids or loved ones. There is nothing better than snuggling down in your favorite armchair proudly enjoying pizza made by own hands, watching a TV-show, and spending pleasant evening with your family.
How to cook an ideal pizza sauce with tomato paste
The sauce is a core ingredient of any pizza. Traditionally, people give priority to tomato-based sauces of a mouth-watering red color. Believe it or not, but pizza doesn’t feel like a real culinary masterpiece if it is not smothered with an aromatic red sauce.
Is pizza sauce the same thing as tomato sauce?
Ask everyone, the secret to making a quality pizza is how you sauce it. The tomato base is the main component of any kind of pizza but it would be a mistake to use anything even resembling a sauce consistency you’ll suddenly find on the shelf.
Must transform it into a real pizza sauce first. And never confuse the ideas of pizza and pasta flavoring. You cannot talk about them in the same meaning! Before you start enchanting your pizza taste, you should see the difference between PIZZA and PASTA dressing.
An easy way to distinguish PIZZA SAUCE and PASTA SAUCE
Let’s determine the position first: pizza sauce should be spread on a pizza crust!
The key difference between these two sauces is that one of them is usually taken raw and cooked all together with pizza (although, not always). The pasta sauce should be cooked well beforehand.
- Pizza dressing
A classic recipe of a pizza dressing suggests making it of plain tomato paste or somehow crushed tomatoes, being careful that it must be a thicker consistency than a usual pasta dressing. Stick to the recipe and control thickness by adding fresh watery tomatoes. Why is the sauce consistency so important? The thick sauce fits the pizza dough the most as it prevents your dish from getting wet and sticky.
Do not forget about spices! You can add a variety of spices and different ingredients to your pizza dressing. Salt, sugar, oregano, garlic, and fresh-ground pepper are mostly respected. Complete your sauce with cheese, olives and spread it on top of your pizza dough. What about topping? Homemade variations of topping satisfy everyone’s eye. Bring all these flavors together and you’ll get the tastiest home-made pizza.
- Pasta dressing
The guide for pasta dressing recommends cooking the sauce with pureed or canned tomatoes, not paste. You’d better water it to get a watery substance. Why must it be so thin in consistency? The flowing texture penetrates your pasta noodles or meatballs and covers them in and out.
Also, pasta dressing does not take any specific seasoning. It works well even with a pinch of salt, pepper, and dried oregano for aroma. You will often find scraps of tomatoes in a pasta sauce, while a classic pizza sauce can boast its smooth consistency.
(From Scratchtobasics)
HOW TO MAKE CLASSIC PIZZA SAUCE, BASED ON TOMATO PASTE
How to cook up pizza sauce with tomato paste? It doesn’t require an extraordinary effort to create your own dish dressing! Just go step by step and you will learn how to cook it within minutes! So, get ready with a bowl and a spoon to mix up the sauce components.
Do not forget to buy a pack of herbs and ground seasons. You may even think of Italian herbs and spices if you want your pizza to taste Italian. Finally, check if you have tomato paste as you cannot go far and cook a quality pizza without this priceless component.
Pizza sauce takes:
1 cup of tomato paste
Olive oil
Garlic or garlic powder
White vinegar
Salt, dried, or even fresh herbs, especially thyme and oregano
How to treat your guests with a perfect sauce for pizza:
Put a cup of just-maid or previously-bought paste into a mixing bowl. Also, feel free to use some pureed or blended tomatoes to replace paste as experiment. Use your blender to smooth the resulting tomato sauce.
Then, crush a garlic clove, throw in some onion powder, salt, pepper, a pinch of sugar, and any desired seasonings you wish to add. Mix them up until even-textured. Remember, you don’t need to stir it or cook anyhow! It will be perfectly baked all together with your pizza in the oven!
So, spread your just-maid sauce right away on a pizza dough crust.
Pre-heat your pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven (pizza stone is always the best for making pizza).
Put dough with sauce on pizza stone and start baking at about 450 and until ready. Alternatively, you can bake pizza first and then put sauce on top of hot pizza, let it stand for several hours to blend in the flavor. The downside is that you will need to reheat the pizza using second method. Try both ways.
If you are not going to use your pizza sauce right now, refrigerate in a plastic box and keep it cooled for up to a week. You may also freeze pizza sauce, keeping it for 2 months.
Before you use frozen sauce, give it some time to unfreeze and come to room temperature. How? The best way is to leave your sauce in the refrigerator for the whole night or thaw it in the microwave before using it on pizza dough.
Pizza sauce with NO SUGAR:
If you don’t like sugar in your pizza sauce, just don’t drop it in. Actually, tomato paste is already sweet and salted so that there is no additional sugar needed. You may try and see what you’ll get in the end.
Why use tomato paste for pizza sauce?
What is tomato paste? Actually, this is just crushed tomatoes, pureed and cooked down. There are few reasons why it is recommended to use TOMATO PASTE in a pizza sauce recipe, especially when combining it with fresh tomatoes.
- The first and the main, tomato paste has one natural component – tomatoes, with no preservatives and unhealthy supplements. It makes your pizza taste incredibly tomato.
- Tomato paste is thick in consistency. You can water it as you want, depending on how much pizza sauce you need. It’s very convenient, isn’t it?
- Using ONLY pureed tomatoes or ONLY tomato sauce instead of tomato paste doesn’t take the effect you need and expect. Your sauce will be too moist to cook pizza with it.
If you don’t have tomato paste at home, you can easily cook it with fresh tomatoes. Just roast them slowly in a pan by adding some salt. Finally, you’ll get a fresh-made organic product for your future pizza.
Making pizza for a party
Are you going to make pizza for a bunch of friends or co-workers? No problem at all! This pizza sauce recipe can be easily scaled up. Don’t worry if you overdo! Just save freeze your extra sauce for the future.
How to freeze the remaining pizza sauce?
Before you freeze the extra pizza sauce, you should portion it and freeze in smaller containers. Portion one container for one pizza. Some people prefer keeping food in special boxes or containers. It can be helpful to freeze the sauce for pizza using this type of wide jars. You can save some space in your freezer by tightening the lid of a package.
Tomato-based pizza sauces for all occasions
That’s not such a big deal to prepare pizza at home. Fill it with anything you want. Choose from dozens of toppings, different types of crust, and hundreds of sauces to create the perfect combination to satisfy your taste. Do you believe you can have pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Pizza can be a light snack and a substantial meal. Just change ingredients. In this situation, a pizza sauce plays an even bigger role than topping. Remember, adding more ingredients than a classic pizza sauce usually takes, you may need to cook it and cool before spread on your dough.
- Garlicky pizza sauce
Check the list of ingredients:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, fine cut
1 cup tomato paste
2 tomatoes, pureed or crushed
1/3 teaspoon chili, fine cut or powdered
Salt by taste
Heat some extra-virgin oil in a stewpot. Then, throw in the garlic and give it 2-3 minutes to spread its aroma. Sprinkle your aromatic oil with chili and salt. Cook for a couple of minutes, then make cool, and mix up with pureed tomatoes and a cup of tomato paste for the right consistency. Blend your pizza sauce if needed. Season with salt or sugar.
- Tomato-based vodka sauce
This Italian-American pizza sauce is always desirable. Take the ingredients from the next-corner grocery.
Check the list of ingredients:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 ounces pancetta, diced
2-3 garlic cloves, fine cut
1/3 teaspoon chili, fine cut or sliced
1/3 cup vodka
1 cup tomato paste
Sugar and slat by taste
3 basil sprigs
Black pepper, powdered
Heat the oil in a pan. Stir the pancetta, garlic, and chili for 5 minutes for a strong aroma. Deglaze with vodka. Mix the oil with tomato paste, herbs, and other spices. Blend the sauce and use for pizza.
You may try to do white or red wine instead. It is up to you.
- Tomato-ginger sauce
This pizza dressing is surprisingly fast and simple in cooking but has a complex flavor. It seems thick and this is what you need for pizza. Anyway, you can control the right sauce consistency with the help of adding some tomato puree.
Check the list of ingredients:
1 spoon olive oil
1 cup tomato paste
1 onion, peeled, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoons ginger, grated
Sal, black pepper by taste
Parsley, fresh, fine cut
Heat some oil in a stewpot, add onions, ginger, stir for 2 minutes. Cool the mass, add spices, herbs, tomato paste. Mix up all the ingredients or just blend until you get a pureed mixture.
- Napoletana pizza sauce
Check the list of ingredients:
1 spoon olive oil
1/2 cup anchovies
1/2 cup capers
1/3 teaspoon chili, fine cut
1-2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup olives
Sugar, salt by taste
Basil, fresh, fine cut
Napoletana pizza can boast its interesting and a bit Mediterranean taste. To make the tastiest pizza dressing you need to heat the oil first and fry the garlic, anchovies, and chili. Then, cool the mass, blend with tomato paste, salt, sugar, fine cut basil, capers, and olives. Sprinkle with black pepper and check the consistency. If too thick, add a portion of fresh-pureed tomatoes. With such a rich and aromatic sauce, you don’t even need much to add for pizza topping!
- 5-minute tomato sauce
This speedy sauce can boast its luxurious taste and silky texture. It’s all because of butter. Remember, planning to freeze your sauce for the future, it is better to leave the butter out. Add it just in case your pizza is going to be baked right now.
Check the list of ingredients:
1 cup tomato pasta
1/3 cup olive oil
10 basil leaves
Black pepper, fresh-ground
Red pepper, fine cut
Salt by taste
1 tablespoon butter
Pour some oil into a pan. Stir the leaves of basil, fine cut, and other fresh herbs by your taste for 10 seconds. Mix up with the crushed red pepper, black pepper, tomato paste, salt. Finally, add some melted unsalted butter. Season the sauce with salt and pepper again and carefully spread on your crust.
- Classic marinara sauce
Check the list of ingredients:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, fine cut
1 cup tomato paste
1-2 canned tomatoes with sauce
Sugar, salt, fresh-ground pepper by taste
3 basil sprigs
Traditionally, heat the oil in a pot, throw in the garlic, and fry for 5 minutes. Cool and mix up with tomato paste, canned tomatoes, spices from a recipe. Blend carefully. It is important to heat the oil first to help the garlic deliver its taste and aroma.
- Caper-tomato sauce
Check the list of ingredients:
1 cup tomato paste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup capers
Salt, sugar by taste
Oregano, fresh or dried for aroma
This is the easiest recipe you may have. Just blend all the ingredients: tomato paste, olive oil, capers, spices. For a thinner consistency add some tomato puree. Blend all the ingredients and use them for pizza. Don’t you like puree sauces? Feel free to chop all the ingredients, mix them together, and use for cooking.
Finally, should pizza sauce be raw or cooked?
Actually, it’s a matter of personal taste. That would be a proper solution to heat the oil for your pizza sauce first if it contains special seasons that must be heated to deliver their taste. Also, it is better to simmer your pizza sauce until half-done if using tomatoes or tomato puree instead or in addition to the tomato paste.
Why so? Remember, fresh or canned tomatoes have a ton of water so your pizza will float away if you leave things as they are. Therefore, let the excess liquid die by stirring. Using tomato paste as a ground for your sauce, take it raw as the sauce and the pizza will be cooked together.
What ELSE can I do with pizza sauce?
Do some magic! As it was told before, you can freeze your pizza sauce and leave it for future usage. Also, you can turn the leftover pizza sauce into pasta! How? Put your leftovers in a pan, mix with tomato puree or crushed fresh tomatoes, additional spices, and stir until done. Now, your sauce is ideal for pasta, meatballs, whatever. Dilute the flavor with veggies to get a colorful pasta dish at no time.
So, your pizza sauce is ready and you know everything about how to cook it and how to boost up its plane taste. What’s next? Now that you have the sauce covered…you need a pizza crust recipe.