Its pizza night!!!!
Anyone recommend a good tomato sauce base recipe??

Tomato purée, olive oil, mixed herbs & paprika.

Good quality tin of tomatoes, well drained in a colander, tablespoon of oil, good pinch of salt, teaspoon of fresh oregano, 2 garlic cloves – all in a blender and pulse to your preferred consistency.

Tinned tomatoes, garlic, olive oil. In the slow cooker (or pan on a very low heat) for a good few hours.

lemonysam – minus the garlic that is what we do.

I use Jamie Oliver’s (the dough recipe is simple and very good too), might be able to find that online

EDIT link here http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/basic-pizza/#TFrROCXlhUebBudw.97

Lightly fry a clove of garlic for a 1-2 mins in some olive oil, idea is to make a garlic flavoured oil. Discard garlic.
Good quality tin of plum tomatoes plus some basil, salt and pepper and reduce to say 60% of original liquid
Run through a strainer

Cook some onions, then some garlic & tomato purée. Add can of decent chopped tomatoes, some herbs (oregano and basil) and cook slowly for a while adding a dash of water now and then until nice and sweet.

We then give the sauce a quick blitz so nice and smooth. Nom

I’m now hungry.

lemonysam – minus the garlic that is what we do.

I hum and haw about whether the garlic is an improvement but I generally think it is.

Personally, I do similar to above, but stick in a decent bit of Encona and some soy sauce for colour. Given it goes on so thin, you can make it pretty spicy without the pizza itself becoming inedible.

We do a big batch and freeze into little containers.

My cheat’s method: tin of tomato purée, dollop of ketchup, twist of black pepper and some dried basil and oregano. Or just the tomatoes if it’s going on top of home-made garlic butter which already contains the herbs.

Normal method: fine chop onions and a clove of garlic, fry gently until very soft, then add a tin of tomatoes and simmer until it’s reduced and thickened and tastes sweet rather than acidic. Then coarsely blend, season as above.

I’ve got too much time on my hands method: halve a load of fresh vine tomatoes, chop an onion and a red pepper into lumps. Chuck in a baking tray with a couple of cloves of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and then stir to coat, scatter fresh basil about and bang in the oven until it’s starting to char. Let it cool, chuck it in the blender adding veg stock to get the consistency right as needed.

Tinned tomatoes, garlic, olive oil. In the slow cooker (or pan on a very low heat) for a good few hours.

This plus some sugar to take away the bitterness from the tomato seeds.

Lightly fry a clove of garlic for a 1-2 mins in some olive oil, idea is to make a garlic flavoured oil. Discard garlic.
Good quality tin of plum tomatoes plus some basil, salt and pepper and reduce to say 60% of original liquid
Run through a strainer

This but leave the garlic in, maybe even add two cloves. Cook/reduce then blend with hand blender/whizzer and reduce again. A sauce that’s too wet/saturated makes the dough soggy, hence the reducing

Good basil makes difference too, the italian stuff. The Thai basil they sell in supermarkets doesn’t have the full flavour and the Greek stuff is too strong a flavour

Just tip some passata out of container onto base

Thanks all… went with a mish mash of suggestions
Its now been in the pan 30 mins went with.. tin toms, sea salt, pepper, garlic, tiny bit sugar, bit of tomato sauce, mixed erbs, oregano

Dough is being made by the Panasonic bread machine (makes pretty good dough).

Have 2 large round stainless steel trays which i put the bases on and prove for 30 mins. Make the pizzas, pop the tray on a hot hob for 2 mins and throw in a very hot oven till ready…

What djglover says,this is what my Italian mate does, I add oregano. He also tells me that most Italians at home use Edam rather than Mozerella.

Finely chopped garlic softened in small pan with a little olive oil on a low heat. Add tin of tomatoes and a little water to rinse out the tin. Add a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of dried oregano & parsley. Leave cooking on a very low heat for 1 hour with lid ajar. Check every 10 minutes to make sure not drying out. Should be pretty thick and ready for use at that point.

all in a blender

I realise this is a bit late now but you are better putting it through a sieve than a blender to avoid getting the bitterness of squished tomato seeds. You also seem to get a nice colour

I use the Jamie Oliver recipe which is pretty good. I keep thinking that one day I’ll build a proper pizza oven in the garden, oven is ok but doesn’t get quite hot enough or give that lovely wood fired flavour.

Many moons ago I used to work for a large Pizza chain. To make the sauce it was:

A massive TIN of tomato puree
The same volume of water
A load of mixed herbs
Citric acid
Sugar
Salt

This pretty well THE definitive pizza sauce. End of. I still use vaguely the same recipe myself at home (just with far smaller quantities). Fool proof, simple. Tastes great!

Anyone faffing about with tins of tomatoes is an imbecile. 😉 They make everything soggy.

Yeah, just chopped up tomatos for me. Whizz up if you like. Onions and garlic are great, but have no place in a pizza sauce. Oregano or similar can be added.

Anyone faffing about with tins of tomatoes is an imbecile. They make everything soggy.

You’re wrong, HTH.

Secret (until now!) ingredient to what will be a veggie pizza – a 1/2 teaspoon of Marmite to the sauce to add a bit of ‘savouryness’ that’s often missing without meat toppings.

Normal for me – tom puree, olive oil, dried italian herbs, garlic, pepper, a little brown sugar, marmite.

Also wondering how use of tinned toms doesn’t make the base too soggy….

Fresh tomatoes, salt, olive oil.

Oh, and you puree users disgust me

I’m literally vomiting in disgust at the concept*

*this may not be happening

**although there was a guy wretch vomiting on the train earlier this week. I like to imagine in response to puree being used on pizzas

Also wondering how use of tinned toms doesn’t make the base too soggy….

Reduce them over low heat to thicken and concentrate them.

Tomato and basil ..pinch of salt….All that’s needed

Secret (until now!) ingredient to what will be a veggie pizza – a 1/2 teaspoon of Marmite to the sauce to add a bit of ‘savouryness’ that’s often missing without meat toppings.

Yeah, I do that as a matter of course with anything like that; veggie bolognaise, chilli etc.

All now devoured. Was yum.
I think im going to have a go at Calzone next week…
Any tips?

Do what you just did. Fold it in half. HTH.

(-:

Tomato purée is for school dinner style pizza.

Gently fry garlic and chopped basil, add bottle of passatta, then some salt and a wee bit of sugar too. Simmer until nice and rich (I like to finish with some nice olive oil too).

Top tip – make too much sugo, and too much pizza dough too, and portion into the freezer, it freezes really well and means a few hours defrosting and voila – more pizza.

Ijust buy a good passata from the supermarket, cheap ones are smooth, dearer ones have chunks (which I prefer)

All the things above plus a dash of balsamic vinegar and some fresh chilli

I am struggling to see how someone who uses an equal volume of water to puree can suggest tinned tomatoes would result in a too soggy base ….

It’s artisan water, drawn from the base of the Andes and transported to Britain in the mouths of Filipino virgins. Don’t you know anything about STW pizza?

Reduce them over low heat to thicken and concentrate them.

… Which is basically how you make tomato concentrate, or.. erm.. Purée, by another name – to save you the trouble 😉

I am struggling to see how someone who uses an equal volume of water to puree can suggest tinned tomatoes would result in a too soggy base ….

Hmmm… Just giving a pro tip dude. Ignore it if you like.. I spent 5 years making great pizzas this way… 😀

– to save you the trouble

Well seeing how the OP was making his own pizza dough and looking for a homemade recipe, I don’t think that its that much trouble!

Tinned tomatoes, olive oil,garlic, onions, basil, salt, pepper, in saucepan, cook onions first obv

Mine’s pretty simple:

Olive oil, tomato puree, basil, oregano, fresh mint, black pepper and a teaspoon of honey.

Add water to get consistency.

A massive TIN of tomato puree
The same volume of water
A load of mixed herbs
Citric acid
Sugar
Salt

This explains how my mate had the most acidic tomato sauce known to man (his words) on a pizza from a takeaway while on a stag do in Carmarthen. A bit heavy handed on that particular ingredient then! Couldn’t understand how the acidity came about up to now