Quick Pizza Sauce
Overview
Tinned tomato sauce sweetened with honey and cooked down briefly. No country is claimed; it is a shortcut sauce for homemade pizza. This is the shortest recipe in the entire archive, two ingredients, and it is worth being honest about what that means. The source's own article promises olive oil and garlic; neither appears in the ingredient list or the method. What is actually written is tinned tomato sauce with honey stirred in and simmered for seven minutes. That will make a perfectly serviceable pizza sauce, and it will taste of tinned tomato and honey. The honey is doing a real job, though, and it is worth understanding rather than dismissing. Tinned tomatoes are noticeably acidic, and a small amount of sugar counteracts that acidity rather than making the sauce sweet, the same reason Italian cooks put a pinch of sugar into a long-cooked tomato sauce. Two tablespoons in a tin is more than a pinch, so taste as you go. The seven-minute cook is the other half of it. Tinned tomato sauce is thin, and reducing it slightly gives you something that sits on the dough rather than soaking into it. Olive oil, garlic, oregano and salt would improve it considerably and are all in the source's own description.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Pour the tin of tomato sauce into a saucepan.
- 2
Mix in the 2 tablespoons of honey or sugar until fully incorporated. Taste as you go, the sugar is there to counteract the acidity of tinned tomato rather than to sweeten the sauce.
- 3
Set the pan over low heat and let it cook gently for about 7 minutes, so the flavours settle and the sauce thickens slightly. Turn it occasionally so it does not catch.
- 4
If you are adding olive oil, crushed garlic, oregano and salt, all of which the source's own description mentions, work them in now.
- 5
Once the sauce has the taste and thickness you want, take it off the heat and let it cool slightly before using.
Africook’s Notes
- Taste before you commit both tablespoons of honey. Two is a lot for one tin and it is easy to overshoot into something sweet.
- Reduce it slightly. Thin sauce soaks into the dough and makes the base soggy.
- Add olive oil, garlic, oregano and salt. The source's own article promises them and the sauce is markedly better with them.
- Passata works as well as tinned tomato sauce and is often better, being less processed.
- Cool the sauce before it goes on the dough. Hot sauce starts cooking the base before it reaches the oven.
- It keeps for about a week in the fridge and freezes well in portions.
Questions cooks ask
Why put honey in a pizza sauce?
To counteract acidity rather than to sweeten it. Tinned tomatoes are noticeably acidic, particularly cheaper ones, and a small quantity of sugar balances that, the same reason Italian cooks add a pinch of sugar to a long-simmered tomato sauce. Two tablespoons in a single tin is more than a pinch, though, so taste as you mix rather than adding it all at once.
Where are the olive oil and garlic?
Not in the recipe, despite the source's own article listing them as the pantry staples the sauce is made from. Its ingredient list contains only tinned tomato sauce and honey. The recipe here follows what is actually written, with the missing ingredients noted as an optional addition, because they are a genuine improvement and the source clearly intended them.
Do I need to cook pizza sauce at all?
Not necessarily. Many Neapolitan pizzerias use raw crushed tomatoes with salt and nothing else, on the reasoning that the sauce cooks in the oven anyway. Cooking it beforehand, as here, reduces it slightly so it sits on the dough rather than soaking in, and lets the flavours settle. Both approaches work; the raw version tastes brighter and the cooked one richer.
How long does it keep?
About a week in a sealed container in the fridge, and it freezes well, portioning it into an ice cube tray means you can defrost exactly what one pizza needs. Because it contains no dairy, no fresh herbs and no raw garlic as written, it is fairly stable. Adding fresh garlic shortens its fridge life, so use it within a few days if you do.
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