Almost as important as the pizza base is the pizza dough which is usually made from tomatoes. It is believed that the history of tomatoes can be traced to the Aztecs, back to 700 A.D. The popularity of the fruit as a sauce has been there since the inception of the pizza in the late 1800s. It was part of the 3 ingredients used for celebrating Queen Margarite’s visit in Naples by creating a dish that represented the Italian flag – mozzarella cheese for white, basil topping for green, and tomato sauce for red.
The Best Tomatoes for Pizzas
Plum tomatoes are ideal for making pizza sauce. Actually, the best tomatoes for pizza sauce are ones below Mt. Vesuvius’ soil outside Naples in San Marzano, Italy. But, since everyone doesn’t live around Vesuvius, canned San Marzano tomatoes are available in the supermarket. The reason why plum tomatoes are considered to be the best is because of their bright color, scant gelatin around the seeds, elliptical shape and thick walls. The little quantity of water and seeds also make them ideal for pizza sauce.
Preparing the Sauce
First, the seeds are removed from the tomatoes and after cutting them into chunks, they are made into a fresh paste using the blender. After that, there would be some tweaking around with the texture and consistency, which can be made uniform by adding water. The sauce should be thick and not a lot of water should be added, otherwise the dough will turn into a soggy mess. The sauce can be simmered on low heat if it is too thin in order to thicken it up. Usually, the cooking time of a tomato sauce can be as little as 5 minutes or as long as an hour. Virgin olive oil is also added to give a nice flavor to the sauce.
Buying Sauce at Store
As mentioned before, you can get San Marzano canned tomatoes at a store, just look for the DOP emblem on them. In case these are not available, any other canned plum tomatoes can be used. Round kinds should be avoided.
And remember to never use oregano in your sauce if you want to be a traditionalist.
