Keep-it-Simple Tomato Sauce

By: Scott Deley, excerpted from Ooni Pizza Project

By: Scott Deley, excerpted from Ooni Pizza Project

Making the perfect tomato sauce for all types of pizzas is all about simplicity. If you use good-quality tomatoes, keeping it simple allows their beautiful flavor to do the talking! When I first started out, I experimented with many different recipes for tomato sauce. I reduced the sauce down, added sugar, oil, garlic and multiple herb combinations, but I always came back to the simple combination of salt, a little basil, and importantly, no cooking. When added to a pizza and cooked in the Ooni pizza oven, the tomatoes will be exposed to temperatures up to 930°F (500°C), so cooking them beforehand could result in a bitter flavor. Some argue that adding basil to the sauce is a step too far, but I love the flavor it gives, and I believe it elevates this sauce from the rest! Don’t throw the empty can of tomatoes away; they make great-looking pots to grow your very own basil plants!

Yield: enough sauce for 3–4 (11” [28 cm]) pizzas

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Ingredients

1 teaspoon salt
1 (14-oz [400-g]) can San Marzano Tomatoes
Fresh basil leaves, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS

Remove the tomatoes from the can, reserving the liquid. In a sieve, gently squeeze the tomatoes to release any liquid. This keeps the sauce from becoming too watery. To make sure the sauce has a nice consistency, remove any tough stem ends from the tomatoes, and discard.
Place your tomatoes into a bowl and add the juice from the can. Add the salt, and with an immersion blender, blend using very short pulses. You will only need two or three pulses to get to the perfect consistency; any more than this may introduce too much oxygen into the sauce and give it a bitter taste while also affecting the color. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a food mill or simply break the tomatoes down with your hands.
Add the basil and stir to combine. You can use the sauce right away or put it into an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 3 days. Allow the sauce to come to room temperature before using.