Simple Cooking: Basic Pizza Sauce

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Mar 9, 2011 10:00PM

A couple of weeks back I hosted a pizza party for the staff at my apartment in Bridgeport. Since they (mostly) were taking the time to come from points north of Madison, I thought I'd make it worth their while to go the extra length and make all the pizzas from scratch. That meant whipping up a lot of dough and sauce.

While everyone seemed to be in agreement that the dough, as it was rolled out, had that perfect cracker crust I like to associate with a Chicago-thin crust pizza, a few in attendance have been asking for the sauce recipe. Rather than hoard it solely for them, I thought I'd share it with everyone.

This recipe was adapted from a 1998 Gourmet magazine recipe. It uses a few more ingredients than just crushed tomatoes and olive oil, but so worth it.

Basic Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

1 28-ounce can plain crushed tomatoes
3 Tablespoons olive oil, infused with herbs such as rosemary or basil (for this night, I used rosemary)
1 Tablespoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Pinch of sugar

In a large non-reactive saucepan, bring all the ingredients to a simmer and reduce for 25 minutes, or until thickened, stirring constantly. This sauce will keep in your refrigerator for about a week.