Epic Italian Pizza Sauce

 

I am not Italian, I wish I was, they are so passionate, good looking and boy do they know how to cook! I plan to go there one day and eat my way around the country! (the friend I want to go with wants to cycle around so I’ll probably get away with it).

We had friends over a while back and I made this sauce and of course a few pizzas (one of them is here on my blog…Prawn, Chorizo & Caramelised Onion…one of my favs).

This recipe was passed along to me by a Kiwi chef who got it from an Italian chef and it really is just amazing! It tastes so damn good that I just want to eat it straight from the pot, on hot, buttery toast….but I refrain (yeah right) and keep it for the pizzas and this sauce really takes your pizza from being a pizza to a PIZZA! It takes a good half an hour to simmer it down to a lovely, thick flavoursome sauce so seen as I’ve gone to all the effort and I’m a busy working mum I make A LOT and freeze it. So this is quite a large recipe, enough for 10 – 12  pizzas depending on the size of the base and the amount you prefer to use.

Go forth….feed your family and friends and make some of the best pizzas in town!

 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup fresh herbs (loosely packed) or 1 ½ tablespoon of dry, Italian herbs
1 medium-sized brown onion
5 medium-sized cloves garlic (or 4 large)
3 tablespoon of vegetable oil or a light/medium olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 x 400 g / 14 oz cans, diced tomatoes (or 15 – 18, fresh, ripe tomatoes)
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

 

makes 5 cups (enough for 10 – 12 pizzas, depending on their size and the amount you like to put on them).

 

Notes

• I used light olive oil for softening the onions and an extra virgin that’s added at the end (for flavour) but you can just use one type if you only have one. It’s perfectly okay to use vegetable oil to soften the onions and the herbs, it’s cheaper and you are adding the ‘good stuff’ at the end for flavour,
• The fresh herbs I use are an equal amount of parsley, thyme and oregano leaves, but less rosemary than the others as it’s stronger.
• If you’d like to use your own homegrown, sun-kissed, ripe tomatoes you might like to peel them before you dice them, if you’ve never peeled them before there’s a ‘how to’ post here showing you how. 🙂
• I love it chunky but if you’d like a smoother sauce you can use tomato puree instead of diced tomatoes (or passata) or you could even do a half ‘n’ half, say 2 tins diced and 1 tin puree….or around the other way.

 

METHOD

First, peel and then finely dice up the onion…..

…..and also the cloves of garlic.

Also roughly cut up the fresh herbs.

• Just in case you haven’t used some of these before. Oregano and Rosemary; remove the leaves from the stalks before roughly chopping. Parsley; remove the stalks and finely chop up (if using Italian parsley just roughly chop up). Thyme; I strip the leaves off the stems and they don’t need chopping as they are so tiny.

In a large saucepan, over a medium heat up the olive oil and the butter for I minute.

Then add the onion and herbs and stirring often, cook them until the onions look clear and have softened, around 5 minutes (if you see any browning, turn the heat down a little).

Now add the garlic and cook for I more minute.

Then add the tomato paste and cook for a further minute.

Add the diced tomatoes and turn the heat up to high, bringing it all to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Once boiling turn it down to a medium/low heat and simmer it (a soft boil) for at least 30 minutes.

Whilst it’s boiling get the sugar, salt, olive oil and vinegar ready.

After the sauce has simmered and hopefully thickened nicely add the prepared four ingredients and…..

…..stir them in well and cook the sauce for a further 5 minutes.

There you go, truly delicious pizza sauce! I like this recipe so much, I spread quite a lot on.

Storage – This pizza sauce, if kept in a sterile, airtight container keeps well in the fridge for up to 5 days and it freezes perfectly up to 6 months.

The Prawn, Chorizo & Caramelised Onion Pizza we had….nom nom nom!