Best Tomatoes for Pizza Sauce

What makes a pizza a great pizza?? There are countless opinions on this, and no doubt everyone has a valid argument. However, there is no arguing that using the best tomatoes for your pizza sauce will be the foundation of a great pizza.  The most famous pizza of all – The Margherita – is topped with only 3 ingredients, tomato, mozzarella and basil, making it extremely important to get them right.  This emphasizes the need to use the best tomatoes.

Plum Tomatoes are arguably the best tomato for your pizza sauce.  And any pizzaiolo will tell you that the San Marzano is the best of the best!  Unfortunately the true, authentic San Marzano tomatoes are grown in near Naples, in Southwest Italy’s Campania region.  These are the best due to growing in the great soil created by Mt Vesuvius.  But lucky for us, we don’t need to travel to Italy to get the best tomatoes for our pizza sauce.  Canned San Marzano tomatoes are available online and in most good supermarkets.

So why are San Marzano tomatoes considered the best? 

Because of their bright red color;

Thick, juicy flesh;

The gelatin around the seeds;

Their sweet flavor and low acidity;

Their low percentage of water and seeds compared to other tomatoes.

The water content of the tomato is probably the most important aspect of a good quality tomato for pizza sauce.  If you cant get San Marzano, try any type of plum tomato that has as little natural water as possible.  Too much water will make for a soggy pizza – no-one likes that!

What do you mix with your tomatoes to make your pizza sauce? And do you cook it or not?

I like to keep my sauce simple, so you can actually taste the great quality tomatoes.  I only put a little salt, olive oil and parmesan cheese in the sauce.  And I don’t cook the tomatoes first.  You can add herbs, such as oregano and basil, or a little bit of garlic – it is really a personal choice.

Post your thoughts at the end of this article, and share your pizza sauce recipe.