Our Favorite Sauce

When we started making pizza we wanted a simple, flavorful sauce. A sauce that would compliment the crust and toppings without overwhelming them.  We started by using any store brand can of crushed tomatoes.  They were alright, but lacked that fresh, bright flavor we were looking for even with other ingredients added.  Next we tried Cento San Marzanos which had been a go to for my homemade bolognese for years. The flavor was significantly better but something still wasn’t quite right.

With a little research we discovered that our favorite pizza chef, Chris Bianco, sells his own brand of crushed tomatoes! Aha! This must be one of the reasons Pizzeria Bianco’s sauce is so amazing. We bought a can and it was definitely what our sauce had been missing. Bright, fresh tomato flavor with no metallic can taste even without heating it up.  From that point forward we have only used Bianco DiNapoli crushed tomatoes to make our sauce. You may be able to find them in your local Whole Foods or Sprouts market.  If not, they are available to order online.

This sauce takes elements from several different recipes we saw on various websites and pizza forums. We consistently use this recipe although, we tend to eyeball and adjust the ingredients to our tastes…as little extra salt here and there, a LOT of basil. When we began we only used fresh basil but determined that adding a little dry really boosts the overall basil flavor. The sauce is not heated prior to being used on the pizza.  The tomatoes are so good there is no need to try to cook out any metallic can flavor. Combine the ingredients and allow the flavors to marry before making pizza.  Our Favorite Sauce refrigerates well for use a day or two later.