Traditional Red Sauce Pizza

Every Wednesday, starting in middle school, I made pizza. After school, I opened a package of yeast, got out the flour, and kneaded dough. While it was proofing, I simmered a can of tomato puree with garlic, oregano, basil, and sugar. I grated mozzarella, assembled and baked the pies, and we ate. Two homemade pizzas, every Wednesday, for years. It was one of the first recipes I learned to cook and after I took over pizza-making responsibilities from my mother (thank you Mom), it was one of the first meals I prepared on a regular basis for others. I loved dinner on Wednesdays.

Today, with more knowledge and experience, and the benefit of hindsight, I now know the dough was heavy from half whole wheat flour. The oven never got hot enough and, cooked on metal pizza pans, the crust was less than crisp. I laid the sauce on too thick and with too much sugar and oregano, it was overly sweet and slightly bitter at the same time.

When I first met my wife we had both moved to Long Island where we met in graduate school. We discovered that here, there’s no need to make homemade pizza. Every strip mall on Long Island has a pizza joint churning out mostly excellent pies. There are different styles and thicknesses and toppings (some of which don’t belong on a pizza – yes, you, Buffalo chicken), and everyone has their favorite spot. My town alone has at least a half a dozen pizza parlors within a one mile radius. My pizza making tradition ended.

When my children were young, my son dreamed of mashed potato pizza, which we ended up having at Bar in New Haven, CT. It was delicious. I knew I had to start making pizzas again. I left the traditional red sauce pie to the professionals. Why fight that fight? It wasn’t worth it. So I veered toward the fancy; pies that no one would make for us. In addition to mashed potato, I made pesto pizzas and pizza with sweet onion, Kalamata olives, and cherry tomatoes. Sometimes I would throw arugula with prosciutto on top or salty feta cheese. They were delicious.

In this time of COVID-19, I cannot make most of my gourmet pies and we’re reluctant to even get take out. There’s no more potatoes in the pantry or feta in the refrigerator. We’ve worked our way through all but a few remaining containers of frozen pesto from last summer’s harvest. And the arugula has only just sprouted in the garden. It’s time to make a traditional red sauce pizza again.

I made one the other day and it was delicious. The crust was thin and crispy. I had purchased (and then froze) several disks of dough from a local pizza shop before we sheltered in place, no whole wheat flour allowed. I cooked it on a preheated pizza stone in an oven as hot as it could get. I made a simple, light tomato sauce: canned whole peeled tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and salt whirled in a blender, warmed for a few minutes, and used sparingly. I topped it with mozzarella cheese (low-moisture supermarket variety on one occasion and fresh on another) and a few Kalamata olives sitting in the refrigerator, that no one had yet claimed.

It may not rival our local pizza parlors and perhaps it was a bit misshapen, but my wife and kids loved it. It is very different from the pizza of my youth, but I am thankful for the pizza making experience I had. When this coronavirus crisis ends, I’m sure we’ll go back to ordering red sauce pies from our local pizza shops, but for now, while we shelter in place, this pizza is a little bit of comfort.

Traditional Red Sauce Pizza

I know, I should make my own dough. But many pizza restaurants will sell you a round for a few bucks, and it’s much more convenient. In addition, in this time of COVID-19 it’s not always easy to get flour and yeast, and restaurants desperately need the business.

If you buy the dough, then all that’s really left to do is shred or cut cheese (don’t use pre-shredded, as it contains a coating to prevent caking and clumping) and make the sauce. The sauce takes about ten minutes total and is vastly superior to prepared tomato or pizza sauce you can buy in a can or jar. Pizzas are covered with a lot less sauce than you think, so use it sparingly. Any leftover can be frozen in small containers to be defrosted next time you have a craving for homemade pizza.

1 pizza, plus extra sauce for 1-2 additional pies, about ½ hour, plus time to heat the pizza stone

1-28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes

2 Tbsp. olive oil

½ tsp. salt

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 pizza dough, bought or homemade

¾ lb. low moisture mozzarella cheese, grated or fresh mozzarella cheese cut into ½-inch chunks

Kalamata olives, pepperoni, anchovies, sliced onions, or anything else you might top a pizza with, optional

1. Place the pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven and turn oven to its highest setting, at least 500 ^oF. Pizza stones take a long time to heat up, so heating for a full hour will make the crispiest pie. (I have seen suggestions for alternatives to pizza stones, like the back of a cast iron skillet or a sheet pan, but I haven’t tried them, so I have no idea how they work.)
2. Put the tomatoes without their juice into a blender or food processor. Reserve the juice as you may want to thin down the sauce if it is too thick. Add olive oil, salt, and garlic to the blender or food processor, and puree. The sauce should be relatively thin, and if it is not, add the juice from the tomatoes one tablespoon at a time.
3. Pour the sauce into a 2-quart sauce pan and heat until it starts to bubble. Simmer for a few minutes to thicken slightly and mellow out the garlic.
4. Stretch the dough to desired size, but a thinner crust is better. As a non-professional pizza maker, it is hard to stretch a perfectly round pizza, but a misshapen pie has character. Sometimes I make mine roundish, sometimes squarish. Sometimes they look like an amoeba.
5. Place the stretched dough on the hot pizza stone. Check the crust after a minute or two and prick any bubbles that form with the point of a knife. Allow to cook for several minutes, until the crust starts to get crispy.
6. Using a pizza peel or the back of a sheet pan, remove the crust and spread about ¾ cup of sauce evenly over the pie, leaving about an inch at the edges. The sauce should be in a very thin layer. Add more if needed, depending on the size of your pizza. Cover with mozzarella cheese and any desired toppings.
7. Return the pizza to the oven to finish cooking until the crust is crispy – check the bottom to make sure it’s not burning – and the cheese is melted, about 5 – 7 minutes.
8. Remove from oven, slice, and serve hot.

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