Easy Neapolitan Pizza Sauce

Once you try this pizza sauce there’s no going back. It’s dead-easy and tastes exactly like the best sauce from your favorite Neapolitan pizza place. The secret is using the best quality canned San Marzano tomatoes and simply adding salt. You only break the tomatoes down a bit by grating them with a large-hole cheese grater. There’s no cooking involved at all. That’s it!

It sounds ridiculous because as Americans we are used to cooking down our tomato sauces, especially pizza sauces. Every “pizza sauce” I see at the supermarket is a dark-red, thick, cooked-down sauce. Some even resemble tomato paste. But these are not the kinds of sauce you find on high-quality Neapolitan pizzas.

We learned this surprising technique several years ago when we got our Ooni and I researched pizza techniques from a stack of library books. One book off-handedly slipped in this sauce technique that feels like a secret. There’s no turning back.

We researched the quality of various brands of San Marzano tomatoes. We landed on Cento, and they are easily accessible, including at Trader Joe’s. Using the best quality tomatoes is what makes this sauce. Make sure to use canned whole tomatoes because they are the highest quality. When you empty them into a mixing bowl, just using a large-hole cheese grater to break down the tomatoes. If you use an immersion blender you might whip them too thin. After you get to the right consistency, just add salt, and continue to add salt to taste. Make sure to have it salty enough to be delicious. This is a crucial component of your pizza flavor.

Find my easy and delicious pizza dough recipe here.