Quick & Easy Pizza Sauce

I’ve been making my own pizza and pizza sauce for years. The usual way is reduce a load of tomatoes down until lusciously thick with an intense tomato-ey flavor. Because it takes a while to make a batch, I usually make a huge amount and freeze it until needed.

One evening, I had a brainwave – why can’t I make pizza sauce from tomato puree? After all, you normally reduce the tomatoes into a thick paste, why can’t you do it the other way around? I mean, tomato puree is already concentrated, surely you can do the reverse, by thinning it down to the correct consistency.

My experimentation paid off. The sauce was really good, I think it’s even richer than doing it the long way around. It takes around 10 minutes to make as opposed to 1 ½ hours and it’s really tasty!


QUICK & EASY PIZZA SAUCE
Makes 350 g (almost 1 ½ c)

Ingredients
1 x small can of tomato puree/paste
155 ml (⅔ c) water, depending on the thickness you require
½ t oil
25 g (1 oz) finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, crushed (1 to sauté and 1 to add raw)
4 g (½ t) better than bouillon* chicken/vegetable stock paste
½ t sugar
¼ t chili flakes
Pinch of dried oregano
Pinch of dried basil

* Better than bouillon is a concentrated paste, which you add water to, to make a stock. If this is not available, use stock cubes or ready-made stock instead of water in step 1.

Method
1. In a bowl, mix together the tomato puree and water.

2. In a medium frying pan (skillet), heat the oil and fry the onion and 1 crushed garlic clove until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Add the tomato/water paste to the pan and stir.

3. Add the other ingredients and stir until mixed well. Simmer for4-5 minutes, adjust the seasoning if required. Use on a thin crust pizza dough to create a wonderful pizza. Enjoy!