Finest Pizza Sauce Yet

[foodblogger]

Everything now comes sliced and packaged in plastic and sold elsewhere in the stores. It would be one thing if there were a lot of specialty Italian food stores, but I haven't been able to find any around Dallas.

My goodness!  I am a lot more spoiled than I thought.  KC doesn't have a lot of specialty Italian stores but there are at least 2 really good ones.  My favorite is Caroli's in the City Market.  They have 6-in-1 and a couple different varieties of San Marzano.  They also have supreme quality fresh mozzarella.  It is in the deli counter in a bin of cheese juice.  No wrappers or anything.  When they get your cheese they fish it out with a slotted spoon and put it into a plastic deli container with some of the juice from the bin.  They also carry Margherita pepperoni and have an amazing homemade Italian sausage.  When I was in Chicago it was the same thing.  Last week I took a tip from this board and looked at Sam's Club - they have 5 pound bags of Stella!  I guess I should have specified exactly what I meant by 'locally available'.  I am hoping beyond hope that I can find a good Italian market in Louisville.

[sisca]

i used to make my sauce from scratch, which was good, but recently i came across Cento brand pizza sauce . seeing as how it is made in Jersey, i took a gamble and bought it....it's a damn good sauce. it is a little bland, but i add olive oil, garlic powder and marjoram and it's amazing!

[Furo]

Hey Foodblogger,
Have you ventured to Scimeca's on Antioch road and Englewood,Kansas City North? They used to have the original store on Independence Avenue, but sold it to a Vietnamese group. Then they opened the one north of the river. It has a nice selection of imported goods ( not as much as the original though). I live in the old Northeast part of town and remember all the little Italian grocers we used to have. If you are looking for a good coarse Italian sausage try the ones from B & K market on the corner of Independence Avenue and Norton. I also have been to Carilo's in the City Market, good selection but pricey.
Sure miss how the old neighborhood used to be.

[helio]

pftaylor: have you ever tried 6-in-1 tomatoes from Escalon? ...curious how they compare!

[pftaylor]

helio,
Thanks for your question.

My position on sauce right now is simple. Mother Nature's garden fresh tomatoes (many different varieties) are better for pizza than anything in a can - including DOP San Marzanos. I cannot think of an instance where the reverse is true.

I have tried the 6-in-1 tomatoes from Escalon and found them to be pleasing but not on the same freshness level as just-ground tomatoes. A bright, fresh taste is what I strive for. Not overly sweet, but nature fresh. A fresh tasting sauce, for me, perfectly blends with the crust and mozzarella to produce a mouth watering experience which signals my brain that everything is in alignment.

The Ugly Ripe tomato is very flavorful and perhaps is the best available to me at a supermarket. I am also attempting to take a step up and grow my own San Marzano's from a packet of seeds but have yet to taste the fruit produced. It is a week or two away from being ripe enough.

[EdF]

PFT:

If you find someone selling Paul Robeson tomatoes, maybe at a farmers' market, try them out.  Or next year, grow them yourself.  I think we got the seeds from Bear Creek.  We've done maybe 8 varieties of heirlooms, and these are our favorite for flavor (and the texture is fine for sauce).  Another point is that if you can your own tomatoes in glass, they do retain the fresh flavor through the year.

And I love the Uglis.

- Ed

[Bill/SFNM]

Another point is that if you can your own tomatoes in glass, they do retain the fresh flavor through the year.

Ed,

Exactly how do you prep the tomatoes before canning them? I've already got a ton of dried tomatoes and still plenty more on the vine, so I was thinking of canning the remainder. Thanks.

Bill/SFNM

[EdF]

Bill,

We follow the procedure in Putting Food By (definitive book on preservation) using either the pressure cooker method or the water bath.  If I remember from last year, it's blanch them and add a little salt and lemon juice.  Another method that worked well, but gives a different kind of product is to cook them down to puree thickness, roll into balls and submerge in olive oil - no need to can.  These made a really great puree for adding to various dishes.  Probably inappropriate for pizza, though.

Pick up that book - well worth its modest cost.

- Ed

[Bill/SFNM]

I've got the book though I primarily use the Ball Blue Book. I'll give that method you suggest a try. I'm hoping that I don't lose that fresh, sweet flavor.

Thanks!

Bill/SFNM

[EdF]

Bill,

I think it's going to be a matter of your tastes.  Yours may be more discriminating than mine.  But they did keep the garden taste as far as I could tell, and it's nothing like tomatoes in a can.  The water bath method will give less separation of the juice from the pulp than the pressure canning method, by the way.

- Ed

[Glutenboy]

Question for PFT...  Do you even salt the tomatoes?  I love pure tomato flavor on my pizza, but have always found at least a little salting necessary with the unsalted canned variety.  Please enlighten me, oh Man Who Has Climbed Mount Bianco... 

-- Glutenboy

[pftaylor]

Glutenboy,
You bet I salt my tomatoes. The amount depends on the batch of tomatoes on hand. Everytime I make Pizza Raquel I taste test small spoonfulls until the proper flavor level is reached. I do not use any other spices though - just crushed tomatoes. Skip over to the Pizza Raquel thread and read about the breakthrough I found with a traditional NYC plain (cheese) pizza. It was made according to Evelyne Slomon's account of the original Lombardi formula.

It was stupendous. The sequence and combination of ingredients and spices produced a wonderfully bright flavor profile. My lower lip was still tingling the next day or two from the combination of fresh Ugly Ripes, fresh essence, fresh Sicilian oregano, and EVOO. It bit just like Jaws. Big and bold.

[Glutenboy]

PFT --

Thanks for the info.  You're right...  It seems most if not all of us give oregano second-rate status in favor of basil, but if you grew up eating pizza in and around NYC and are trying to recapture that flavor, then oregano, with its distinctive flavor and aroma, is actually a staple and not just an occasional option.  Can't wait to try it.

-- Glutenboy

[gschwim]

Glutenboy,

If you haven't been to New York to try New York pizza at its source, you'll be interested to know that the corner pizza shops actually put out shakers of oregano (along with shakers of parmesan, granulated garlic and red pepper flakes) for people to add additional oregano.

[Glutenboy]

Ever been?!  Born in Manhattan and raised on pizzas from the Bronx to Jersey and back to Brooklyn!!! 

[gschwim]

Hope the period in NJ wasn't too painful.  Must have felt good to get back to NYC...

[ihavezippers]

I don't suppose anyone knows where to get UglyRipe tomatoes in Seattle/Puget Sound?

or for that matter, just some seeds for UglyRipe tomatoes?  I can't find them anywhere here.