Sauce – the difference between enchilada and marinara sauce

You will need to be careful about extra liquid in your sauce. Your base recipe should be adaptable. Go ahead and use the garlic and onion, but I would omit the white wine. If you are using canned whole tomatoes, drain liquid before using them. Simmer it to reduce it down until it is "spreadable" rather than "pour-able".

We make a lot of home-made pizza sauce with canned whole San Marzano tomatoes, drained and puree'd in blender. Salt, pepper, garlic and a few spices. My husband loves bright red color in the sauce so a bit of citric acid does the trick.

Enjoy your pizza.

Red pizza sauce is often (but not always) two things:

1. Thicker. Thinner sauce will tend to run in the oven and also steam the pizza crust as it cooks - if loaded with toppings, otherwise thin is fine. Depending on the crust, the heat of the oven, the toppings above sauce, and how watery it is, this may not be needed. If you've just got some crushed tomatoes and a few bits of cheese in a super hot oven - the sauce should be fine without reducing beforehand. If you've loaded up a bucket of sauce and a pound of cheese, precook and reduce the sauce.

2. It's often simpler. Many pasta dishes like spaghetti highlight the sauce and hours of simmering happen for the sauce to bring it to perfection. They're all about the sauce. Pizza is really about the crust and what highlights it. Many of the best pizzas are simply topped. Crushed san marzano tomatoes (sometimes) reduced with a hint of salt is often all I do, and franky, it's enough. I'm not talking about the jarred varieties here, but what you might cook at home. Jars in the store, the main difference is just how thick it is.