Sauce – What would cause heartburn in marinara sauce

I recommend starting with a chilled dough, puncturing with a knife or fork (see below), and cooking in a greased pan initially then bricking.

Cooking directly on the stone the entire time works better for thinner crusts than mid-dough. By mid-dough, I am referring to the ones that plump up a bit and finish between 1/4" - 1/2" in thickness. They can have both uniform, almost cake-y cross-sections, or air pockets and bubbles depending on how kneaded they are (more kneading means cake-ier, denser dough).

I worked in a shop that made a mid-dough similar to what you describe. It was a standard dough recipe (flour, water, yeast), but I have had success replicating it at home at 450'F with beer and less kneading. At home I use a pan and then finish either on the rack or a stone. In any case, you get a dough that tears nicely and has a good chew.

The dough itself was mixed in the morning and kept refrigerated for as long as 12 hours as individual shells in greased pizza pans covered with saran wrap. To prepare a pizza, we pulled the shell, punched it with a fork (puncture a ring around the edge to create a crust, puncture the inside to allow for air). Dress with sauce and toppings.

We had a stone-bottomed oven, but initially the pizza is baked in the oven in the pan until the bottom of the dough has hardened enough to get "bricked" (the dough should be rigid enough as to be removed from the pan with one spatula). At this point you remove the dough from the pan with a spatula and place it directly on the brick. Cook until the top of the dough browns, and the cheese and other toppings are evenly browned.

I think caramelization might be the wrong word there. I would go for concentration. While some caramelization does occur around the rim of a pot of tomato sauce as the sauce reduces (and it's good to stir this residue into your sauce), the main increase in sweetness is due to a concentration of all things tomato-y as the water in the sauce evaporates.

Speeding up this process is not only possible, but, in my opinion, highly desirable. A long- simmered tomato sauce can often have an overcooked taste to it. One method to speed things up is to strain your canned tomatoes through a fine-mesh strainer, or something equivalent. Use what remains to start your sauce in the normal way and keep it at a simmer. The liquid, however, you can heat more rapidly at a low boil since there are very little tomato solids left in it to get that overcooked flavor. Once your liquid has been reduced by 60-75%, you can add this back to your simmering tomatoes.

If you start your sauce with fresh tomatoes, the quickest way to accomplish this is to freeze them. Once thawed, all their liquid will pour off easily. Boil down this liquid as described, quickly sauté your remaining solids, and then blend them into your reduced liquid with an immersion blender. This results in a very rich and flavorful thickened sauce that still has the brightness of fresh tomatoes and can be done in a fraction of the time mentioned in your question.