%% Category::<h1><span class="material-symbols-outlined">join_right</span> </h1> %% <h1><span class="material-symbols-outlined">join_right</span>Pizza Sauce 101. </h1> Created: Thu, Dec 11th 2025 # Without sauce, you just have bread. Or is it more accurate to say that once you add sauce, specifically tomato sauce, in between some bread and cheese, you now have pizza? Whoever the person is that decided to first put some lovely, sweet and acidic tomatoes on the very first pizza, some time after tomatoes were introduced to Italy, deserves a prize. It's the perfect accompaniment to fatty cheese and crispy, savory bread. test ### However! There be some technical considerations. While that first genius might have only been thinking about how cheese and tomatoes go well together, there was undoubtedly a lot of trial and error when it came to executing *good* pizza. Sauce is one of the many things that contribute to the final shape and texture of the pie. It is what allows there to be a ”cornicone” (pronounced Corn eeh Chone Ay), or crust as it’s better known on these shores; by way of sitting in the middle of the pizza and keeping that part flat. It should go without saying that, not done right, can go the other way and flatten the center too much. In short, the way you add sauce can help, or hinder the initial spring of the dough and can even prevent the part of the dough it touches, from cooking at all, causing a gummy layer between the sauce and cheese , aptly named, gumline. ### It just hits different. What you are doing when you’re making a pizza is cooking the sauce in the oven, or more accurately, cooking the sauce *more*, in the oven. The way this takes place is fundamentally different to how one cooks sauce on a stove. The two big differences being 1. The sauce is manually agitated on the stove with a spoon. 2. The heat comes from the bottom of pan on the stove. ### The properties to consider for good pizza when adding traditional tomato sauce are: - The temperature and humidity of the oven - The temperature of the sauce - The viscosity of the sauce.