Enhance Your Homemade Pizza Sauce with a Simple Kitchen Staple

There are plenty of unique and interesting spins on classic pizza sauce, but if you’re looking for a simple way to take traditional pizza sauce up a notch, there’s one easy ingredient you can use to do it: butter. When added to a pot of tomatoes and herbs, its richness balances the acidity and gives the sauce a smoothness that makes it perfectly spreadable when you’re ready to spoon it over your dough.

When you’re making a butter-upgraded pizza sauce, the first step is to choose a high-quality butter. Skip the oil-based spreads or margarines and opt for one that’s creamy and full of rich flavor. An unsalted variety will be the best choice so that you can control the salinity of the sauce.

You can choose when you want to incorporate it. One way is to melt it in the pan with olive oil to saute any aromatics, like garlic or onion, before combining the mixture with the tomatoes and herbs. Or you can add all of the ingredients, including the butter, at once and cook them together. Either way, you’ll wind up with a smoother sauce that’s sure to take your pizza to the next level.

When it comes to homemade sauce, using ripe tomatoes that you’ve blanched and peeled is the freshest option. But if you’re looking for a timesaver, canned whole tomatoes are a solid alternative. For the smoothest sauce, be sure to avoid diced tomatoes, though — they’ll remain too chunky even when simmered for a while.

If you’re mixing in butter, you’re already upping the richness factor, but another way to ensure you achieve just the right consistency and mouthfeel is to cook the sauce low and slow. Reducing it over minimal heat will build flavor and allow you to control how thin or thick your sauce becomes.

Finally, once you’re ready to spread your sauce, take precautions to make sure that your pizza doesn’t turn out soggy. If you’ve reduced the sauce so that it’s nice and thick, you’ve already eliminated one potential problem. Then, make sure to not overload the pizza with toppings and remember that pizza is not an ideal make-ahead meal — it should go straight in the oven. Then, finally, if you’re using an alternative to dough, like French bread, as your base, take an extra precaution and spread cheese on it before adding the sauce to avoid a mushy mess.