Sauces and bases
20 recipesHand-crushed San Marzano (uncooked)
The Neapolitan classic and the only sauce a Roman pizza rossa needs: the can, a little salt, nothing cooked. The heat of the oven finishes the tomatoes on top of the pie.
Open recipe →New York–New Jersey sauce (uncooked)
The slice-shop sauce: mostly smooth, a little paste for body, a third of the can crushed by hand for texture. Uncooked, so it tastes of tomato rather than of the pot.
Open recipe →New York–New Jersey sauce (simplified)
The same slice-shop sauce with the pantry shortened to one small can of paste and half the seasoning. Blend the whole can smooth; no separate hand-crushed portion.
Open recipe →Sicilian sauce (garlic and oregano, uncooked)
Hand-crushed tomatoes with raw garlic, oregano, black pepper and olive oil. It goes on over the cheese, so it stays bright and chunky through the bake.
Open recipe →Detroit red top sauce
Smooth and thick, with a lot of paste so it sits on top of the cheese in stripes instead of soaking in. Blended raw, warmed just before it goes on.
Open recipe →New York–style cooked sauce
Slightly sweet, deeply seasoned, cooked down for 15–20 minutes. The garlicky pizzeria alternative for NY, Sicilian and Detroit pies.
Open recipe →White sauce (garlic cream)
Slow-cooked garlic confit folded into reduced cream and parmesan. The base for any white pie — light enough to let the cheese shine.
Open recipe →Pesto alla Genovese
Bright herbaceous pesto for summer pies. Use as a light coating, not a thick layer — pesto burns quickly under high heat.
Open recipe →Vodka sauce
Trendy, rich, slightly spicy. Tomato + cream + a splash of vodka that boils off and leaves only depth behind. Pairs especially well with NY-style and hot honey finishing.
Open recipe →Salamoia (Ligurian brine)
Not a sauce — the Ligurian brine. Warm water, olive oil, and salt whisked into a cloudy emulsion and poured into the dimples just before the bake. The water steams off; the oil fries the top.
Open recipe →Rosemary–garlic oil
Olive oil infused gently with rosemary and garlic. Brushed into the dimples before the bake and drizzled again after — it does what sauce does on a pizza, without adding water to the crumb.
Open recipe →Garlic oil (white base)
Olive oil steeped with garlic and a pinch of salt. The base under a white pie when a cream would be too rich — it carries the garlic and keeps the crust from going dry, and that's all a bianca asks of it.
Open recipe →Makhani sauce (butter chicken)
The butter chicken sauce: tomato cooked down with butter, onion, ginger and garam masala, finished with cream and dried fenugreek. Sweeter and warmer than any pizza sauce, and it's the whole point of the pie.
Open recipe →Honey curry sauce
A sweet, buttery curry base: onion, garlic and ginger cooked down with curry powder and tomato paste, loosened with cream and finished with honey. It tastes like a mild curry with the sweetness turned up, and it caramelises at the edges of the pie.
Open recipe →Fra diavolo sauce
A spicy cooked red sauce: garlic and chili flakes fried in oil, then the tomatoes simmered with a splash of red wine and plenty of black pepper. It's the sauce on the Spicy Square, and it goes on over the cheese.
Open recipe →Pistachio pesto (Sicilian)
Sicily's pesto: toasted pistachios with a little basil and mint, Parmigiano, lemon zest and olive oil. Richer and sweeter than Genovese, and it's what goes under mortadella.
Open recipe →Garlic-dill pickle sauce
The white sauce under a pickle pizza: sour cream and mayo with toasted garlic, dried dill and a splash of pickle brine. Tangy and garlicky, and it browns in the oven where a ranch would just go greasy.
Open recipe →Elote crema (lime, chili and cotija)
The dressing from Mexican street corn, used as a base: sour cream and mayo with lime, chili powder, cumin and crumbled cotija. It bakes into a tangy, golden layer under the corn.
Open recipe →Pizza BBQ sauce
A sweet, smoky barbecue sauce cooked a little thicker than the bottled kind, so it caramelises on the pie instead of soaking in. Bottled works in a pinch; pick one that isn't too runny.
Open recipe →Taco bean spread
Refried beans loosened with taco sauce and seasoning: the base of a Midwest taco pizza. It keeps the crust from drying out and holds the beef in place.
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