It doesn’t have to be amazing or anything, just passable.
What’s “reasonably good” is such a subjective question as to be almost meaningless. It just depends so much on what you like. By my standards, It will probably be OK but I might try to thicken it slightly with a little tomato paste and add some fresh herbs and garlic. YMMV
What I mean is that if it tastes like cheap jarred pizza sauce, I’d consider that a success. I’m not looking to recreate the local pizzeria’s sauce or aiming very high, here.
The spaghetti sauce is the only tomato product I have on hand, except for a few small fresh tomatoes. so adding tomato paste wouldn’t work for me, but thanks.
If I’m not trying to impress anyone (say, I’m just feeding my kids) I’ve used spaghetti sauce straight from the jar on homemade pizza. It depends on your tolerance.
It’s absolutely fine. I do it all the time with my home-brewed pizzas. Usually I use a bit higher grade sauce than Ragu or Prego, but if that’s what you’ve got, then that’s what you’ve got.
You could simmer it a while to thicken it up. Personally, if there’s no fennel seed then it doesn’t taste like pizza sauce so if you’ve got some add that.
Yep, jarred spaghetti sauce is a little thin for pizza sauce. I’d also add some pepper.
I generally just run the jarred stuff through a blender to smooth it out, then thicken it on the stove while I add more spices.
What did you say or do that jarred it?
Add oregano - if it’s fresh, chop it fine, and if it’s dried flakes, pulverize to powder.
Thicken it by simmering to reduce or adding tomato paste, then add oregano and sugar. Viola - jarred pizza sauce.
Thanks. I’ll try it now.
Try MIDS pasta sauce, either the regular marinara or the Italian sausage one. I’ve used Prego in the past as pizza sauce, but it’s a little sweet for my taste. MIDS is awesome, great on pasta or pizza, and not a bad deal if you get it on sale. (One jar is usually enough for 2 meals for my family of 3.)
I use Lawry’s Spaghetti Mix, and mix it with tomato paste.
Honestly, for me, the best pizza sauce is just high quality crushed tomatoes, a bit of olive oil, salt, maybe garlic, and a bit of oregano if you want. But just plain crushed tomatoes is (honestly) good enough. You’d be surprised at how many top-flight pizzerias use nothing more than crushed tomatoes for their base. Commercial jarred spaghetti sauce, IMHO, is way too spiced for a good pizza base, but everyone’s taste is different.
For example, here is the excellent pizzamaking.com’s recipe for sauce for a New York style pizza: 28 oz can of tomatoes, 1 garlic clove, 1 tsp dried oregano. (I personally would add a little salt to this.) It’s really that straightforward.
Finely chop some onions. Put the onions and a little blended oil in the bottom of a sauce pan. Heat the oil and onions untill they turn golden brown. Turn off burner. (You don’t need it hot). Add your spaghetti sauce. Add a bay leaf, some fresh basil (if you have it). Add some oregano. (grind very fine if its dry). Cool in the fridge. And you’re done.