FYI, I looked at recipes on the New York Times Cooking site, and here is their ingredients list for pizza sauce.
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup minced or grated yellow onion
1 tablespoon minced or grated garlic (3 cloves)
⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper, plus more to taste
¼ cup tomato paste
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano or Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
Black pepper
Meanwhile, here is their ingredients list for “classic” marinara sauce (there are other recipes as well).
28-ounce can whole San Marzano tomatoes, certified D.O.P. if possible
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
7 garlic cloves, peeled and slivered
Small dried whole chile, or pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large fresh basil sprig, or ¼ teaspoon dried oregano, more to taste
Pasta sauce is just any sauce for pasta. Pizza sauce is any sauce for pizza. Marinara is a simple tomato sauce. “Pizza sauce” to me, if you pressed me to it, is often a bit more spiced than marinara, including more oregano. My pizza sauce is uncooked crushed tomatoes with garlic, olive oil, salt, and a bit of oregano.Some pizza sauces are cooked, but many aren’t. There’s no real standardization for what these terms mean but rather for how they are used. Some pasta sauces are short cooks; some are long simmers, some are tomato-based, some are not. These are very loose terms. “Marinara” is the most specific, but even that has a bit of range meaning a meatless tomato sauce. Some recipes include even anchovies or capers.
For my homeade pizzas, I start with Mid’s pizza sauce and heat it while I add a couple slices of pepperoni that has been very finely diced. For my Detroit style pizza I top it with crushed tomatoes and a fairly heavy amt. of black pepper.
At Domino’s, the “default” sauce is what they call “robust inspired tomato sauce,” but marinara is one of the other options (along with alfredo, honey BBQ, and garlic parmesan).
If you go to the grocery store and buy a jar of “pizza sauce,” it’ll taste a bit different than what you get in a jar of marinara pasta sauce.
Vodka sauce has cream and a bit of vodka, but the vodka is usually simmered so there is no alcoholic taste in it. The cream goes in last. The purpose of the vodka is to provide a nice texture between the acidic tomatoes and fatty cream.
I always thought pizza sauce was thicker, so it doesn’t soak the crust and make a puddle. More highly seasoned, since a small amount is used on a smaller portion.
Yeah, often a combo of several meats. My wife made it recently with both pork and beef cuts.
I was introduced to the idea when a friend told me “I made gravy and had it on noodles, it was amazing.”
I totally misunderstood and thought he had made sausage and flour gravy and ate that on egg noodles or something, which sounded completely gross. He clarified, and his explanation sounded much tastier than what I had imagined.
Marinara and pizza sauce for me have the same ingredients, you just cook the pizza sauce a little longer to have it thicken.
To me, gravy (unless further described) means a thin brown sauce made from the pan drippings of roast meat, with flour and broth and possibly wine added. It can be beef gravy, chicken gravy, turkey gravy, or any other roast meat (pork, goose, whatever.)
So i don’t really recognize either of those dishes as “gravy”, although i have had Southern white sausage “gravy”, and I’m familiar with Italian tomato-based “gravy”.
And actually, i think any of the three types of “gravy” served on noodles could be tasty.
