Making your own sauce is simple and can be tailored to your personal taste

When it comes to making pizza sauce, there are endless paths you could take. For many, authentic, simple Neapolitan sauce is the way to go. For others, a little adulteration is the order of the day - think New York style sauce. There's no right or wrong - it's completely up to you how you have it. 

We thought what might be most useful in this case is to give you a number of different recipes and ideas so that you can pick the one that best suits your mood/what you have in the cupboards.

Neapolitan Style Sauce

This style of sauce is absolutely dependant on the quality of the tinned tomatoes you use. For true authenticity, what you are really looking for are San Marzano tomatoes - be warned - you will have to pay a little more for these. Short of those particular tomatoes, try to get the best you can afford/find. To make the sauce, simply pulse 1 x 400g tin of tomatoes in a food processor (or mash with a potato masher if you want a little texture!) with half a handful of basil and a pinch of salt.  

Low-Sugar New York-Style Sauce

A New York style is a cooked sauce with a few additional flavourings added. We try to avoid refined sugar here at Lo-Dough, so ours is sweetened with erythritol (sweetener) to keep the carbs low. You'll need:

• 2 tins of tomatoes, pulsed in a food processor
• 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
• 2 medium cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• A pinch of red pepper flakes
• A pinch of salt
• A few whole sprigs of basil
• 1 onion, peeled and split in half
• 1 teaspoon of erythritol

To make the sauce, heat the oil and butter together and add the garlic and chilli and cook in the fat for a minute or two on a low heat. Then add all the other ingredients and simmer for about 1 hour, or until reduced by around half. Discard the onion and basil once cooked. 

Oven Roasted Fresh Tomato Sauce

If you want to make something special using fresh tomatoes, we recommend oven roasting them first to drive out some of the water and intensify the flavour. Halve any tomatoes you have (cherry tomatoes are great for sweetness) and place on an oven tray with salt, a little thyme and sliced garlic. Roast in a medium oven for around an hour - you are looking for blistered and charred edges - don't be scared of that. Once cooked, blitz in a food processor with a slug of extra virgin olive oil and a little fresh basil. 

Puree-Based Sauce

We don't recommend tomato puree in and of itself (straight out of the tube) as a pizza sauce for Lo-Dough as it catches and burns quite easily. That said, it is perfectly possible to make a sauce using puree. You can just dilute it with water and it will be passable as a quick and easy sauce - but if you have a little time, you can do better than that!

If you want to make it a little more interesting, here is a cooked recipe. We've mixed it up with some umami-rich ingredients, plus a little sweetness and a little acid for balance. You'll need:

• 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil
• Half an onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium clove garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons of tomato puree
• 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
• A few drops of Worcester sauce/mushroom ketchup
• A couple of drops of anchovy sauce/one or two anchovies.
• A pinch of oregano
• A pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of erythritol
• 400ml of water

Simply soften the onion and garlic in the oil and then add all the other ingredients and simmer for around 30 minutes. Once cooked, blitz to a smooth consistency.

White/Bianca sauces

In northern parts of Italy, bianca pizzas are popular. So, where you would add your tomato base, you add a white sauce base instead. You can use creme fraiche, cream cheese or ricotta for this. Add crushed garlic, herbs and seasoning to lift the flavour even further, then top with grated mozzarella and any other toppings as you would for a regular pizza.

Pesto

Another simple standby we often have sitting around in the fridge at Lo-Dough HQ is pesto. You can use green or red. It's a little strong on it's own, so dilute with passata, or mix with mascarpone cheese for a higher-fat keto-style base sauce, that tastes divine. 

Hints & Tips

You can easily convert tomato sauces into more esoteric takeaway-style pizza sauces - try adding a blob of bbq sauce or extra chilli flakes/hot sauce. 

All the tomato sauces can be kept in the fridge for a few days, or even frozen in portions in an ice cube tray - ready and waiting to be served on your next Lo-Dough pizza! These quantities will top around 10 Lo-Dough pizzas (and they make a pretty good base for a pasta sauce too!) so its a great batch recipe. For tips on making the perfect Lo-Dough pizza using your perfect sauce, check out our pizza 101 blog.

Want To Try For Yourself?

Our Lo-Dough bases are sold in pouches of 2 from just £3.25. Fancy a fakeaway or maybe something a little sweeter? Our brownie mix makes 9 delicious brownies, each just 65 calories and 4.1g carbs, and our Southern Style Coating makes the perfect non-greasy breaded coating for your meat, cheese and veg. To try it for yourself, simply click the shop here button below to discover the full Lo-Dough collection.