New York pizza sauce — the recipe
The slice-shop secret is that there is no secret: New York sauce is crushed tomatoes, seasoned confidently and not cooked at all. The long, moderate bake under all that mozzarella does the simmering — sauce that's stewed first turns dull and jammy by the time the crust browns.
One reference batch below, weighed like everything else here. It's the sauce under the pepperoni pie, and the dose scales with your ball size on that page.
What goes in
One batch — makes about 420 g:
one can of the thick kind — drain a watery one briefly
for body and shine
a generous pinch
yes, powder — it's the authentic slice-shop move, and fresh garlic scorches under a long bake
Scaling up is linear — double everything for a double batch.
Where it goes
The classics that use it, with the dose each one takes at its default size — the same numbers their recipe pages scale to your dough:
| Pizza | Per pizza | Batch covers |
|---|---|---|
| Pepperoni | 100 g | × 4 |
How it’s done
- Whisk everything together in a bowl until the oil disappears into the tomato.
- Rest it an hour at room temperature (or overnight in the fridge) so the oregano and garlic wake up.
- Use it uncooked — the bake is the simmer.
Keeps a week in the fridge; freezes well in single-pie portions.
Questions from the counter
No sugar?
A good can doesn't need it. If yours tastes sharp, a teaspoon is legal — slice shops have argued this for fifty years and nobody has won. Taste, then decide.
Can I simmer it anyway?
Ten quiet minutes at most, if your tomatoes are watery and you want it thicker. Past that you're making Sunday gravy — lovely on pasta, muddy on a pizza that bakes for six more minutes.
How much goes on a pie?
About 100 g for the default New York ball — a thin, confident layer with the crumb still visible through it. More sauce is the fastest route to a soggy slice; the pepperoni page rescales the dose to your ball size.
Put it on a pizza
The dough is the calculator’s job and the toppings are weighed on the recipe pages — this batch is ready for the classic below.
The clock is a suggestion. The dough is the boss. In bocca al lupo!
Impasto is a free pizza dough calculator for Neapolitan, New York, Roman, Sicilian, Detroit, thin crust and focaccia doughs — flour, water, salt and yeast weighed in baker's percentages, with the fermentation schedule written for you.