Tomato pizza sauce

A good pizza sauce is what separates a decent homemade pizza from a genuinely great one, and this version comes together in one bowl thanks to the built-in heating of a Kenwood Cooking Chef XL. It's a simple tomato sauce, but so delicious: use it as a base for pizza, in a bolognese for lasagne, or simply tossed through fusilli pasta. Blend it if you'd like something smoother. With a stand mixer that both cooks and stirs, it needs almost no hands-on attention: just add the ingredients at each stage and let the machine do the simmering. Cooked down until thick and richly flavoured, it's a world away from a raw, thin passata.

The quality of your tinned tomatoes makes a real difference here: plum tomatoes, ideally an Italian variety such as San Marzano, have a sweeter flavour, fewer seeds and a meatier texture than standard chopped tomatoes, which is exactly what you want for good pizza sauce ingredients.

How to make pizza sauce

Attach the Stir Tool, then add the olive oil to the Cooking Chef XL Bowl. Lift the Cooking Chef head, fit the heat shield, lower the head and fit the splashguard. Heat for 1 minute at 110°C, Speed OFF. Add the finely chopped onion, crushed or finely chopped garlic and balsamic vinegar, then cook with the splashguard fitted for 5 minutes at 110°C, Speed Min, until the onion is soft and translucent. Cooking the onion and garlic gently at this stage, rather than allowing them to catch or brown, creates the sweet, mellow base of the sauce. If the garlic browns too quickly, it can become bitter.

Cooking the tomato sauce

Add the canned plum tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, dried oregano and dark brown sugar to the bowl and cook with the splashguard fitted until thickened, 25 minutes at 105°C, Speed Min. Add the remaining basil leaves and season with salt and black pepper. With the splashguard fitted, cook for a further 10 minutes at 105°C on Speed Min, until the sauce has thickened. Leave the sauce to cool before spreading it over the pizza base. Letting the sauce cook down slowly like this, rather than using it straight from the tin, is exactly how to make the tomato sauce for pizza properly: the water content evaporates as it simmers, leaving behind a thick, concentrated sauce that clings to the base rather than making it soggy.

Tips for the perfect homemade pizza sauce

If you prefer a completely smooth sauce, blend it briefly once cooled: the balance of onion, garlic and balsamic vinegar in this recipe works just as well blended as it does left slightly chunky. This simple pizza sauce keeps well for up to five days in the fridge in an airtight container, or you can freeze it flat in sealable bags for up to six months, which makes it easy to have a batch ready whenever pizza night comes around. Defrost it overnight in the fridge, or use a microwave, and give it a quick reheat on the stove if it looks a little thin once defrosted. For the best pizza sauce recipe, resist the urge to over-season early on: taste right at the end of cooking, once the sauce has reduced and the flavours have concentrated, and adjust the salt, pepper or sugar from there.