Glossary
San Marzano tomatoes
A variety of plum tomato commonly sold canned and used as the simple, mostly uncooked base for a classic pizza sauce.
San Marzano tomatoes are a plum tomato variety often sold whole and peeled in cans, and they are one of the most common bases for a straightforward pizza sauce. Unlike sauces made for pasta, pizza sauce from these tomatoes is usually left mostly uncooked before it goes on the dough.
The typical approach is to crush the tomatoes by hand or pulse them briefly, season lightly with salt, and stop there, since the sauce finishes cooking directly on the pizza during the bake rather than simmering on the stove first. That short treatment keeps the sauce bright and fresh tasting rather than reduced and heavy.
When buying canned tomatoes for this purpose, whole peeled tomatoes give more control over the final texture than tomatoes that are already crushed or pureed, since you decide how coarse or smooth to make them by hand. A common mistake is over-seasoning or fully cooking the sauce ahead of time, or choosing a watery canned tomato that adds extra moisture and contributes to a soggy center once it bakes on top of the dough.