The Extra Step That Makes Store-Bought Pizza Sauce Taste Homemade

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While many ingredients can be added to store-bought pizza sauce to make it taste homemade, there is one particular hack that you need to incorporate into your arsenal to deliver a robust sauce with a luxurious mouthfeel. The trick is to reach for the Italian pantry staple, olive oil. Sure, the addition of aromatics and spices certainly plays a role in tweaking the sauce's flavor to your liking. Still, the olive oil is important for bringing everything together, for a well-rounded, buttery-smooth sauce.

Simply stir in a glug of olive oil into the sauce once off the heat until the oil emulsifies into the sauce to create a silky consistency. Don't hesitate to exert some force when stirring to aid the emulsification process. In addition to enhancing the texture, the olive oil also counters the tang from the tomato sauce, making it more balanced. As always, quality is key. Use good quality olive oil for optimal results, and to make the task easier, check out Chowhound's guide when shopping for olive oil.

The versatility of olive oil is celebrated at all levels of pizza making, from elevating the sauce to adding deeper flavor to the pizza crust. Finishing the pizza that's fresh out of the oven with a generous drizzle of olive oil also takes every bite of each slice to a whole different level of enjoyment. So, how about zhuzhing up the olive oil to make an already top-tier pizza even more extraordinary? Infused olive oils are a simple solution to boost the flavors of store-bought pizza sauce with minimal effort.

For instance, garlic-infused oil brings subtly sweet warmth, while herb-infused oils brighten the sauce if you don't have fresh herbs on hand. Fancy a little heat? Opt for chili-infused oils for an extra kick to the sauce. Roasted pepper–infused oils or wood-smoked olive oil, like Sonoma's smoked olive oil, imbues the sauce with sophisticated smokiness. And truffle-infused olive oil is a must that will impart a gourmet flair to the pizza sauce.