On this lovely evening, my kitchen was calling. All the ingredients were bought sliced and prepped, ready to cook, pizza crust starting to crisp up, roasted garlic my husband made yesterday is ready to be spread on the crust, and then CRAP I had no spaghetti sauce. Digging through the pantry, I think…woo hoo! I found spaghetti sauce!
All is right with the world…right?
No….it’s not Tomato Sauce, it’s Tomato Paste.
I think to myself, “You say tomato sauce, I say tomato paste…what could be the REAL difference?” A lot. Paste really means paste, sticky gloopy paste. I spread it around on the pizza hoping for the best and then realize I better spice it up a bit which I did. However I didn’t anticipate the difference in texture, and no spice was going to make the paste texture similar to the sauce texture one expects on a pizza. By now I’m committed, I have to throw myself into this new “sauce” that I’ve created, as dinner should have been on the table 15 minutes ago and I have no backup meal.
The biggest difference is the texture. I never realized how truly “Pasty” Tomato Paste is! So while eating my sticky pizza I made a mental note…Tomato Paste is NOT Tomato Sauce.
The taste was better than I expected, but the texture was a bit of a surprise especially when we weren’t expecting the texture change. It looks very delicious (and yes I do splurge on Buffalo Mozzarella and that basil is from our garden) and in a pinch it works…but for those of you who are hoping to make a fast quick replacement of Tomato Sauce with tomato paste, be prepared for a little more sticky setup.
My recommendation is not to throw everything in the trash and order Chinese, instead tell your guests (even if your “guests” are you husband and kid) it’s a new fancy sauce that you created from scratch. That way they are prepared for the texture difference, and you’ll get amazing kudos for creating your own sauce 😉
So in a pinch, use the paste…just remember to prep your guests too. 🙂
If you hit that wall again, you can add a little water to the paste until you get the consistency you want. The pizza looks soooo yummy! Regardless of texture, invite me over next time. 🙂
Great idea Jenn! I’ll let you know how it turns out…in fact I’ll just invite you over and you can tell me! 😉
Yes, it looks wonderful! Did you see a recent article about cooking pizza crust on the grill? It’s intriguing.
No I didn’t, however we had grilled pizza’s at our wedding and they were a HIT! I would love to try it sometime!