Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

[Dino_Pizza]

Does anyone use whole, thinly sliced tomatoes or mostly sauce made from cans of San Marzano's? I've mostly used the cans and made a barely cooked sauce.

I've got a nice crop of end of season tomatoes to use tonight and I plan on no sauce, just the sliced tomatoes.

Do they work better above the cheese or below, on the dough?

Is whole tomatoes DOP allowed or is Pizza Margarita always crushed tomato?

Just curious, maybe I'll do it both ways tonight and see how it goes. -Dino

[RTflorida]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

I have had both good and bad experiences with fresh tomatoes. It really depends on the type of tomato. Some have a lot of water/seed pulp, I guess you would call them 'juicy'.
If you don't remove the pulp they will really make things soggy, even sliced very thin.
In general, plum tomatoes are considered more meaty with less water/pulp. A true 'sauce' tomato. San Marzanos seem to be the most flavorful, less acidic, and meaty of all.

Regardless of the type, you must slice fresh tomatoes VERY thin for pizza - you have the water/pulp issue as well as the skin, again depending on the type, you could have stringy, rubbery skins after going through the oven.
I guess the ideal way (they may not look very pretty or artsy) would be to blanch the tomatoes and remove the skins, then slice them thin and carefully pick out the seeds and pulp. Call me lazy, I just have not gone to that much trouble.

RT

[waitingtocook]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

I haven't tried whole sliced tomatoes, I generally go the sauce route, however i have used very very finely chopped, deseeded tomatoes. Just cut them into quarters, scoop out the seeds, and dice them super fine, almost salsa type, but finer. It seems to eliminate the skin factor, and allows the tomato to break down easier during cooking. Not something I always do, but seems to work ok the couple of times I have tried it.

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

Thanks RT and Waitingtocook, great suggestions. I took RT's advice and removed the seeds from the tomatoes and sliced them thinly.
We made Margaritas with the tomatoes on the dough. Came out fine. The other pizzas with a thin layer of cheese on the base 1st (then more later) came out even better. The sliced tomatoes do get very HOT for some reason and hold the heat causing burnt tongue if not careful. Just shows how delicious the smell was so it's hard to wait for it to cool.
I like your idea of chopping them finely. It would give the fresh tomato taste and spreadability too. Will try that next time. Thanks Dino

[papavino]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

The sliced tomatoes do get very HOT for some reason and hold the heat causing burnt tongue if not careful.

So true. Our neighbor brought over some tomatoes last weekend and I think we all burnt the tops of our mouths on them. But they tasted fantastic.

[tgm]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

We have been using chopped marinated fresh romas all summer long and everyone just raves about them. We also use DOP San Marzanos, lightly broken up by hand for the purists in our group.
For that marinated tomatoes we chop the tomatoes into a classic dice. We then add fresh chopped garlic, chopped basil, sea salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper. Then we add EVO and 18 year old basalmic vinegar and let marinade for at least one hour.
Just before we are ready to make pizza we drain the marinated tomatoes of all the juices. We save the juice as it becomes a delicious tomato vinegarette with all the juices mixed in.
We then use a shmear of EVO on the crust and then start with the chopped tomatoes and build from there. Everyone we feed this to raves about it.
We have done the exact the same scenaio with thinly sliced tomatoes. The key is to drain away the marinade to eliminate the soggy aspect with excess juice as RT explains above. The above tomatoe vinegarette goes wonderful with spring greens to eat along with the pizza. We just made some for lunch today and the pizza was awesome.
Try it, you'll like it....

Good Luck,

Tom in PA

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

Tom, that's like a great fresh marinara type sauce. I'll definitely try it and the drained vinaigrette sounds like a keeper too Thanks for sharing, Dino

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

Here's 2 pics of my pizzas with sliced tomatoes from my garden. I did seed them, sliced thin, tossed with fresh grated garlic and let them drain 2 hours in a colander. The pizza are with crumbled Italian sausage that I lightly fried up 1st. The cheese is Johns (jrparks) recommended mix of 2 parts Fontina to 1 parts pecorino and Greek Kasseri cheeses. AMAZING cheese mix !

The closer pizza was with 1 month old, frozen dough and the farther is with fresh made the day before. It rose much better, the crust edge taller although taste was similar.

Everyone asks me if/when I'll try Trader Joes pre-made dough or ordinary flour. Someday...but while I'm still in Caputo Heaven, you can't me -Dino

[dsgreco]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

The pizzas look great. Fresh sliced cherry tomatoes work very well also.

[tgm]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

Dino,

I like that cheese mix and I am going to try it this weekend, Thanx
Yes you could use pre-made dough, yes you could use other flour but if you have access to Caputo and have tasted the end results.....why would you!!!
I have been in Caputo heaven for the last 4 years. Am I going to try any of the above....no way Jose'!! You don't fix what ain't broke.......as they say.

Nice pizzas by the way......

Tom in PA

[cuda]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

I've had Tom's tomato vinaigrette and can attest to the high quality. I've never had a finer pizza, sandwich, or salad topping. Very simple and elegant. Tom might correct me, but I think the key is the aged balsamic, so don't skimp there or the results won't be the same. I also concur that Caputo is the only real choice for pizza dough. Good luck.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

The pizzas look great. Fresh sliced cherry tomatoes work very well also.

I love these... and we always seem to be able to grow more than we can eat .. I just put the tomatoes, garlic, oil, spice, parmesan....

Cheers
Mark

[trockyh]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

I love these... and we always seem to be able to grow more than we can eat .. I just put the tomatoes, garlic, oil, spice, parmesan....

Cheers
Mark

Hey Mark,

That looks so good. I can't wait to start cooking in my oven. Hummm....my soon to be built oven. We have a large garden on the property, but I plan to put in an herb garden with some tomatoes and peppers next to the oven. Is there anything else I should plant there?
I've never made a pizza, but I'm pretty good in the kitchen, so figure it's just one more thing to learn.

Tom

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

Thanks Tom (in PA)! I'll stick with caupto. I'll also try the fresh cherry tomatoes halves, face up on the pizza. Looks good.

Say, trockyh, in your future pizza garden, be sure to include lots of basil. I look for the gallon starter plants they sell at stores that have at least a half dozen seedlings in them, separate them and plant them all over the backyard. Some find their "lucky spot" and still put out into early winter. The whole basil leaf is perfect of course with pizza and then you can make pesto for those "white" pizzas. Oh, save the woody stems for kindle and they also make the best smoke chips for fish and chicken next year.

-Thanks, Dino

[trockyh]

Re: Tomato sliced whole or sauced on Pizza?

Thanks for the info Dino, we grow lots of basil as well as tons of garlic. We have a greenhouse so I start all my plants from seed or cuttings.
The woody stem for smoke idea sounds (smells) great.
Thanks, Tom
P.S. Pouring the slab this morning. yahoo!