One Sweet Ingredient Lends A Ton Of Flavor To Jarred Pizza Sauce

Be it traditional marinara, a spicy red sauce, or another flavor, jarred pizza sauce can be a great convenience. Not only does it spare you the time-consuming, labor-intensive process of making sauce from scratch, but by just adding in a little olive oil, a touch of chopped fresh aromatics, or even doctoring it with a dash of MSG, you can easily take the taste of jarred sauce to the next level. And while olive oil, herbs, and spices may seem like obvious additions to your storebought sauce, you may also be missing one sweet secret ingredient that gives your sauce flavor and depth, and that's caramelized onions.

The sweetness of caramelized onions can round out and boost the flavor of a savory, slightly salty jarred sauce. You can caramelize the onions in either olive oil or butter; using the former will bring additional flavor to the sauce. But even onions caramelized in butter will lend a welcome dose of additional richness, as well as sweet onion flavor.

Now that you've used caramelized onions to make jarred sauce into something wonderful, what sort of pizza can be made from it? Well, you'll have to consider toppings. The sweetness of a pizza sauce made with caramelized onions can be well paired with salty add-ons like olives, anchovies, or even goat cheese. But the uses for the sauce also go beyond pizza.

Jarred sauce enhanced with caramelized onions can be a welcome addition to many pasta dishes. Because it's so flavorful, you won't need too much by way of seasoning or ingredients, and you are potentially just a few meatballs and a dusting of parmesan away from a hearty, satisfying plate of classic spaghetti and meatballs. You could also mix olives, capers, and anchovies into the sauce for some pasta puttanesca that combines sweet and salt with a caramelized onion twist. Caramelized onion pizza sauce can also be a surprisingly good sandwich condiment for anything from a chicken parmesan sub to a roast vegetable sandwich.