Pizza Sauce From Scratch

[bartfull]

OK, so I have decided that since I got potatoes back, maybe I can eat tomatoes now too. I want to try making a pizza using the cauliflower crust. The problem is, a lot of cans are now lined with the corn-based plastic and I don't want to take a chance on that. (I got sick from a corn-based plastic water bottle.)

 

So, how do I make a sauce using fresh tomatoes? I DO have a food processor now. What worries me is, Mom used to make her own sauce from scratch and it always seperated. We's wind up with an almost solid pile of tomato on top of our spaghetti, and some orange colored water at the bottom of the plate. She used Roma tomatoes, and I remember it took all day to make it.

 

I need something fairly easy because I'm not a good cook and my time in the kitchen is very limited.

 

I COULD use a jarred sauce, but so far I haven't found one that doesn't have corn syrup in it. And I know I could make a white pizza. But I'd like to try tomatoes, and since there is no chicken on sale here this week, I thought now would be a good time to try it. (I usually eat chicken most of the time, but I refuse to pay full price.)

 

Loves2Travel, I know you could make a FABULOUS sauce, but remember, I am just this side of useless in the kitchen. Even when I follow a recipe to the letter, my stuff usually comes out sub-par. I guess it's like a green thumb - some folks have one and some folks don't. I definitely don't have a "kitchen thumb".

 

Thanks.

[Adalaide]

Last time I had pizza I roasted my tomatoes in the oven with garlic and olive oil. After that I pulled off their skin (more or less) diced them up, took a masher to it all until it was a chunky slop and cooked it until it was thick and smelled like heaven. That is what I used as my sauce on my pizza. And it was positively divine. I didn't read this anywhere, it isn't a recipe really, I just thought it sounded like a good idea at the time and went with it.

[bartfull]

Now THAT'S my kind of recipe! THANKS!!!

[SensitiveMe]

I know you are sensitive to corn to which I also am. If you could find it you might use a brand called Pomi for a fast sauce. I get it at my local Shoprite grocery store. They have chopped tomatoes, strained tomatoes and marinara sauce which comes in a 26 oz. square cardboard box container. They are from Italy and marked no artificial flavour, no perservatives, no water, no citric acid.  The front of the box says 100% from fresh Italian tomatoes.

I have purchased and use the chopped and strained tomatoes but have never seem the marinara sauce yet at the store to check the label.

I have never visited but the box lists a website at Open Original Shared Link

[mamaw]

Tomatoes  have lots  of water/juice. When cooking  tomatoes  down  for  sauce  or  canning you need  to skim off  the  liquid  that  usually  floats  to  the  top  or  continue  the  all day, all night  cooking...

I'm  a  canner  &  I  always  remove  the  excess  liquid or  one  ends  up with  1/2  quart  tomatoes  &  1/2  quart  of  water....I've  been  canning  nearly  sixty  years  now,  years  ago  the  liquid  content  of  a  tomato  was  much less......

There  are  many  jarred  sauce  that  contain  only  tomatoes  &  spices &  little  cane  sugar... you  can  find  them  at  a  health  food  place,  whole  foods, trader  joe's......

[Adalaide]

  On 6/5/2013 at 4:46 PM, mamaw said:

Tomatoes  have lots  of water/juice. When cooking  tomatoes  down  for  sauce  or  canning you need  to skim off  the  liquid  that  usually  floats  to  the  top  or  continue  the  all day, all night  cooking...

I'm  a  canner  &  I  always  remove  the  excess  liquid or  one  ends  up with  1/2  quart  tomatoes  &  1/2  quart  of  water....I've  been  canning  nearly  sixty  years  now,  years  ago  the  liquid  content  of  a  tomato  was  much less......

There  are  many  jarred  sauce  that  contain  only  tomatoes  &  spices &  little  cane  sugar... you  can  find  them  at  a  health  food  place,  whole  foods, trader  joe's......

 

I guess maybe it was cause I only had a half dozen tomatoes or so, but it didn't really take long for mine to be saucy. I took them out of the oven when they were getting golden or brown on top and cooked them on medium with no lid for a few hours. The house really did smell amazing. It never occurred to me to skim their liquid, I don't think I would. You're throwing away nutrients and flavor imo. Not something I would line up to do. I'm also quite sure that for every person who has ever done so, there is an Italian grandmother looking down wishing she could beat them senseless with a wooden spoon.

[pricklypear1971]

Blanch the tomatoes, remove skin, then purée and cook a bit. Skim off liquid.

Or, just roast them like said above and spread them on the crust. I like that idea.

I love roasted veggies on pizza. Do onions that way, too.

[mamaw]

pricklypear

 

I'm  with  you  , skimming off  the  watery  liquid... it  is  the  water content  of the  tomatoes. Olden  days  the  tomatoes  were  not  like  that  so the  Italian  grandma's  like  mine  didn't have to  do  that  step....Our  plants  are  not  the  same  as  in  years & years ago....The  skimmed  liquid  is  hardly  visible  of  any  red  color,  can't  even use it  for  juice  or  a  tomato  broth   ......no  taste  either...

And  each  year  it  seems  the  tomatoes contain more  water...... we  plant  1/8  acre in  assorted  tomatoes  every  year  ......so it  isn't  just  one  variety   that  this  happens....

[tarnalberry]

If there's too much water, keep simmering.  A good, from scratch, tomato sauce can take HOURS to simmer down.  (Turn a fan on over it as well, to help with evaporation.)

[love2travel]

Like Adelaide, I roast tomatoes with red onion, garlic cloves and a bit of carrot then puree and reduce. Add fresh torn (not chopped) basil on top of sauce. Some of my sauces are complex but pizza sauce need not be. Oh, then I top with buffalo milk mozzarella if I can find it as it is creamy and flavourful.

Sometimes I simply make a Bianca (white) pizza.

[bartfull]

Well, because I have been so busy working seven 10 hour days a week, I broke down and bought an Against the Grain pizza at the health food store. It was a plain cheese pizza so I also bought some of my Mulay's gluten-free sausages. I cooked the sausage this morning and sliced it thin, then put it on the pizza and baked it. I just ate some and it was SO good!

 

Expensive though, so I won't do it often. The pizza was 14 and change for a twelve inch, and the sausage is a little over 8 for six sausages about the size of "normal" Italian sausages. All together with tax (yes, they tax food in this state), it was about $24 for one little 12 inch pizza! But it had a lot more sausage on it than one you'd get at a pizzaria. I sliced it into six pieces and two will make a filling meal, so I'll get three meals out of it. I'm happy.

 

The only thing I'll do differently next time is cook it in a pan instead of directly on the rack. I like a softer crust and the directions said in a pan that will be the result. (I didn't HAVE a pan or cookie sheet - haven't gotten around to buying one yet.)

 

Anyway, I was SO pleased to find a pizza that was not only gluten-free, but soy-free and corn-free, made in a facility that uses none of those things. It was my first pizza in over two years, and now all I have to do is wait to find out if I tolerate tomatoes. I'll bet I do!!

[love2travel]

  On 6/9/2013 at 5:22 PM, bartfull said:

Well, because I have been so busy working seven 10 hour days a week, I broke down and bought an Against the Grain pizza at the health food store. It was a plain cheese pizza so I also bought some of my Mulay's gluten-free sausages. I cooked the sausage this morning and sliced it thin, then put it on the pizza and baked it. I just ate some and it was SO good!

 

Expensive though, so I won't do it often. The pizza was 14 and change for a twelve inch, and the sausage is a little over 8 for six sausages about the size of "normal" Italian sausages. All together with tax (yes, they tax food in this state), it was about $24 for one little 12 inch pizza! But it had a lot more sausage on it than one you'd get at a pizzaria. I sliced it into six pieces and two will make a filling meal, so I'll get three meals out of it. I'm happy.

 

The only thing I'll do differently next time is cook it in a pan instead of directly on the rack. I like a softer crust and the directions said in a pan that will be the result. (I didn't HAVE a pan or cookie sheet - haven't gotten around to buying one yet.)

 

Anyway, I was SO pleased to find a pizza that was not only gluten-free, but soy-free and corn-free, made in a facility that uses none of those things. It was my first pizza in over two years, and now all I have to do is wait to find out if I tolerate tomatoes. I'll bet I do!!

Yum!  Sounds great.  All this pizza talk has given me a craving.  Must get my pizza stone out and make me some dough.