Someone Requested A Pizza (Or Was It Tomato) Sauce Recipe...

[love2travel]

I really, really love roasted tomato sauce for pasta and tweak it a bit for pizza sauce. Not really a recipe but more of a method.

Method #1:

Slice about 20 roma tomatoes in half lengthwise and arrange cut side up on baking sheet. Cut some onion into large chunks and spread on sheet with the tomatoes. Do the same with whole garlic cloves. Sprinkle on a touch of granulated sugar, fresh thyme leaves, salt and pepper. Roast in a slow oven (about 300) until the toatoes shrivel and onions/garlic brown, anywhere from 30-60 minutes depending on the oven and size of the tomatoes.

The tomatoes should be pliable and smaller than they were when you first placed them in the oven and slightly charred black. (I sometimes blend these tomatoes with some veg broth and herbs in a blender for a chunky roasted tomato soup.) Pulse the tomatoes, onions and garlic in food processor or blender - you can puree for a smooth sauce or pulse to leave some chunky bits. Pour all into a saucepan and simmer until reduced a bit. Remove from heat and tear small pieces of fresh basil into the sauce. See? Easy. Note: in winter you can do this with canned whole tomatoes as they taste a lot better than so-called pinkish sickly-looking tomatoes.

Method #2:

Another thing I do is take about 10-20 fresh tomatoes (depending on the size), cut an "x" into the bottom with a knife and blanch about 30 seconds in hot water. This makes the skin very easy to peel. Peel and squeeze out the seeds and most of the juice with your hands and chop flesh finely. Sounds weird to get rid of the juice (I keep it for another use) but the sauce will be watery and less tomato like - sort of watered down. Plus the longer you simmer with the juice the longer it will take to reduce. Meanwhile, heat a bit of olive oil or butter and caramelize some onions. Add the tomatoes, about 1 tsp salt for 8 tomatoes, fresh oregano (or dried) and season. Simmer until desired consistency is reached. Of course you can also puree.

To make tomato sauce extra good make a flavoured oil by placing one whole head of garlic (cut top off but leave paper on) ina small saucepan with 1 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1 cup packed basil leaves and 1 tsp red pepper flakes. Heat until the basil starts to pop. Take off heat and stir into above tomato sauce or sprinkle on top of your dish.

For pizza sauce do either of the above and add pizza herbs such as oregano or marjoram in addition to the basil.

I have many more tomato sauce recipes if you are interested. Some are pretty elaborate and take a few hours but oh, so good!

[IrishHeart]

Sounds delicious!! --but I was really hoping for your French Bread recipe you spoke of on another thread...you made us drool with your description. My recipe is okay-- but you talked about how big it rose and how the crust was chewy...sounds awesome!!!..so.....PLEASE? Pretty PLEASE?? thanks!!

[maximoo]

I think it was me who asked for a pizza sauce. Tho your recipes look yummy they are much too daunting for a novice like me. (I can barely boil water! lol...) Do you have something with a can of tomato paste or something that I can add powered spices to? I've been buying pizza sauce in a jar for $1.19 not bad in price but I'm'sure it wld be cheaper if I can make a decent one myself. thx a bunch!

[GlutenFreeManna]

I think it was me who asked for a pizza sauce. Tho your recipes look yummy they are much too daunting for a novice like me. (I can barely boil water! lol...) Do you have something with a can of tomato paste or something that I can add powered spices to? I've been buying pizza sauce in a jar for $1.19 not bad in price but I'm'sure it wld be cheaper if I can make a decent one myself. thx a bunch!

LOL! I don't think Love2travel ever uses canned anythign as far as I can tell. Although, her recipe sounds great!

Here's what I do to make pizza sauce:

1 6 oz can of tomato paste

1 minced garlic clove (or a teaspoon of the jarred chopped stuff if you must)

1 tablespoon honey OR 1/2 Tablespoon sugar (you can adjust and add more if you want a sweeter sauce)

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes (might want to leave out if you don't like spicy sauce)

about 6 tablespoons of water

Heat the paste in a small sauce pan over low heat with all the spices. Add water one tablespoon at a time, stirring constantly until you reach your desired consistency. I like my sauce to be nice and thick because if it gets to watery it will make the crust not cook. If the 6 TBS water doesn't make it thin enough you cna always add more. It doesn't really even need to heat through if you are putting it right ont he pizza. It just needs to be mixed well and the right taste/consistency. Taste it and add more seasonings if you don't think it has enough flavor. The only thing I would be cautious about adding more of is the red pepper flakes (if you don't like heat) because they will get more spicey the longer they are in the sauce. You can always just add extra red pepper flakes to your pizza when it's done but it's harder to undo too spicey sauce. Another thing you can mix in to the sauce if you can have cheese is some grated parmesan. I haven't doen that in a long time since I'm dairy free so I couldn't tell you how much. Just play with adding a tablespoon or twoo at asee how it tastes.

[maximoo]

Thank you this is easier for me. one question tho instead of minced garlic how much powered garlic should I put

[GlutenFreeManna]

Thank you this is easier for me. one question tho instead of minced garlic how much powered garlic should I put

My bottle of McCormick Garlic powder say 1/4 of a teaspoon = 1 clove of garlic. So I would start with 1/4 of a teaspoon and then taste it. I really like garlic flavor so I would probably end up puttng in up to 1/2 teaspoon if using powdered.