Classic Tomato Sauce

It just seems wrong to use jarred pizza sauce on a homemade pizza crust! So, I went to the pantry to see what I could come up with. The outcome? A REALLY tasty tomato sauce that could be used on anything from pizza to pasta. My husband and I love spicy foods, but the kids do not. So, I only added red pepper flakes to one half of the recipe and left the other half plain for the kids. This is such a simple sauce that there is no need for the jarred kind (with all those preservatives)!

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less to taste)
1/2 tsp salt
28 oz can crushed tomatoes

Directions

In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil. Add the minced garlic, red pepper flakes and salt. Stir and saute for 45 seconds (do not brown the garlic). Stir in the tomatoes. Heat the sauce over a low simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and use as desired.

I initially used the sauce for our pizza, but thought it would taste great tossed with some pasta and a little cheese...and I was right! :-)

ENJOY!

Pizza Pizza!

Another pizza recipe??? What can I say, my family loves pizza! My husband really likes pizza and the kids are coming around to liking it. Since we were "home bound" for the ice day, we decided to make homemade pizza for lunch. We used the bread machine to mix and rise the dough- can't get much easier than that! This dough was really easy to work with and made a very good pizza! We made one pizza for the kids and one for us (spicy sauce). I baked theirs on a greased baking sheet and baked ours on a pizza stone. Both came out very good ! The one for the kids came out with a soft crust that they both loved. And ours came out with a crust that was crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside- perfect! I would say that this recipe was definitely a success since Daniel had 6 pieces!! (That is saying A LOT for my picky eater!) We will definitely be making this one again!

This recipe is a compilation of many recipes that we have tried. The fun thing about making pizza is that you can add whatever toppings you like and everyone can help! We went simple and opted for cheese pizzas this time, but there are so many options!

**This pizza has quickly become a very requested thing in our house which still amazes me- my kids LOVE it! I wanted to add a few tips from the various times I have made it so far. First, the recipe says to divide the dough into 2 and work with your hands to spread it out to desired shape. The first time I made this, I was quite sure one half was not going to spread out to a good size. So, I decided to leave it as one piece and spread it out. MISTAKE! The pizza puffed up about 2 inches high in the oven and it was a crazy mess. Initially, it will seem impossible to spread it out with your hands. But trust me- it is very easy to work with on a greased pan. I can easily get one half of the dough to a 12" pizza size or even a little larger. If it seems hard to work with, let it rest a few minutes and try again. Second: There are times that the kids want pizza and we don't so 2 pizzas is too much. While my son loves the pizza, he isn't too fond of "reheated pizza". So, the last time I tried to refrigerate half of the recipe to use another day, but it just didn't work out :-( But on another occasion, I was able to halve all of the ingredients and make just one pizza.

**If you do not have a bread machine, you can still make this! If you have a stand mixer, combine the ingredients and use the dough hook attachment to knead the dough. (If you don't have a stand mixer, you can mix the ingredients by hand and knead until smooth) Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Spray an oven safe bowl with cooking spray. Put the dough in the bowl and turn it around to get the cooking spray on all sides. Cover the bowl with a towel and place in a warm area until the dough doubles. My trick for letting the dough rise is to turn your oven on to 170 degrees- once it gets to 170, turn the oven off and put the covered bowl in the oven until doubled- usually about 30-40 minutes.



Ingredients

1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tsp yeast (I use bread machine yeast)
pizza sauce (canned or homemade)
shredded cheese
toppings of choice


Directions
Put ingredients in bread machine pan in order given above. Turn on dough cycle.

When dough is complete, remove from pan and put on a floured surface. Divide the dough into 2 pieces. Spray a heavy pizza pan with olive oil or cooking spray. Use your hands to flatten and stretch the dough to fit the pan. If you have trouble stretching the dough, let it rest a few minutes before continuing.

Layer sauce then cheese and other toppings. You want to keep the ingredient load in check- if you put too much, it will cause the crust to be too soggy and take too long to bake. Bake in oven preheated to 450 degrees. Let cool 2-3 minutes before slicing. As much as you will want to cut right into the pizza, allowing it to rest a few minutes will keep the cheese from sliding off!







ENJOY!!

Pizza Sauce

You can't have pizza without pizza sauce...well, actually I am not a huge fan of tomato based pizza sauce and could do without at times. But my quest for a good homemade pizza includes a good pizza sauce! Here is one that I adapted from a few different places. The sauce is easy to make and has a good flavor. Since this one doesn't need to be cooked, it's also pretty quick.



Ingredients
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
6 oz warm water (110 degrees)
3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp honey
3/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp dried red pepper flakes (I used more since we like it hotter)
salt to taste

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Sauce should sit for at least 30 minutes to blend flavors. Spread over pizza crust and add desired toppings.

Pizza again!

Here is the second pizza crust recipe we tried this week. This dough was very easy to work with. Unlike this recipe, I let the Kitchenaid mixer do all of the work on this one while I prepared other things. I would equate this more with a "pan" type crust. The crust was soft and airy. I used all purpose flour this time, but will use the bread flour on the next go around to achieve a crispier crust. This crust held up well and was very tasty! Two thumbs up from my pizza loving hubby!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups bread flour (can use all purpose, but bread flour gives a crispier crust)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Directions
In the large bowl of a mixer, add the warm water. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let sit for 5 minutes until foamy.

Attach a mixing paddle to the mixer. Mix in the olive oil, flour, salt and sugar on low speed for about a minute. Remove the mixing paddle and replace with the dough hook. Knead using the mixer and dough hook, on low to medium speed, until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If you don't have a mixer, you can mix and knead by hand.

Place ball of dough in a bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn the dough to coat all sides. Cover with plastic wrap.


Let sit in a warm place until it doubles in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If you don't have a warm spot, you can heat the oven to 150 degrees and turn the oven off. Place the bowl in the warm oven to rise. (At this point, you could freeze the dough in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks).

If you are using a pizza stone, place in oven and preheat to 450 degrees. Remove plastic wrap from dough and punch down. Divide dough in half and form two balls of dough. Place each in it's own bowl and cover with plastic wrap; let sit for 10 minutes.

Working with one dough ball at a time, flatten with your hands on a floured surface. Starting at the center and working outwards, use your fingertips to press the dough to 1/2 inch thick. Turn and stretch. Let the dough relax for 5 minutes and then continue stretching to your desired size (about 10-12 inches). You can pinch the edges if you want to form a lip on the crust.

Brush the top with olive oil (to prevent it from getting soggy). Use your finger tips to press down and make dents in the surface to prevent dough from bubbling. Let rest another 5 minutes. Repeat with 2nd ball of dough. Top your pizzas as desired with sauce and other toppings. Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!!

Pizza Night!!

One of our new found loves is "Family Night" where we all pitch in on dinner and then play family games and watch movies. The house is never quiet on game night...well, not on many other nights either- but on game night, there is lots of laughing, yelling and fun! Family night is something we all really look forward to!

This past week, we made yummy homemade pizzas. I couldn't decide which pizza crust recipe I wanted to use so we actually made two different ones. I'll post them separately to make searching easier.

The first recipe we made was Jay's Signature Pizza Crust. This crust had a nice crunch to the outside and was soft on the inside. I would say that this one was more like a "hand tossed" crust- not too thin, but also not as thick as a "pan" crust. Both the texture and flavor were very good. We topped this one with this pizza sauce as well as some sauteed onions, peppers and mushrooms- and of course mozzarella cheese! Yummmmm... As you can see, this one was also baked on a (preheated) pizza stone.

Ingredients
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (one package)
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour

Directions
1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the warm water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
3. Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth.

Let the dough rise until double; about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use you favorite sauce and toppings.

4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. (If you are using a pizza stone, put it in the oven while it is preheating). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan and let the dough rise for 15-20 minutes before topping and baking.

5. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

After punching down the dough, I divided it into 2 balls. I topped one and baked on a pizza stone as pictured above and the other was made into garlic cheese bread. I rolled this dough and placed on a greased cookie sheet and let it rise for 20 minutes. I spread garlic butter on the dough and topped with grated cheese. It baked in the oven for about 20 minutes and was veryyyyy yummy!

Enjoy!!