Thursday, June 28, 2012

Pizza sauce...made easy!!


We are often asked if we use pizza sauce on our homemade pizzas. Yes.  What do you use for pizza sauce?  Well, we mainly make our own. How do you make yours?  Funny you should ask, here are a couple of very simple recipes we use:

Tomato Puree (Passata) Base

Ingredients:
One jar of Tomato Puree (Passata) 
Sliced Garlic
Fresh Basil
Fresh Oregano
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Instructions:
In a large sauce pan or skillet over medium heat, heat up some olive oil and toss in the sliced garlic.  Cook the garlic until it starts to turn golden.  Now pour in the puree (Passata).  Be careful, the water in the puree may pop when it comes in contact with the hot oil.  Stir to combine and let cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Toss in the fresh basil and oregano.  You can use dried if you do not have fresh.  Stir to combine.  Season with salt and pepper.  Check the flavor and add more basil and oregano if you like.  Also, you can add some red pepper flakes or dried chiles to add some heat.  Cook the sauce for another 5-10 minutes.  Once ready, add it to your pizza or allow it to cool and store it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.  

Whole Peeled San Marzano Tomato Base

The ingredients are the same as the puree recipe, just replace the puree with Whole Peeled San Marzano Tomatoes.  You can leave the tomatoes whole when adding the whole can to the olive oil and garlic and break them with your spoon as they cook.  You can crush them with your hand while they are still in the can and then add them to the sauce pan.  You can pour the can into your blender and blend them into puree and then add the puree to the olive oil and garlic.  However you prefer to do it, the San Marzano tomatoes bring amazing flavor to the sauce.

Very Quick and Easy Pizza Sauce

Simply pour some tomato puree (Passata) onto your prepared pizza dough and spread it out.  Throw on some chopped garlic, salt, pepper, fresh basil and then top with you other toppings and bake.  Simple, but delicious.

Hopefully these three quick recipes give you a starting point to create your own pizza sauce.  Remember, making pizza is fun and very creative.  So, keep your sauce simple, full of flavor and get creative. Have fun.

Come by and get almost everything you need for pizza in one stop. Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, cheese, pizza dough, San Marzano Tomatoes, tomato puree (Passata), red pepper flakes, dried chiles, bruschetta, artichokes, mushrooms and so much more.  Have some fun this weekend and for the 4th!!

Ciao.


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