I'm a Little Saucy Today

Since Aaron's back to work this weekend I figured I wanted something easy to make for dinner and that wouldn't cause a huge ruckus at the table.  Pizza is such a fun dinner to make, the kids can get involved, they both love to eat it and it's simple and satisfying.  I use the dough recipe out of my Cook's Illustrated cookbook, it's simple, I can do it in my food processor so it's not a lot of mess and it tastes good. 

I usually have some pizza sauce sitting in the cupboard but it's more for emergency's, I have this thing about having to do things myself.  I've made a couple different pizza sauces from recipes I've found before but they just didn't do it for me.  I spent some time finding a bunch of different recipes that looked interesting and have come up with something that will suit my taste.  Why you ask, well first off because it's going to have some sundried tomatos in it, something I picked up and have been waiting to use, but more importantly, it has wine in it and wine just makes everything better!!



Sundried Tomatos

Carrie's Pizza Sauce

1 28 oz. can Diced Tomatos
1/2 c. Onion, chopped
4 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1/4 c. White Wine (not dry, more sweet, like a Pinot Grigio or Riesling)
4 Cloves Garlic, minced
2 Tbsp Sundried Tomatos, minced
1 1/2 Tsp Dried Oregano
1 Tsp Dried Basil
1/2 Tsp Sugar
1/4-1/2 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 Tsp Coarse Salt
2 Tbsp EVOO

I started by heating the EVOO on medium heat in a medium saucepan (saves on dishes).  In went the onion and I sauteed that for about 5 minutes and then added the garlic and sundried tomatos for about 30 seconds or so.  Next up was the wine, oregano, basil and red pepper flakes, I let the wine work it's way into everything for a minute or so.

Then I added the rest of the ingredients and let it come to a slow boil. 

I reduced the heat and then let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes. This helps meld all the awesome flavours together:)  Once that was done, it came off the heat to cool a bit before I put it in the food processor.  When it cooled off a bit I dumped it in my food processor and processed it until it was smooth, about 20-30 seconds.

There it is, voila, an easy homemade pizza sauce:)  It made about 4 cups of sauce which is enough for 4 pizzas.  I only made 2 so lucky me, I have enough for 2 pizzas in my freezer now. 

 

How freaking good does that look:)  We just did one with pepperoni, bacon and cheese and the other with pepperoni, bacon, onion and cheese...nice and simple. 

 

I'm also pretty happy that I'm getting much better at shaping my dough to look more like a pizza and not The Blob...I wish I had some pics of my first pizza shaping attempts, they were pretty scary, lol.