More Making Pizza at Home

I've often written about the fun and ease of making pizza at home (See here ). It really is easy and so much cheaper and better for you, because you can limit the oil you use, and pile on the vegetables that you love. After reading through my blogs about pizza, I realize that I've never included a recipe for homemade pizza sauce. It's so easy, and quick, that I guess I thought that everyone would know how to do it. Just in case you don't, here's my super quick, homemade pizza sauce. Of course, you could pour it over pasta or use it for a meatless lasagna if you wanted to!  Find my recipe here for perfect, low-fat pizza crust. Hooray for homemade pizza! This pizza was topped with pepperoni, onion, black olives, banana peppers, roasted red peppers, mushrooms and part skim mozzarella cheese. It sliced into 6 big pieces, but easily could have made 8. I cooked it at 410 degrees for 15 minutes, turned down the oven to 375 and cooked it 5 more minutes to make sure the crust was done in the middle.

Quick Pizza Sauce

Makes enough for 2 large pizzas

2 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 c. dry red wine
1/2 tsp. dried basil OR oregano (not both)
a pinch of kosher salt
a pinch of fresh ground black pepper
a pinch of sugar
In the bottom of small saucepan, heat the garlic in the olive oil over lowest heat until it becomes fragrant and is soft. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring the sauce to a boil. Turn down the heat to low and cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. The sauce should simmer gently so that all the flavors combine. Use about 1/2 c. of the sauce to top your favorite pizza. 

Guest Cooks in the Kitchen!

Two kind of sandwich rolls and pasta salad. AAAH, the kindness of others...

When our kids were little, we would often start our dinner conversation by saying, "Everyone tell one good thing and one bad thing that happened to you today" and that would always start get the conversation started. If you have never tried this strategy with your own family, give it a try, it really works! Of course, there was always one comedian in the group who would say, "My good thing is that I did not have a bad thing". We'd let that go one time, but the next time we'd call a "no fair" on him.
This week, I had something good and something kind of bad happen to me. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way: I got a little sicky and had to stay home, laying low for a few days. NOW, for the good thing: My son and and his nice girlfriend made us dinner! Let me say up front, that the nice girlfriend did most of the work and all of the supervising, but he helped and actually had major influence over the pasta salad. It was a delicious meal, a different twist on pizza/calzone/sandwich roll and quite tasty! She made some pizza dough and wrapped it around 2 different fillings. One roll was filled with spinach, that they flavored like spanikopita, with lemon, garlic, feta and green onions. The other roll was filled with salami, cheese, roasted red peppers, banana pepper rings and I am not sure what, if anything, else. Whatever, they tasted crazy good! They also made a good pasta salad, with fresh basil from my garden and kalamata olives! Look at the beautiful sandwich rolls, fresh from the oven:

Delicious pizza/sandwich rolls, hot from the oven! The brown stuff is ooey, gooey CHEESE!

The pasta salad was good too, but it could have used a little broccoli, or cherry tomaotes, for color if nothing else. They agreed, but hey, it was the Italian kids' very first try at making his favorite, pasta (see more about the Italian kid here)! Isn't it nice to have someone do something nice for you when you don't expect it? AND they even did most of the cleaning up! It occurred to me that the rolls would make a great item for casual entertaining. You could cut them into as many pieces as you need and the ideas for filling them go on and on! This time, they used a pizza crust mix and it worked out great, but you could make your own, buy a ball of dough from the deli or get the kind in the refrigerated case near the ready to bake rolls, etc. All of those should work just fine.

WOW, I am a lucky lady! Someone cooked for ME! Love that, gotta' admit it! And eating together with your kids and their friends, priceless...

Make your pizza at home tonight!

Here is it --  All ready for the oven!

Why not make your pizza at home tonight, save a little money and control what you put onto it? When I've got a little of this and a little of that, I often make pizza! It's great if you have just a little leftover spaghetti sauce -- not really enough for another meal, just a cup or so. You can always add a little pizza sauce from a jar or some tomato sauce. You generally need about 1 -1 1/3 cups of sauce per pizza and at least 2 cups of cheese. Then pile on whatever you've got around. We like mushrooms, pepperoni, olives, peppers -- banana, green, roasted red, jalapenos -- and anything else YOU like. I've posted my homemade crust recipe here -- don't be intimidated about making pizza crust! It's easy, I promise! Your family will eat it up, I promise! I always put the cheese on top of the sauce and THEN add the extras, to keep the cheese from getting too browned. The more toppings you have, the longer you'll have to cook it. Then, at the very last minute, save just a handful or so of cheese to sprinkle on top, for that extra gooey facor! Delish!

Gooey, cheesey, homemade goodness, your family will love it and you!