Thursday, September 2, 2010

tip from mom...and an easy pizza sauce recipe

Mothers are wonderful. Of course, we don't realize this until we've been little whinging brats for most of our lives and finally recognize that it's a wonder our mothers didn't plug us up in a pickle barrel until we were in our 20s. Aside from giving birth to us, nourishing us, wiping the snot from our noses and all the other icky things mothers have to do (and, if you're lucky to have a wonderful mother like I do, seemingly enjoying it), they also know some downright nifty tricks.

When you go to make a tomato sauce and use whole tomatoes, the first problem you're likely to run into is that of how to best squish the tomatoes. You don't want little tomato hippos swimming in your sauce, especially if you need a smooth sauce for pizza. Sure, you can throw the tomatoes in the blender, but then you have to wash the blender. You can try to crush the tomatoes with the back of a spoon, but, if you're like me, you'll be sure to wear all white and get tomato juice all over yourself. You can crush tomatoes in many ways, but the least messy way that I have found is the kitchen shear method. Simply open your can and cut up the tomatoes while they're still in the can. Freaking brilliant, I tell you. There's no splash, no substantial dishes to wash, and shears are the perfect tomato-cutting implement. Eat your heart out.

Simple Pizza Sauce
makes enough sauce for 2 medium pizzas and some leftover for crust-dipping

In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium, heat:
3 tablespoons olive oil
When oil is hot, saute:
3 large cloves garlic
for about five minutes, reducing the heat to medium-low. Add:
28 ounce can whole tomatoes, diced, and their juice
1 can tomato paste
healthy glug of port
and reduce until desired pizza sauce consistency is reached. Season with:
salt and pepper
fresh herbs
sugar, brown sugar, or sucanat
to taste. To prevent your pizza crust from becoming soggy, brush with olive oil before topping with sauce.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mothers ARE wonderful! I'm missing mine something fierce right now.
I have no earthly idea how she could stand me when I look back at old photo albums and home videos - I was insanely annoying!

Yum pizza sauce! We've been having pizza night every Friday on the farm here; a couple different kinds of crusts (one with zucchini since it's coming out our noses around here!) and sauce that was put up in the pantry.
-Camille