Gorgeous Tomato Pizza Sauce

Making your own pizza sauce really adds something special to home made pizza –  you can totally taste that home made touch!

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped (or 1 tbsp jar chopped garlic)
1 carrots, grated
2 cans crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 cup red wine
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup parsley, chopped (or 2 tbsp dried)
3 tbsp basil, julienne (or 2 tsp dry)

– In a large stockpot, heat 2 tbsp olive oil on medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic and carrot, and sauté until onion begins to brown. Add tomatoes and paste. Stir well. Add wine and bring to a boil. Add sugar and reduce heat to low and let simmer 30 minutes.

– After 30 minutes, add parsley and basil to sauce, and cook 15 minutes more. Working in batches, purée sauce in blender; return to same pot. (If you have a handblender, you can use it right in the pot).

– Allow to cool before spooning onto your pizza base.

Perfect Pizza Dough

Home made pizza is just awesome! You can get so creative with it and its way cheaper than getting take out, especially if you have a big family. When my son was young we had so much fun making pizzas. I used to make spider pizza shapes, or dinosaurs, or my pride and joy… A scorpion shaped pizza! It was pretty cool if I say so myself. You can do heart shapes for a romantic DVD night in… Just let your imagination run wild!

This recipe is from my sister, who is a whizz in the kitchen. Se gave it me years ago and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve used it. I really like this dough because there is no oil in it.

4 Cups flour
1 tsp (5mls) salt
1 tsp (5mls) sugar
7.5 mls dry yeast
350 mls luke warm water

Mix all the ingredients together and knead well. Place in a bowl in a warm place with a tea towel soaked in hot water (and squeezed out) over the top of the bowl. Leave for 30 mins. The dough will rise.

Preheat your oven to 230 C.

Break little balls off and roll into whatever shape you like. Don’t worry if its not perfect, I think rustic looking pizza’s look great!

A great tip….

Place baking paper on the surface you are working on and place your rolled out pizza dough on it. Then you can assemble your pizza on the baking paper. When you are ready you can move the pizza onto a baking sheet with the paper. You must bake the pizza on the baking paper, on the baking sheet for about 7 minutes, or until the cheese melts and goes bubbly.

This technique is particularly useful if you are making pizzas for a few people as you can prepare pizzas while the others are in the oven.

The baking paper also ensures the dough doesn’t stick to the baking tray.