When the Moon Hits Your Eye…

Posted: May 21st, 2010 | Author: alison | Filed under: Main Dish, Recipes | 6 Comments »

I don’t know about you, but I am always in need of quick, weekday meals.  Since my mom gave Kevin and me a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day we usually have some dough chillin’ in the fridge.  Lately, we’ve been rolling out the dough from the original recipe and making pizza crusts.  After a quick preheat, lunch or dinner is ready in a matter of minutes!  There’s only one problem: I’ve always been on the fence about prepared pizza sauce, and when I tried experimenting on my own, my sauces were runny or flavorless, so I always caved in to convenience and bought the over-priced pizza sauce at the store even though I knew it was something I could make on my own.

Enter the California Heritage Cookbook’s recipe for pizza sauce.  It’s one of the few vintage cookbooks I own that has a recipe for pizza, so I decided to put it to the test.  Well, I will never buy pizza sauce again.  This recipe yielded a thick sauce that was both sweet and spicy.  And, it freezes perfectly too!  Take that, Thursday evenings.

Pizza Sauce

(adapted from The California Heritage Cookbook, c. 1976)

1 onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 28 oz. can tomato puree

1 12 oz. can tomato paste

1 tbsp. of each of the following fresh herbs, chopped: fresh oregano, basil, thyme, and parsley

1/2 tsp. dried red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

1. Sauté garlic and onion in olive oil on medium heat for 5 minutes, or until soft.

2. Add tomato puree and paste and cook over low heat for another 10 minutes.

3. Add herbs and pepper flakes and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

4. Spread on pizza dough along with your favorite toppings.  (We had fresh mozzarella and prosciutto.)

5. Freeze any extra sauce for up to 2 months.

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