I love to make Pizza, and it is Pretty Good but I am buying storebought Sauces. Does anyone have a favorite Recipe they want to share, or a published one they recommend?
Thanks in advance.
Scott
Thanks in advance.
Scott
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"Fat" Peter Clemenza's Spaghetti Sauce
(from "The Godfather" 1972)
1/2 pound seasoned ground beef
1/2 pound sweet or mild Italian sausage (or just 1 pound sausage which is already seasoned)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove crushed garlic
1 16 ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
2 6 ounce cans tomato paste
1 cup dry red wine (chianti or burgundy. Carlo Rossi Paisano works very well in this)
1 tablespoon sugar
Cook medium heat 1.5 hours or until thickened.
"Come over here kid, learn somethin. You never know when you'll have to cook for 20 guys some day".
"You start out with a little bit of water, then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, some tomato paste. You fry it make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil, shove in all your sausage and your meatballs, add a little bit of wine and a little bit of sugar and that's my trick". (Fat Clemenza)
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Here's Jeff Varasano's take on saucing pizza. A few years later he opened a couple of pizza restaurants in Atlanta. He overdoes it a bit, in true "food science" style, but I do something similar for the pies I get to top. Here's the link to his whole process:
http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm- DON'T make a sauce. That is, don't pre-cook the tomatoes. The tomatoes will cook on the pizza. If you cook a sauce first, it will cook again on the pizza, turning it brown and yucky. No need to make a sauce. Look at how overcooked many sauces are. The best places don't do this. This is actually the one step in this whole process that you can save yourself some time.
- I strain the seeds. This is really optional. If you do choose to do it, follow these steps, which seem obvious now, but took me a long time to flesh out:
- Pour the can out into a bowl
- Cut the green/yellow stem endsoff the tomatoes with your hands or a paring knife, then discard.
- Squeeze out the seeds into thepuree and then Dip the tomato into the puree. You can even cut thetomato open to get out any remaining seeds, by essentially rinsing them with the puree. This will have all the seeds fall into the puree.
- Put the flesh back in the can
- At the end of this process youhave a can of flesh and a bowl of watery puree and seeds. Strain this, pouring the puree back into the can. In the strainer are then 90% of the seeds, all by themselves. Discard the seeds.
- Now crush the tomatoes. This isone of those areas where I made a recent change for the better andit's really helped a lot. I used to crush the tomatoes by hand. Butit was always a bit chunky. Now I blend them with an immersionmixer ("boat motor"). I cannot tell you exactly why thishas made a huge improvement in the TASTE of the tomatoes, butit has. I've done side by side taste tests. The tomatoes should becrushed but not pur ed. Go Easy. I have nothing against using a foodprocessor or mill, but I will say that you should not crush by hand.
- Tomato Rinsing: All canshave some bitterness. You need some bitterness and you don't want tostrip all of it out. But if the can is too bitter it's not good. Ihave a procedure I call tomato rinsing to remove some of thebitterness. But you have to taste the can and determine for yourselfif it needs it. The better brands on my list don't. Here's theTomato Rinsing procedure: Strain the tomatoes in a fine meshstrainer.. If the mesh is fine, the water will be mostly clearwith very little tomato escaping. If the water escaping is very red,pour it back on top of the tomatoes and continue straining.Eventually the water will run almost completely clear. Here'sthe key. The water that comes out is completely bitter. Taste it. What I do is pour fresh water on top of the strained tomatoes andstrain them again. Taste this second batch of water. It's alsobitter but less so. You are removing bitterness and acid withoutlosing a drop of red tomato. Instead you are replacing this bitterwater with fresh water. You can repeat this several times if youlike, but once or twice is usually fine. The net result is that whatis left over, which is all the red tomato solids, is sooooo sweetand yummy.
- Here are some other things youcan do to remove the bitterness. But don't go crazy adding tons ofspices and things. It's mostly just tomatoes.
- Add some grated Romano cheesedirectly into the tomatoes. I use Locatelli Romano. Some havecriticized this, but I like it.
- A bit of sugar will also help1/4 - 1 teaspoon. Taste and see.
- A pinch of salt
- A pinch of dried oregano,crushed by hand to release the oils
- If you are used to puttinggarlic in your sauce, try these steps once without it.
- Taste and taste
- So you are removing and thenadding back water. In the end though you should have less water thanyou started with. The total weight is probably about 1/3 less thanyou started with. But the exact amount of water you remove dependson the overall temperature of the oven and the temperaturedifferential in the oven.. There is not much time in a hot oven toevaporate the sauce, so the hotter the oven, the drier the saucemust be going in. But if the top differential is high, thesauce will evaporate too quickly and needs to start wetter. You haveto test. Surprisingly, if the sauce is too dry, it's not as sweet.You don't want it soupy but don't overstrain either. This will takereal practice with your oven. Sometimes after the first pie I addmore water to my sauce. Again, this is another area where recentimprovements have really transformed the sauce. I think that whenthe sauce is chunky (hand crushed) it's harder to get the amount ofwater right.
- Also, while straining, you areletting the crushed tomatoes sit uncovered and this reallyhelps the tin can taste to dissipate. Prep the tomatoes when youmake the dough. Even though you are not adding too much to yoursauce, the tomatoes do better when the flavors settle in for a dayand also the tin can taste dissipates. So prep a day or more in advance. Again, this is another recent change that has helped alot.
- Refrigerate the tomatoes if youare not using them, but let them come to room temp when put on thepie. If the sauce is cold, the top of the dough is muchcolder than then bottom and you can end up with a thin layer ofdough near the sauce that is gummier and less cooked than the restof the dough.
- When you spread the sauce on thepie, put a little less in the center because the liquid tends topool there.
- If you are using a very hot ovenlike I am, don't go too close to the edge. Too much sauce near theedge will keep the cornice from developing well. In most of thephotos below I put the sauce too close to the edge myself. I will bemore conscious of this as I go.
Using Fresh Tomato
An alternative to canned tomatoes isfresh tomatoes. Even the best cans have a tinny odor, so you'd thinkthat nothing could top fresh tomatoes. But using 100% fresh tomatoesis not necessarily the best thing. If you prepare fresh tomatoes andtaste it raw, compared to canned, the fresh will win. But somehow, onthe pizza, the canned will win. Partly it's that the fresh tomatotaste is simply different than we are all used to and so it nevertastes like your favorite pizza place. I've probably notexperimented enough to say for sure. As I stated above, I don'trecommend cooking your sauce before making a pizza, because thetomatoes will cook again on the pizza. If you think about it, thecanning process itself forces the tomatoes to be heated once beforesealing, then if you cook a sauce, that's heating #2 and then the pieis #3. So I recommend cutting back to 2 times. If you switch to freshtomatoes though, you are back to just 1 time, on the pie itself. Andfor a 2 minute pie, that is not very much. So perhaps a solution, ifyou are using fresh tomatoes, is to cook a sauce. I will experiment alittle more and edit this section.
Another possibility is to blend freshand canned. This has a lot of potential, I think and I willexperiment with this more also.
Here's a method for preparing freshtomatoes:- Start with great tomatoes. I use "ugly ripe"heirloom tomatoes. These are the best to me. FYI, they are reallyamazing raw for a caprese salad (tomato, Mozz, basil, oil, balsamic,salt, pepper). Other heirlooms are probably good also, as are freshpicked local tomatoes. After that I'd probably go for plum tomatoes.I'm not a huge fan of the vine-ripe brand. They look great, but thetaste is so-so. Regular beefsteak tomatoes are really not worth theeffort.
- Blanch them. Blanching is a pretty easy technique. You justput the tomato in boiling water for 30 seconds or less, then take itout and put it in ice water for 30 seconds, then you can just peelit by hand.
- Cored them with a paring knife and pull out most of the seedsby hand.
- Ground them a bit with an immersion mixer
- Strained them. They were very, very wet and will lose a lotof weight in water.
- Added a tiny amount of sea salt and a few fresh basil leavesfrom the garden and that's about it.
- Cook them? As I said, this is my next experiment.
9- Grate some Locatelli Romano and/orparmessian cheese right on top of the tomatoes & basil (dothis whether you put some romano into the tomatoes or not). Butdon't over do it. Just a TINY little bit. But don't skip thisstep. It's really key to the sauce. Balance, balance, balance.Last edited by EdF; December 17, 2017, 11:36 AM.Comment
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Here is my go to easy go to recipe:- 3 tbsps olive oil
- 1 med to large onion (diced small)
- 2 to 3 cloves of fresh garlic (minced)
- 1/4 cup of white wine (optional)
- 2 28 oz cans of whole italian plum tomatoes (mostly drained) I use just a little of the liquid in the can.
- 1 6 oz can of tomato paste
- 2 tsps kosher salt
- 2 tsps dried oregano
- 1 tsp of dried basil
- or 2 1/2 tsps of Italian seasoning
- pepper to taste
- 2 tsps brown sugar
INSTRUCTIONS- In large enough sauce pan heat olive oil until it starts to shimmer.
- Reduce heat to med/med high.
- Add diced onions and minced garlic and saute' until translucent. About 3-5 minutes. Do not brown. (Optional: Deglaze the pan with the white wine and reduce liquid by half. This step adds a nice flavor.
- Watch the heat so you don't burn the onions or garlic.)
- Add tomatoes and carefully mash them with a potato masher or whatever tool you want to use to mash them.
- If you don't like chunky sauce you can use a blender or hand blender to thin it out when it is done cooking.
- Add the tomato paste, salt, oregano, basil, (or Italian Seasoning) pepper, and brown sugar.
- When adding the spices it is best to rub them in the palms of your hands to release the natural oils and flavor.
- Stir well, cover and simmer for about an hour stirring fairly often. Do not let pot boil. Let sauce cool for a while before using.
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Here's a classic:
Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
The most famous tomato sauce on the internet, from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Editor's note: Marcella called for 2 cups of tomatoes when using canned, but feel free to use a whole 28-ounce can (closer to 3 cups), if you like. You can scale up the butter and onion, if you like, or don't -- it's genius either way.
Serves 6, enough to sauce 1 to 1 1/2 pounds pastaFor the Sauce:- 2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, prepared as described below, or 2 cups canned imported Italian tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
- Salt to taste
- Put either the prepared fresh tomatoes or the canned in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until it is thickened to your liking and the fat floats free from the tomato.
- Stir from time to time, mashing up any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon.
- Taste and correct for salt. Discard the onion before tossing with pasta. Serve with freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for the table.
Making Fresh Tomatoes Ready for Sauce:- fresh, ripe plum tomatoes (or other varieties, if they are equally ripe and truly fruity, not watery)
- The blanching method: Plunge the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute or less. Drain them and, as soon as they are cool enough to handle, skin them, and cut them into coarse pieces.
- The freezing method (from David Tanis, via The Kitchn): Freeze tomatoes on a baking sheet until hard. Thaw again, either on the counter or under running water. Skin them and cut them into coarse pieces.
- The food mill method: Wash the tomatoes in cold water, cut them lengthwise in half, and put them in a covered saucepan. Turn on the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes. Set a food mill fitted with the disk with the largest holes over a bowl. Transfer the tomatoes with any of their juices to the mill and puree.
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Usually for red sauce I literally just take a can of San Marzano tomatoes and blend it up or squish it with my hands if I want it chunky. For me it's all about simplicity and allowing the other toppings to have a palate to shine on. I'll also might just open a can of tomatillos sauce and use that if i'm going to top it with Chorizo or something vaguely Mexican. Just keep trying things and report back
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Another recipe to add the list:
1 can crushed San Marzano tomatoes
1 can we plumb tomatoes (crush them up in blender or immersion blender not to the point where is completely liquid but a bit more than the crushed San Marzano).
Boil the sauce for 10 minutes and shut the gas. Then add your oil, pressed garlic, spices etc. stir and just let it sit. The heat will let the oil and spices permeate the sauce, I just did this for Super Bowl and it was great. I have also tried "raw" tomato sauce as it does cook in the oven however with the outdoor wood oven the pizza are done in less than 2 minutes so sauce unless sparse or watery doesn't cook as much as I would like.Comment
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take a sauce pan and heat 2-3Tbs of oliv oil over medium heat. Add 2 cloves minced garlic and salt (i always sprinkle my garlic cloves with kosher salt after smashing and skinning) and cook until lightly browned. Take a can or san marizano (hope I spelled that right) tomatoes and crush by hand. add the tomatoes, they will slpatter so be ready. add about a teaspoon and a half of oregano, and two sprigs of fresh basil. Then add in a healthy pinch of crushed red pepper. If making NY style pizza add a pinch of sugar, if making Chicago or Detroit style pizza, leave it out. skin one roma tomato and dice well. Add about a 1/2 tsp of fresh cracked pepper. cook over high simmer for about30-45 minutes until desired consistency.Comment
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