while only el_diavalo was fortunate enough to get the full tutorial, here is the oft-requested pizza-night sauce recipe! (with many thinks to lexicat for the original recipe!)
ALEX BELEN’S PIZZA SAUCE
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Makes about 12 8-oz servings
(1 pizza usually takes about 8oz – a little more if you like it saucy).
For maximum efficiency, I would package 1 pizza-night’s worth (3 pizzas in our case) in a freezer ziplock and drop in the freezer for weekly defrosting)
Time till done: 2-4 hours
Actual preparation time: 30-60 minutes
Ingredients
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olive oil
1 32 oz can diced tomatos sauce 1 32 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 16 oz can tomato sauce
1 16 oz can tomato puree
(Preferably a high-quality/organic brand for all canned stuff. It doesn’t matter if you use these exact kinds – just think chunky vs. smooth!)
5 medium tomatos
1 large onion
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/2 orange bell pepper
4 heads garlic (yes, you heard me!)
fresh herbs (usually 1 package store-bought each):
rosemary (only use about 3 6″ stems)
thyme
oregano
basil
salt
black pepper
crushed red pepper
brown sugar (or regular sugar)
1 bottle wine
Preparation
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Prep time (chop-chop-chop-alicious 🙂
Coursely chop the onion, bell peppers, & garlic, and put them piles on a plate for later use.
Chop up your fresh herbs and do the same thing. Rosemary can stay on the stem and just be pulled off in bits to use.
I like to take the skins off the tomatos by blanching them. To do this, bring a pot of water to a boil and prepare a large mixing bowl with cold water with ice in it. Submerge a tomato for 30 seconds or so in the boiling water, fish it out with a slotted spoon, and place it in the iced water for about 10 seconds. When you take the tomato out, the skin should peel right off with just your fingernail to start it (sort of like peeling a sunburn 🙂 If it doesn’t peel easily, pop it back in the boiling water for a bit longer.
(For those who want a simpler solution, you can also just cut up the tomatos with the skins still on)
Cut tomatos into big wedges and place in a bowl.
Cooking Time
Place 1/2 of garlic and 1/2 onion and saute in olive oil. Save yourself some cleaning and cook this in the pot you’ll be cooking your sauce in. Be sure to add salt to bring out sweetness in onions.
When onions are starting to get transparent, add chef’s cut tomatoes, the 32 oz can of crushed tomatoes, and the 16 oz can of tomato sauce and reduce to low heat. Add half of each of the fresh herbs, plus 1 teaspoon each of salt, black and crushed red pepper. Add some chopped garlic and onion.
Open the wine. Taste some. Pour 1/4 cup into your sauce and stir. Pour a glass for yourself. Leave for a while and let your ingredients get to know each other. Think of the wine as an ice breaker. There really is a boost for the flavor here, and it’s less about the flavor of the wine than it is about the alcohol. Tomatoes have flavors which are only soluble in ethanol, which a few infusions of wine will bring out. So the wine isn’t especially key. It can be week old wine. It can be vodka (yes, I’ve tried it and it’s good).
Every 30 minutes or so go check in. Throw in some more chopped stuff. Add more herbs & spices. Pour another libation of wine. You’re not trying to get to the end flavor yet; save that till the end. One thing you are trying to do is have a continuous range of herb, garlic, pepper and onion intensities in the dish. About halfway through add the diced tomatoes and tomato puree. Throw in about 1/8 cup brown sugar or regular towards the end.
I usually do 3 check-ins to add stuff, then I add the 2nd round of sauces and do 3 more check-ins – so about 3 hours of simmering in all. You can do this recipe in as little as an hour or as much as 6, adjusting the quantities you add accordingly. Longer simmering usually means more rich flavor.
Eventually the sauce will taste right, and you’ll be done…ALMOST 🙂
My pizza chef is picky and will not use the sauce when its still “chunky”. Once the sauce is done brewing, I bust out the blender or food processor and puree the sauce into a true smooth pizza sauce, storing the pureed stuff in another large pot or pitcher, and then dump it all back in the original pot to simmer a bit more.
I have started altering this recipe for smaller yield and a little less simmer time for a really fabulous spaghetti sauce too (no blender, of course!)
Namaste.