Friday, November 02, 2007

2 Minute Sauce, $5.64 Pizza

Last night I made a really fast tomato sauce for some homemade pizzas I was making for dinner with guests. First off...the homemade pizzas are so affordable...just a little time and effort and you have yourself some really great pizza!!! We inhaled two large pizzas, four people...for what was less than $12 total!

Cost of one pizza:
Dough: $1.49
Bell Pepper: $.50 (1/4 pepper)
Onion: $.50 (1/4 onion)
Cheese: $2.50
Tomato Sauce: $.25 (1 can)
Tomato Paste: $.15 (1/4 can)
Herbs/Spices: $.25 (shakes and pinches)
Total: $5.64




And the 2 Minute Sauce (enough for two large pizzas, with extra)

1 TB olive oil--add to a sauce pan over high heat. Drop in 1/2 a can of tomato paste. Squish around to get the oil blended in; two things, the paste will carmelize a little in the heat, and two the oil will loosen the paste a bit, making it a little easier to blend in. Pour in two small, 8 oz can of plain tomato sauce. Stir to incorporate. Add some herbs and spices ("Italian Seasoning", garlic powder-little pinch, onion powder-little pinch, plenty of salt & pepper). Simmer over low heat for two minutes--or longer if you want. Taste and adjust seasoning. Done. The sauce was great on the pizza and was even used for dipping the crust! A very nice, quick sauce. I think the important thing here is the salt. Taste as you go, but if you think you are about to add too much salt, it will probably be enough. Salt will enhance the flavors! If you don't use enough the sauce can taste bland; and you taste as you go so you sauce doesn't taste like a salt lick. I suspect I used at least a full teaspoon for this amount of sauce--which is a lot. I wanted to balance the sweetness of the tomatoes.


I'm sort of a traditionalist when it comes to pizza. I like cheese, pepperoni or sausage, sauce and maybe some onions and green peppers...that's about it. I'll eat other pizzas, but this is comfort pizza to me.

3 comments:

Dancer in DC said...

Cheap and delicious? What's not to love???

Anonymous said...

Freakin' loved these pizzas! I should have stopped after two slices but just could not, ended up having four which is half a freakin' pizza! So simple and so delicious and so much better than frozen or delivery.

Mia said...

Yum! I'm totally making this instead of ordering delivery on Sunday!