SIMPLE PIZZA AND PASTA SAUCE
This is basically going to be my food journal. I'll review places, post recipes, that kinda deal. If you have suggestions, by all means. If there's a dish you like, but can't find a good recipe for, poke me and I'll give you one. I've got a library of them in my head and I'm good at putting stuff together if I don't have a recipe. I've cooked at a lot of places in a lot of styles of food, from a vegan camp to a pizza joint. This is the result of my learnings from all of them.
First up is a simple one, but something most people don't do right. Not to say that I haven't had some INCREDIBLE renditions of it, but there's a key step everyone seems to miss, that works incredibly with pasta sauces as well. So, ingredients. This makes.... some. I tend to make a LOT of pizza, so I make a bit of a surplus. You can use fresh ingredients, I actually recommend it for the parsley, but this works just as well either way. Remember, tho, that fresh ingredients taste stronger. Post a request and I'll give you the recipe for all fresh herbs.
Ingredients:
2 cans of tomato paste/puree (should be about 10 ounce cans)
the equivalent of 3 cans of water (you want a 1:1 ratio of water to puree, but feel free to experiment with this one. The extra can is to replace what you'll lose in boiling.)
~ 1 tblsp of the following:
- basil
- oregano
- thyme
- parsley
1 tsp crushed red peppers
1 bay leaf
Here is the trick to this. BOIL THE HERBS IN THE WATER FIRST. You'll get a longer simmer, extract WAY more of the flavor, and get the full value out of your bay leaf. Boil the herbs for about a half hour on medium high heat. Pull out the bay leaf, then throw in the puree. mix it up and cook on medium low heat for about 5 minutes to let the flavors blend. If the sauce ends up too thick, add more water. If you're using fresh basil, don't throw that in until you've added the paste. It'll taste nasty otherwise.
This is really easy, and makes a damn good (if simple) marinara, as well. After you make this a few times, feel free to experiment with my ratios. I tend to go with an equal ratio of the green herbs, but cooking is an art, so feel free to warp this to your own tastes.