Scratched pizzas

As I mentioned, I was blessed with a lot of awesome cooking gear this Christmas. I was so eager to put it to use. So I made pizza which allowed me to use my Kitchen Aid, food processor, and my new pizza stone! While some of you may be cringing at the amount of work this sounds like, I loved being a little kitchenella. 


Originally I meant the title of this post to be about pizzas completely from scratch! Now the title "scratched pizzas" is a bit fitting. They didn't turn out too stellar. I'm going to come out and say that pizza dough is fricken hard to get right! I'll be searching for the perfect pizza dough over the next few months--when I find it I promise to share. But for now I am withholding the recipe I used because I was not satisfied with the way it turned out. Flavor was fine; consistency left a lot to be desired. But there was a great part of the pizza...THE SAUCE!!


The pizza was a basil, mushroom, meat 'n cheese. The red sauce was amazing... here's the recipe:

Pizza Sauce from The Edible Perspective:

• 28oz can whole peeled tomatoes, drained + chopped [saving the liquid in a bowl] 
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 2T olive oil
• 1/4-1/2t salt
• pepper to taste
• 1T sugar [I used sucanat]
• 3T tomato paste
• 2t dried oregano
• 2t dried basil
• 1t dried thyme
• ~1/4c tomato liquid

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot, just over medium heat.
2. Add in the chopped tomatoes, being extremely careful from the oil splashing.  Do not just plop them in!  Use a ladle to lower them into the pot.
3. Let cook for ~5min.
4. Add in seasonings, tomato paste, and 1/4c tomato liquid.
5. Reduce heat to simmer for about 20-30min, stirring every 5min or so.
6. Take off heat and leave chunky, puree with hand blender, or throw in a blender or food processor until desired consistency is reached.

I like the sauce pretty thick so I omitted a lot of the liquid and blended it in my food processor.  However, if it’s too thick, then out with more tomato juice and also season more according to your taste.  The flavors will enhance even more the next day.