Monday, June 15, 2009

Home-Made Chunky Pizza Sauce



Pizza is basically made of the shell, the sauce, the toppings and the cheese. In order to create a truly delicious pizza you owe to have a really good sauce, the second component which provides the foundation on how your pizza would taste. While you can always buy a readymade pizza sauce from the groceries and supermarkets, you won’t really be satisfied with your pizza creation knowing you just purchased one of the main components.

So liberate yourself from that feeling of incomplete fulfillment, take the next level and make your own pizza sauce. It’s easy, rewarding and fun. As promised in my Chicken Sausage Pizza post, I will show you how I do mine… c“,)

So let’s now re-create the home-made chunky pizza sauce I used in my pizza post earlier. This is basically an adapted Italian Marinara Sauce with some twists to make it particularly special for pizza. The difference from other pizza sauces is in the tomato. I preferred the tomato chunky by just chopping rather than smooth by mixing in a blender.

The main ingredient is of course real fresh plum tomatoes, about 1 kilo. Properly washed in running water then boiled for several minutes until it can be easily peeled.



Drained the peeled tomato and then chopped into gorgeous chunky pieces. Set aside.





For other ingredients you will need 2 tbsp vegetable oil (you can use olive oil if you have), 2 tbsp garlic, peeled and minced, 1 large onion, minced, 1 pc green or red bell pepper (or combination), minced, ½ cup grated carrots, ½ tbsp chicken broth powder, 1 cup sweet tomato sauce or Filipino banana catsup, ½ tsp dried oregano and ½ tsp dried basil leaves. To make it even special you can also put ½ cup mushroom, minced and 2 stalks celery, minced, I just don’t have at the moment so I omitted them in this preparation.



Heat oil in a thick large casserole and sauté garlic until slightly browned then add the onion. Add the other ingredients one at time, first your bell pepper, then grated carrots, mushroom and celery (if you are using) and continue sautéing. Then add your chicken powder.





Then add the chopped tomato and simmer in really low heat. Be careful not to burn the bottom by mixing from time to time. When the watery liquid has evaporated pour your sweet tomato sauce, mixed properly and continue simmering. I am using a Sri Lankan tomato sauce which is similar to Philippines sweet banana catsup that’s why I don’t used sugar anymore. Otherwise you might want to add some sugar at this point.


Add the oregano and basil and let it simmer for 2 more minutes. Taste and adjust to your sweetness preference. Add salt if you think necessary but I usually don’t.

When you’re satisfied with the taste, turn off the heat and let it cool.
That’s it, easy right? Others include cheese, tomato paste and some other herds such as rosemary in their recipes. That would be fine too, but for me this chunky sauce is good enough. Enjoy.

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