The dog days of summer has brought lots of tomatoes. Even though this years stink bug infestation tried to destroy my crop, the tomatoes keep coming. One of our favorite summertime activities is to host a summertime make-your-own-pizza night for our daughter Kat and her friends. I make the dough ahead of time and a table full of toppings-many are from the garden. And of course the favored pizza sauce was Mamma Maskeroni's homemade marinara. Interestingly, I put out store-bought as well. The home-made was definitely preferred.
Everyone enjoyed making their own personal pizza. I was pleasantly surprised on the level of creativity these young pizza chefs showed.Watch out Food Network!!!
So what's in that sauce? Well here is the recipe.Remove the skin of 24 plum tomatoes. (An easy way to do this is to cut an x at the bottom of each tomato and place it in boiling water for one minute. Remove it to ice water bath. The skin then is easy to peal off. ) Get most of the seeds out. Place tomatoes in pot. Smash them with an old fashion potato masher or fork. Bring to boil and then turn to simmer. Add one onion chopped and sauteed. Add 3-4 cloves chopped and sauteed garlic. Add 1 -2 teaspoon oregano, 1 teaspoon celery salt, and 1 teaspoon brown sugar (if you need it). Simmer 1 hour. You will need to thicked this sauce with 1 small can tomato paste and 1 small can tomato sauce (if needed). Simmer 30 more minutes. Add a sprig of fresh basil towards the end. You can use this recipe for everything from pizza sauce to chicken parm.
Pizza Dough
Dissolve 1 pack dry yeast (I like the new yeast for pizza that Fleischmann's just put out) in 1 1/2 cups warm water and 1 TBSP honey. Add 1 TBSP olive oil. Set aside. In large bowl, combine 1 3/4 all purpose flour with 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 teas salt. Pour water mixture into flour mixture. Stir until soft. Add more water if necessary. Knead 5 minutes. Place in large oiled bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Keep in frig until ready to use. It will be double in size. Punch down right before ready to use. Break off small ball and pull or roll to desired shape on flour surface. I transfer onto pizza paddle, pizza stone or baking sheet BEFORE I add toppings. I also use semolina on bottom of pizza dough for easy transfer.
Top with you favorite toppings and bake in a very hot oven - at least 500 degrees. Bake until cheese is bubbling.
