Hey everybody! I hope y’all are getting to enjoy every last drop of summer 2014! Over the past month, my little tomato garden has exploded into a rainbow of various shades of red, orange, yellow and pink. I have had more tomatoes than I know what to do with and have went what I have deemed as “tomato crazy.” Since one of my all time favorite things to eat is marinara sauce, I decided to give it a whirl with my own tomatoes, and I must say it turned out beautifully. And what better way to enjoy this delicious concoction than on everyone’s favorite food–PIZZA?! I have been making my own pizza dough for awhile now and had a lot of toppings in the fridge, so I threw it all together and it was amazing. After posting a pic on Instagram and Facebook I got a lot of people asking me how to make it. It is a little more detailed than just calling Domino’s so I’m here to guide everyone through the entire process, step by step. Hopefully I won’t leave anything out!
Ok, first and most importantly, you need to set the mood. Slip into something comfy and flip on the Frank Sinatra station on Pandora.
Seriously. I have made this pizza and sauce twice now, and this time, after serenading my sauce with Sinatra, it turned out better. You also are gonna want to have a nice clean workspace, with plenty of elbow room and a sinkful of soapy dishwater to make cleanup easier. I also like to keep a large “trash” bowl handy for the same reason. Instead of making a million trips to the trash can, you can just chuck everything in there and dump it at the very end.
Go ahead and preheat your oven to 400.
While your oven is heating, we’re gonna start the process of prepping your tomatoes for roasting. Gather all your ripest, reddest tomatoes. For aesthetic purposes only, you want to use red tomatoes. I know a lot of people prefer romas for making sauce, however, as you can see, I have used a mixture of better boys, heirlooms and cherry tomatoes and it turned out just as good. I used quite a bit of tomatoes, as they varied in size. But I would say if you are using standard medium sized tomatoes, you would want to use around 6 or 7.
Also, at this point you want to go ahead and get your water pots going. We’re going to blanch the tomatoes in order to peel the skin quickly and easily. Blanching simply means dunking your tomatoes in boiling water, then ice water. So go ahead and fill one pot with water and turn it on HIGH so it can start to heat to a boil. You will also fill another pot with heavily iced water and set it beside it on the stove, but obviously not on any heat.
Ok, while we’re waiting on that to boil, (remember, a watched pot never does) we can start prepping the tomatoes. Using a small paring knife, you want to remove the core from one end and make a small, shallow “x” in the other end.
You should also take this opportunity to taste test. YUM!
Back to the recipe!
So once you have that all finished, your water should be boiling and it’s time for your little maters to take a bath.
Using a slotted spoon, gently drop your tomatoes, a few at a time, into the boiling water for about 30 seconds, altering time depending on size.
Pull the tomatoes out and immediately immerse them in the ice water pot for about 30 seconds.
A perfectly blanched tomato should have skin that is wrinkling off the flesh.
Go ahead and continue this process for all your tomatoes. When you’re finished, don’t dump your hot tomato water! You can turn it off, but don’t pour it out. We can use that water later on to thin out your sauce if it is too thick.
Ok so go ahead and start peeling your tomatoes. When done correctly, it should take no effort to gently pull the skin off the flesh.
When you have all them finished, go ahead and quarter them up into large pieces, around an inch in size, and spread them on a foil lined cookie sheet.
Next comes the onion. I always wait until I see how much tomato I actually use to determine the amount of onions and garlic. This is also a matter of taste. I wanted “roasted onion and garlic parmesan” sauce. If you don’t like those flavors, don’t add them. I personally used a whole medium yellow onion, diced it, and spread it around the tomatoes on the pan.
Next comes my FAVORITE PART!! GARLIC!! I used a TON of garlic cloves of various sizes, but I would say maybe 7 normal sized cloves? 8? It’s a matter of taste. So then you chop those in halves or quarters depending on size and, stay with me here, it’s about to get wild, shove them INSIDE the tomato pieces!
This serves 2 purposes–1.) it will keep your garlic from burning in the oven and 2.) it infuses your tomatoes with yummy garlic goodness.
So after you’ve planted your little garlics into the tomatoes, you’re ready to oil and spice. I don’t measure spices, sorry. I liberally applied sea salt, black pepper and italian seasoning over everything, then drizzled it all with olive oil. You can definitely at this point use fresh oregano and basil and I’m sure it would make it even better, but since all I had on hand was the dried spice, I made do, and it still turned out great.
Time for the oven. You wanna roast this for about 30-40 minutes in that 400 degree oven. Keep an eye on your pan and make sure your tomatoes don’t get too done because they will shrivel, and make sure your onions don’t scorch. It’s just perfect when your onions are browned. Pull it out and let it cool for about 10 minutes until you’re able to comfortably touch it. This is where a food processor is so handy. It’s no secret I’m obsessed with my Ninja. I just dumped everything from the pan into it, added some more of the above spices to taste, plus about 1/8th cup of parmesan cheese and pulsed for a few seconds and Voila! You could probably also use a hand mixer.
When everything is a nice even consistency, just pour it into a pan and let it simmer on low, covered but not sealed, so that steam can escape but the spatter can’t. REMEMBER, ON LOW! VERY LOW! The last thing you want to do is scorch the bottom of your sauce and give a burned taste to all the hard work you’ve put in there. This also is the time to utilize that tomato water from earlier if your sauce is a little thick. Mine tends to turn out thin initially so I didn’t need the water, but you never can tell. I let mine simmer for about an hour under a watchful eye and stirring consistently until it had reduced to a nice thick sauce.
At this point I would let your sauce cool, then put it in an airtight container or mason jar and let it infuse in the fridge at least overnight. With fresh made things like sauces and salsas, the longer the flavors have to marry, the better it is going to taste.
So now let’s talk about the dough.
Your sauce has been chillin’ for a day or so, and now you REALLY want this flippin pizza. It’s time to start from the bread up. I make a very simple, healthy dough using greek yogurt and whole wheat flour. You can make this ahead of time as well and freeze it, or right before. But beware–the consistency of this dough is EVERYTHING. It is going to make or break your pizza. Too wet and it’s going to be too doughy, too dry and you can’t work with it. Go ahead and preheat your oven to 425. Get out your ingredients, it’s gonna get messy.
nonstick
whole wheat flour
plain greek yogurt
1Cup measuring cup
garlic powder
salt
pepper
italian seasoning
rosemary
Again, I use my ninja for everything, so I sprayed the inside of it liberally with nonstick, but if you’re going to do this by hand, spray the inside of a large bowl. Then you just add 1 Cup of plain greek yogurt, and 1 Cup of whole wheat flour, then add your spices to taste. (again, I don’t measure so….sorry.) At this point I just threw on my lid, and pulsed until I got the right consistency. If you’re kneading by hand, know this will take a lot of working. You may have to add more flour or more yogurt, depending on the day. Also, make sure you spray your hands with nonstick before you start physically touching the dough. Trust me, you’ll thank me for that tip. The perfect dough consistency is pliable and easy to spread without tearing or sticking to everything it touches.
Sprinkle your work space with more flour before getting your dough out to work it. Roll it in a bit more flour, then start folding the dough into itself until it forms a nice smooth ball, and spray the top with nonstick.
Now you want to put your dough ball in the middle of a pizza pan that has been coated with nonstick. I really like the aerated pans, but if all you have is a cookie sheet, that will work too. Start in the middle and just work your dough out with your fingers to the edges of the pan, until it’s all the same thickness and uniform in shape. This amount of dough will make a medium sized 12″ pizza.
Then it’s time to add that delicious sauce from yesterday. (By the way, that amount of tomatoes should have made 1 rather large jar of sauce, so you should have enough for like at least 3 medium sized pizzas.) The amount of sauce you add is all a matter of taste, but since I love marinara I like to put a lot.
Then a LITTLE bit of cheese, to give your toppings something to stick to.
Now it’s time for toppings. I made a deluxe of sorts, with things I had in the fridge already. But put whatever you want! I used pepperoni, bacon, banana peppers, onions and spinach.
finally top it off with lots of cheese and it’s ready for your 425 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. 
Your pizza is done when the edges are crispy and your cheese is starting to brown.
And that’s it. Time to enjoy!!
I know this seems like a ton of work for one pizza. why go through all that trouble when you could just order one from Pizza Hut and have it to your house in 45 minutes? Well, I try to be aware of where everything comes from that is going into my body and it really doesn’t get any healthier than this when it comes to pizza. You can’t beat the taste of homemade either. And if you spend one day making a large batch of sauce, enough for several jars, then you have it on hand and can throw it on pizza or pasta for a quick and easy dinner later. Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail, so making dishes ahead of time can really turn into a lifesaver when you’re trying to live a healthy lifestyle. I hope this “healthy” cheat meal is as delicious for you as it was for me. Bon apetit!
Appalachian Barbie 