my, my, my, my Marinara

I really like this sauce.  It’s chunky though so if large tomato chunks aren’t your cup of tea just use crushed tomatoes.  I use this on pizza and pasta and whatever else floats my boat.

28oz crushed tomatoes
28oz diced tomatoes (partially drained depending on how liquidy you want the sauce)
1 medium onion, diced
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
mushrooms, sliced (optional)
bell pepper, diced (optional)
Olive oil to saute the veggies, I use less than 1 T
1 T sugar
1 T italian seasonings
red pepper flakes (optional)
smidge of salt
pinch of black pepper
sometimes I put some red wine in the sauce too

Sauté the onions and bell pepper (if using) over medium until they are soft.  Add garlic and mushrooms and continue cooking for about 5 minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients, reduced heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or so.

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my Lunch

I’m giving you the pre-eaten version, in case you were concerned.  I decided to try to make these: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/03/colcannon-puffs.html.  I subbed spinach for kale as that’s what I had in the ole kitch, and decided some grilled eggplant would be lovely (I <3 eggplant).  Not so bad.  I would recommend making the potato puffs not so puffy and more pancakey, and also fry them versus baking as I think they will end up crunchier.  I then topped it with my marinara sauce.

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Pizza: the thorn in my side

So I started trying to make pizza from scratch about a year and 1/2 ago.  It’s been a battle ever since.  If anyone has any ideas for continual success at getting the yeast to foam, please pass it on.  It doesn’t seem to matter what I do or how exact I get the temperature of the water, it never foams.  Except for this one time.  The only time the yeast has ever foamed for me ended up in the best pizza I have ever made.  It’s topped with roma tomatos, zucchini, grilled eggplant, and mushrooms.

the dough:

1 C hot water (110 – 115 degrees)
2 – 3 tsp yeast
1 T sugar
1 ½ C wheat flour (or 1 C wheat and…)
1 ½ C unbleached AP flour (… 2 C all purpose)
¼ C olive oil (or grape seed oil works well if you have a store of it in the cupboard)
1 T Italian seasonings
½ – 1 T garlic powder
2 tsp salt
Red pepper flakes (optional)

Mix yeast with 1 cup hot water and 1 T sugar and let sit for 10 minutes. This is where the yeast is supposed to foam, let me know if you succeed. Mix the rest of the ingredients, sans the oil, in a food processor if you have one, else just a large bowl. Once the yeast mixture is ready add the oil to it. If you’re using a processor, turn it on and slowly pour in the yeast mixture; once all of the mixture is in it takes about a minute for it to be kneaded. If you are mixing by hand, pour some of the yeast mixture in and mix. Repeat this until everything is combined. If you are doing this by hand, you’ll need to knead the dough for about 15 minutes. Once kneaded, form the dough into a ball, put some olive oil all over it and set it in a large bowl covered with plastic wrap and a towel for about 2 hours. You can prepare your pizzas at this point or put it in a plastic bag and throw is in the fridge. I usually get 2 med – large pizzas from this.

the sauce:

If you don’t want to use a premade sauce, this is typically pretty tasty: http://parsnipsandsprockets.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/my-my-my-my-marinara/

Baking it: If you have a pizza stone, bake the pizza on it at 475 – 500 degrees for about 10 minutes.  If you don’t have one because it broke in half like mine did and you’re too cheap to buy another one just use a baking sheet with the holes throughout it.  It usually takes about 10 – 15 minutes at 475 on the bottom rack.  Cut and enjoy!

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