Making your own pizza sauce will always get you a tastier pie than if just using the jarred stuff. I like the control making your own sauce gives you – you can make it as sweet, as spicy, as basily as you want. I used Let’s Start Simple’s basic recipe, though changed a few things as I went along. The end result was a sweet sauce with a tang of balsamic vinegar, the subtle sweetness of maple syrup and a bit of heat from some dried chilli peppers. It was great on the vegetarian pizza, and it went really well with the salty olives. Any leftover sauce can be kept in the fridge for a later pizza, or can be used as a marinara dipping sauce. I enjoyed dolloping sauce along the crust of my pizza after it was baked. Can never get too much sauce!

As for the pizza I made, I went with a premade crust, as we had gotten it for free. I sautéed some mushrooms and onions in butter to get some of the moisture out and to caramelize the onions a bit. Then, like with any pizza, I spread on the sauce, topped generously with shredded mozzarella, some chunks of black olives and a few basil leaves. Bake and enjoy!

Spicy Sweet Pizza Sauce
adapted from Let’s Start Simple

1/2 cup of tomato concentrate
1/2 cup of water
2 cups diced tomatoes (I used fresh tomatoes, but you can use a 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes)
1/4 cup of chopped fresh basil
3 tbsp. of olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp. of maple syrup
1 tsp. of balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup of wine ( I used white, but you can also use red)
Dried chilli peppers, ground (to taste)
salt & pepper (to taste)

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan and add chopped onions. Sauté for about 5 minutes, add garlic and continue to sauté until fragrant.

2. Deglaze pan with balsamic vinegar and wine and add the remaining ingredients. Turn heat to medium-low and simmer for about 1 hour.

3. Puree sauce in batches and return to saucepan. Continue to simmer until the sauce is at your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper and chilli peppers

I’m a little bit late with this month’s Daring Baker’s challenge, but better late than never!

This month’s challenge was pizza dough, chosen by Rosa from Rosa’s Yummy Yums, and I was really excited when I heard about it. In case it isn’t obvious by the several pizza posts on this site, we like pizza, and up until now, have been purchasing premade dough (with one failed attempt at making our own dough).

I made this dough with whole wheat bread flour, and it turned out well! I rolled it out pretty thin, so the end result was crispy, but with a nice doughiness in the middle. Making the dough itself was really easy, even though I had to add way more water than the recipe recommended. Perhaps it was because it was whole wheat flour?

Because of a lack of time, I was pretty simple with my pizza topping. Soli had made a some pizza sauce a few days before (couldn’t tell you what he stuck in there!), so I used that, and made the usual cheese pizza, with healthy blend of mozzarella and cheddar. On half the pie, I also used some veggie salami slices (which I wouldn’t use again, as they were far too strong-tasting).

This dough recipe is easy, fast, and cheap – I can’t wait to make it again, and I’ll always be sure to have a few balls of this dough in my freezer for pizza nights (and get a bit more creative with my sauces and toppings!)

Basic Pizza Dough
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.
Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar – FOR GF use agave syrup
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE

1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.
The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.

NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil (a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time.

During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping.
In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.
You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter – for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.

NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.

If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

Hm. Easy recipe; first you take the sauce and you put it on the dough.

That is how the recipe for Poutine Pizza was described to me and that is how I’ll describe this. I think this recipe is ridiculous – I love it, actually…

First, dice and soften an onion in a high heat pan with some butter, take some leftover rotisserie chicken, fry it in a dab more butter for 3 – 5 minutes, throw in a tomato and some garlic, 5 more minutes, the add a can for baked beans. Reduce to a “sauce”… :/

Blind bake your olive oil brushed pizza dough as this pie is a bit of a weight-er.

Spread the sauce, add the cheese, some dried oregano, and done.

The chewy crust and meaty chicken blend perfectly
with the chewy cheese and meaty beans!

What to say… it’s rare a city gets to say it is the best at something, but when it can, its residents become an enviable demographic. Montreal gets two such honors – bagels and smoked meat. I was vegetarian for a long time – barely a flexetarian these days, but even in my most equanimous moments of lightest step, I knew I’d still grab a Schwartz’s or Reuben’s sandwich when presented with the opportunity. Just too good!

Now, sandwich aside, my favorite thing to do in bring a steaming heaping pound of this stuff home and – make pie (or poutine, remember poutine = pizza, but another post)! It all starts with a hop down the street to 3895 St-Laurent, where you’ll find Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen. You’ll know you’re there when you see the lineup. There’s always a lineup – always.

But chin-up, most of the queue is filled with those who wish to be crammed into a small chair at a shared table in bright noisy diner. A great time, but not this day – this day I get to wait in the shorter & faster takeout line, and I mean wait… you know the Soup Nazi? This is close… stay small and quiet and say thank you! And tip!! Oddly, I’ve ask for a pound every time, but always get a little more. It ain’t free, but somehow, I still appreciate it.

This meat, in a medium fat, is unlike anything you’ve seen. Keep the bag closed! Run home! No nibbling! This pound of meat is not a bag of chips! Go home!

Pizza dough – not my thing, yet, so on my way home, I buy some dough from some bakery (cooked or uncooked, it’s $1.00, so it’s hard to argue).

Pizza Sauce
1 pound/can tomatoes – crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ pound mushrooms
1 onion
1 bud roasted garlic
1 bunch basil – fresh
2 – 3 anchovies
5 – 10 grates of Parmesan cheese
pinch salt & pepper & dried basil

Start the garlic roasting (tightly wrapped in foil and roast at 350C for 30 minutes). If using fresh tomatoes, blanch, peel, and crush your tomatoes. If using a canned tomatoes, just crush and look for peels or any hard bits. Peel and diced your onion, smaller the better; same with the mushrooms. In a hot pan, add your oil, onions, salt, pepper, and dry basil. Get a bit of color in the onion – golden hue – then add the mushrooms. When it’s ready add the garlic and toss; add the tomatoes. Let this cook for 30 – 45 minutes. You want a nice dry sauce. Tomato paste is often used to help achieve the right consistency. I like fresh or canned tomatoes. In the last 5 – 10 minutes add the remaining ingredients: julienned basil (save some basil for later); minced anchovies and a bit of anchovy oil; Parmesan.

Roll your dough or whatever has to happen and brush with olive oil, front and back, and pre-toast. All we have to do later is melt cheese, so it’s nice to get a crispy chewy head start on the dough. The oil starts to fry while baking the dough and that’s a good time. Pull the early golden dough out and add your sauce. I gotta say, this is good to eat just like this, so this next step in mind blowing: open the bag; add the meat, reserving the bestest slices for, um, garnish.

Grate the best mozzarella you can find and toss with the remaining julienned basil and some dried oregano. Place the cheese on you pizza and bake at 350C for 10 – 20 minutes. As stated before, we are melting cheese, so keep an eye on it. Let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing in – use a graceful hand; there’ s a lot of meat here. Add the, um, garnish, and…

To describe the taste: the fats are like a fleshy butter, bedded in sun-wind scarred fields; earthy; sweet and rich; rooted in sacrifice; blatant submissive independence. Uff… it is like a poem.

Schwartz’s Smoked Meat – Pizza – Part 2 – Breakfast

This pie – it takes 3 – 6 people to eat it, and leftovers are often a given, so… wake up, take your last slice(s) and heat in an oven at 250C for a short time (starting with a room temperature slice is better).

Fry eggs. Place eggs. Share. Go back to bed.