Shhh.....Peggy's secret Pizza sauce

This weekend I had the pleasure of hanging out with the grandkids, Max and Mimi. Now when you're at grandmas there is always cooking going on. When I have guest or family over I always ask them what would they like for dinner. Well the grandkids are no exception. When I asked them what they wanted for dinner the reply was "we want to make our own Pizza" So we hurried to Maceys, their favorite grocery store and bought the fixings. The cart had mozzarella, pepperoni, mushrooms, olives, tomatoes and basil. You are asking, were is the bottled pizza sauce? Oh, no no no not at the Nelsons we make our own sauce. It's easy, fresh and GOOD! You might think, they are just kids why go through the trouble. Well my grandkids have very sophisticated pallets, they like good food too! for example Mimi, Max and I had a can a sardines and crackers for a snack.

Ok from the picture you can see I have people make their own pizzas in a pie tins. I have a bunch of those cheap Marie Calenders pie tins, At least something good comes out of those pie tins. Heaven know the pies are questionable (my own opinion, I'm a pie maker) So here is what you do. Give every one their own pie tin , have all the fix-ins ready, the sky's the limit. Now have people create their own pizzas. Since you are creating good food. You can have an adult party where you make your own pizzas - which is a lot of fun. People like to be in the kitchen engaged in cooking. Add a good quality salad, some garlic bread and you have a party. So here is the secret pizza sauce and pizza dough recipe. Ok Ok you caught me, I make my own dough too. it's also easy, fresh and good.

Peggy's Pizza Sauce

3 medium tomatoes (about 1 lb)

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 clove of minced garlic

1 Tbs. chopped fresh basil

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup white wine

Pour boiling water over tomatoes to loosen skin, peel and finely chop. Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan. Add tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt and wine. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove lid increase heat to med- high. stirring often as sauce begins to thicken. Reduce sauce to about one cup.

I double this sauce for 1 large pizza or 6-8 individual pizzas. A little sauce goes a long way. I also make this sauce a couple of days ahead, or you can freeze for months.

Pizza Dough

3 cups flour

1 pkg. quick-rise yeast

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups warm water

2 tsp. honey

1 Tbs. olive oil

In the bowl of a stand mixer add 2 1/2 cups flour, yeast and salt. Mix into warm water, honey and olive oil. Mix warm water into flour with dough hook. mix until dough is one ball. Adding flour if needed. Knead for 3-5 minutes with dough hook. Turn into greased bowl and let rise until double in bulk.

So here you go. Of course this all can be made into one large deep dish pizza. This dough will make 1 large or 6 individual pizzas.

Cheers, Peggy