That's Amore!

Hello blog world people! It has been a LOOOONNNGGG time since last post.  Things have been busy....and lazy all at the same time so cooking has definitely not been something that I've been doing.  Well, not cooking anything new at least that's worth posting.  Through this blog I've found that after so many recipes, you start to run out.  Not so much run out of different things to make, but different things to make that I really want to eat and put the effort into.  However, for Super Bowl sunday I made some pizza rolls that involved also making my own sauce.  Since there was so much sauce leftover, I thought it would be a great idea to make some pizzas! Things got a little out of control....

I didn't take any pics of the sauce b/c I didn't really think about it.  I was in a little bit of a hurry and just threw it together.  I'll still share the process though in case you ever want to make pizza sauce from scratch.  The ingredients were:

olive oil

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

16 oz tomato sauce

6 oz tomato paste

5 tbsp parmesan cheese (I used shredded but you can use any..it just melts anyway)

2 tsp dried basil

2 tsp dried oregano

a big pinch of salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp pepper

3 bay leaves

2 tsp fennel

This process is pretty easy.  Pour some olive oil into a pot and let it heat up.  Once it's hot, add the garlic and onion and cook them for a bit until they smell yummy.  Then you basically just dump everything else into the pot and stir it together.  Once it comes to a boil, turn it down and let it simmer, the longer the better.  Mine cooked for about 2 hours.  This sauce does become pretty thick so it may not be for everyone but I liked it. 

Onto the pizza! I decided to make 2 different kinds.  One was the "healthier" one of fresh mozzarella, san marzano tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  I bought my crust and just used thin crust Pillsbury.  My layers were: sauce, a little shredded cheese, mozz, tomatoes, chopped fresh basil, salt, pepper, olive oil.  Final out of the oven version looked like this...

The 2nd pizza was what my friend Whitney has started calling the "Christe Pizza."  I started eating my pizzas like this about a year ago and apparently lots of people like the mixture.  I meant to add onions to this one but forgot until after the pizzas were done :( This pizza includes: pepperoni, mushrooms, sausage, and banana peppers.  I layered sauce, shredded cheese, and then the rest of the toppings.  I put the pepperonis and mushrooms down first, followed by a small layer of cheese again, then sausage and banana peppers, with another small layer of cheese...just to hold everything in place.  The sausage I used was mild Italian.  This was made on Pillsbury classic crust.  Final product:

I wish you could see the size of these things.  I get that they're in a 1/4 baking sheet so they're not HUGE looking in length or size, but I'm pretty sure each of these weighed at least 5-8 pounds each.  It was pretty intense.  They both ended up being about 3 inches in height and looked more like deep dish pizzas than "thin crust."  These pictures really do them no justice. 

These pizzas were great and it's amazing how much less money you spend when you make them at home!! We love our favorite pizza place so it's not like we will stop ordering out but both of these pizzas were made for the cost of less than 1...or less than 2 from some place like Dominos.  If you have the time, I would definitely suggest trying to make your own pizzas!