Homemade Pizza Sauce

Our family has committed to never ordering a pizza again.  In fact, we want to make as much of our pizza as possible.  So, today, we tried to make our own pizza sauce!  It was fabulous.  Way cheaper than buying a jar and it mixes up in a snap.  It may be even faster than trying to open one of those stubborn jars.  So here you go:

1 can tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
1 1/2 tbsp italian seasoning
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp paprika
1 tablespoon garlic (we used the kind you get in a big jar from Sam's club.  It helps to have a lot of the juice with this recipe).

Mix it all together.  We used an immersion blender to make sure we got the paste blended in well.  But you could do it with some patience and a spoon as well. 

Yield is enough sauce for 4 pizzas.  Its also way cheaper than a jar of sauce.  From my calculations, this recipe costs less than $1.50 and a can of good sauce costs around $2.50.  And you can really only get two pizzas out of a jar of sauce.  So, instead of spending $1.25 per pizza for sauce, you're only spending about 36 cents. 

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Bread

My friend Analisa came over last week, and we made bread together. She has a great recipe that is super easy to make. Here it is:

First, make a sponge out of

3 1/2c. Wheat Flour (can also substitute 1/2c. of a grain mix for 1/2c. of this flour)

2 1/2c. Water

4tsp. Yeast

by mixing together the ingredients in your mixer until everything is wet. I remove the paddle after mixing, and throw a tea towel over the bowl.

Wait at least 20 minutes, but as long as 12 HOURS!! When you have a two-hour block of time that you know you'll be around for, finish making the dough by adding

4Tbsp. Butter (softened is best)

1tsp. salt (unless you use salted butter, then you leave this out)

1/4c. Plain Yogurt

1/4c. Honey

2 1/2c. Bread Flour, more or less (start with 2c.)

to the sponge. Use a dough hook to mix it together, and add remaining 1/2c. of flour a little at a time, until the dough pulls away from the bowl and is no longer sticky. You'll probably knead it for around 5 minutes, scraping the bowl down after additions, if necessary.

Next, spray two loaf pans with cooking spray. Flour your counter. Divide your dough into two. Roll the dough out as wide as the length of the pan, and as long as you can easily get it. Roll it up tightly, and stick it in the bread pan. Let rise until you get a nice crown, which should take around an hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Cool on a rack until you can't stand to wait any longer, and enjoy!