pureeing the tomatoes

Cartoonist suggested that we puree the tomato sauce, so once I removed the skins, I turned it over to her. She worked hard at it, until it was more liquid then solid, and then she turned her attention to the mozzarella. I regret that I did not make that. Next time, perhaps, but I bought some which was as simple as possible, and tasted fresh, like the kind I’ve bought at the farmer’s market.

Polenta crust

I decided to avoid a wheat crust, so found a crust made from polenta, in the Moosewood Cookbook. It was for a Polenta pie, which they classified as being a deep-dish pizza, so I thought, what the heck, I would give it a try. The polenta was made in what I presume was the usual way, which was to mix it with cold water, and then to boil it on the stove. Once it was cooked, and had cooled off, I laid it out on a cookie sheet, and put it in the oven for 45 minutes. at 375F. I think when I do this again, I would bake it a little longer, or make it a little less thick, as it didn’t cook down all the way.

Finished polenta pizza

After 45 minutes, I took it out, spread out the tomato sauce and then added the motzerlla cheese. The recipe called for it to be put under the broiler, and though I knew that was going to be a bad idea, I did so. I waited close to the over, and smelled that smell that so often comes from the broiler, burning something. I took the pie out, and it had only burned a little.

Cartoonist said it was good anyway, and I agreed. We will make it again. I really loved the taste of the tomato sauce, something I don’t think I usually say about pizza, which I really don’t usually like.

I paused on that thought, and she had the same thought at the same time. “We need to make that from scratch too.” she said.

So, where to start. I found a good gluten-free recipe for the crust, and then we started talking about what you put on a pizza.

Tomato sauce came up, along with cheese. The cheese, I am not ready to make yet. I am only just getting the hang of making yogurt, of which I need to make more of, by the way, but the tomato sauce, I knew I could make. The first thing I needed to do was to find a recipe for stewing tomatoes, since that is one of the main ingredients in the sauce. I have fond memories of made from scratch tomato sausce, that would take several hours to make. It was so good, and my mother very rarely had the time. It was a recipe from my paternal grandmother, and I don’t think she ever wrote it down, and it was such a pain for my mother to do, that we only had it a few times, but oh, was it good.

I went to my Italian recipe book, but all it said was to open a can of stewed tomatoes, as did most of the recipes in most of the books I had. Next, I hit the internet, and after much searching found a crock-pot version of the sauce. It was in about.com, and here it is, which what we changed:

• 6 to 8 ripe tomatoes (we did 7)
• 2 tablespoons margarine (we used butter)
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced (well, I sliced it, not sure how thin it was)
• 3/4 cup chopped celery (didn’t have, so left out)
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper (had a red one, so chopped that up)
• 3 tablespoons of sugar, more or less (so I did about 3 tablespoons of sugar, raw sugar)
• 1 small bay leaf (bay leaves were old, so added two)
• 1 teaspoon of salt (sprinkled a pinch)
• 1/8 teaspoon of pepper (ground a few turns)

Tomatoes in Crock pot

The recipe said to core the tomatoes, place in boiling water, for 20 seconds then in ice water to get the peel off. We decided we didn’t mind the peel, so skipped that step.  After that, it said to put everything in the crock pot and cook for 8 hours, and that is what it is doing right now. It smells so good, no exactly the way I remember it smelling, but good, none the less. Hopefully this part will not fail, and we can move on from there to the next step, the pizza dough, which we shall make tomorrow.