Cath: Pizza

Hi everyone--the pizza was a hit here! We used a dough recipe from one of our Jamie Oliver DVDs which was 500 grams of semolina flour, 500 grams of bread flour, 30 grams of yeast (which seemed like a lot but didn't end up being overly yeasty I thought) and just over a pint of tepid water. The hardest part was kneading it out and I have to admit Rob did most of that--at 8 months prego even a little kneading is too strenuous for me these days! After about 5 minutes of kneading, we scored the top and let it proof for 40 minutes. Then we divided it into two rounds (one for later that we put in the fridge) and rolled it out. I think we could have rolled it out a little thinner to be honest. We actually do have a baking stone (bread is Rob's obsession!) but this ended up being too big for it so we just sprinkled a little semolina on a baking sheet and put it on that. The oven was set to 475 and we baked it for about 10 to 15 minutes--until the cheese was melted and the edges had started to brown a little bit. Toppings were tomato sauce, mozzarella, prosciutto and basil. Added the basil when the pizza was out of the oven just because we prefer it un-crunchy...

But! I do want to share our tomato sauce recipe. It made the pizza. My absolute favorite and so simple.

Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

(From page 152 of Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking)

6 SERVINGS

2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, prepared as described on page 151 (she recommends blanching them for a minute, draining them and removing their skins and then cutting them into coarse pieces OR washing the tomatoes in cold water, cutting them lengthwise in half, putting them in a covered saucepan and cooking on medium for 10 minutes--after that purée with a food mill fitted with largest holes over a bowl) OR (and this is what we used the other night) 2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice

5 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half

Salt

Put either the prepared fresh tomatoes or the canned in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for 45 minutes, or until the fat floats free from the tomato. Stir from time to time, mashing any large piece of tomato in the pan with the back of a wooden spoon. Taste and correct for salt. Discard the onion before using.

NOTE May be frozen when done. Discard the onion before freezing.