New York Style Pizza Sauce

New York Pizza Sauce on a tasty pizza

I have an obsession, a pizza obsession. I have a super duper long post in the wings about pizza dough that I need to shrink down but I have a lot of feelings about pizza. That, though, is another post. My pizza obsession needs a sauce. I used to use Prego spaghetti sauce as pizza sauce. It’s something I have done for years since I was a teenager, the best Prego sauce was Roasted Garlic Parmesan, mmmm. I figured after a while, if I take pride in my pizza making, I would need to find a good pizza sauce to accompany my awesome pizza dough. Sidetrack…I love Cooks Illustrated, they always have awesome recipes and some of the best have come from one of their former chefs J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. One of his best recipes was how to make the best shake shack hamburger clone. Long story short, he left Cook’s Illustrated to become the Managing Culinary Director for Serious Eats, which is where I found this recipe. It is now my go to sauce recipe. Its got great tomato flavor and hints of garlic, oregano and fresh basil. It is a really great New York style pizza sauce.

New York Style Pizza Sauce

New York Style Pizza Sauce

New York Style Pizza Sauce

New York Style Pizza Sauce

Adapted from Serious Eat and J. Kenji López-Alt, who is a food science god.

Ingredients

  • 1 28 oz. Can whole peeled tomatoes
  • 1 T. Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 T. Unsalted butter
  • 2 medium cloves garlic, grated on microplane grater (about 2 teaspoons)
  • 1 t. dried oregano
  • pinch red pepper flakes
  • Kosher salt
  • 2 six-inch sprigs fresh basil with leaves attached
  • 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and split in half
  • 1 t. sugar

Directions

  1. Process tomatoes and their juice through food mill, pulse in food processor until pureed, or puree with hand blender. Puree should not be completely smooth, but should have no chunks larger than 1/16 of an inch. Set tomatoes aside.
  2. Combine butter and oil in medium saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until butter is melted. Add garlic, oregano, pepper flakes, and large pinch salt and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant but not browned, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, basil sprigs, onion halves, and sugar. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to lowest setting (bubbles should barely be breaking the surface), and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced by 1/2, about . Season to taste with salt.
  3. Now this is what I do after its finished cooking.. Remove stems of basil, I pull the leaves off the stems and add them back to the sauce, then I blend the sauce in a blender with 1 half of the onion that was cooked in the sauce.
  4. Allow to cool and store in covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

The Best Lemon Bars Evar!

Lemon Bars

I know, I know, he’s posting another lemon recipe, but this is the best of the best. The piece of resistance. The cream of the crop! Jonna over at Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake has created the best lemon bars ever! The best part of the lemon bars is they have a shortbread crust. The crust gets all of its flavor from brown sugar and some lemon zest, oh and butter, lots of butter. These are a hit every time I take them to family dinner, people even request them for their birthday dessert.

Lemon Bars

Best Lemon Bars Evar!

Adapted from Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake

Crust Ingredients (The best part)

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, cold (2 sticks)
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 lemon, zested

Lemon Filling

  • 4 extra-large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 large lemons)
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 lemon, zested
  • Confectioners’ sugar

Crust Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  2. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch pieces and in a food processor or using a hand-held pastry cutter, process all the shortbread ingredients until the mixture begins to form small pea-shaped lumps.
  3. Sprinkle the dough into a 13x9x2-inch baking pan and press dough firmly and evenly onto the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of the pan to form a 1/2-inch layer of shortbread.
  4. Prick all over with a fork.
  5. Bake the shortbread in the middle of the oven until golden, about . Remove it to a cooling rack. (Cover with foil to keep warm if necessary.)

Filling Directions

  1. While crust is baking, in a large metal bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until well combined and a light yellow color.
  2. Stir in the lemon juice, flour, and zest.
  3. When the shortbread crust is ready and still hot, pour the lemon mixture evenly over it.
  4. Lower the oven temperature to 300°F. When it has reached the lower temperature, bake the bars in the middle of the oven until set, about .
  5. Let the bars cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack. Lightly sift confectioners’ sugar over the cool bars right before serving.

Salsa of Awesomeness

Salsa of Awesomeness

I am a Mexican food fiend. It’s my favorite food group. Yep you read that right. Salsa is my test bed for whether or not a Mexican food place will be good or not. More often than not if the place has good salsa it will have great food.

That being said I have a lot of jalapeños and serrano chiles growing in my garden this year. I have had to figure out something to do with them. My usual go to is salsa. Sometimes I add them to salads and other fun things.  This recipe makes a lot of salsa so you may want to share with your neighbors. It’s a good welcome to neighborhood or housewarming gift. My kids love this salsa, lately they have been taking it for lunches. I feel it’s much healthier than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Have fun with it, it’s pretty forgiving if you want to add things too it.

Salsa of Awesomeness

Salsa of Awesomeness

Ingredients

  • 1 28oz. Can Diced tomatoes
  • 2 Cans Rotel hot chiles and tomatoes
  • 1 Small onion chopped
  • 5 Cloves garlic
  • 1 t. Garlic powder or to taste
  • 2 t. Kosher salt or to taste
  • 1/4 t. Freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2 t. Cumin
  • 1 Bunch Cilantro, cut off stems
  • 2 Jalapeños Peppers roughly chopped (less or more depending on how spicy you want it. If you want it less spicy remove the ribs and seeds)
  • 2 Serrano peppers roughly chopped (less or more depending on how spicy you want it.)
  • Juice of 1 Lime
  • 4 Green onions

Directions

  1. Put all ingredients, except for green onions, in a blender.
  2. Pulse until everything is mixed and chunky, don’t overmix or it will be salsa soup. Adjust flavors and pulse again
  3. Pour into containers
  4. Chop green onions thin and stir them into the salsa.
  5. Eat up or put in the fridge for the flavors to marry for a few days.