The tomatoes were cut in half and placed in a 9'x13' baking dish. They were topped with lots of sliced garlic, and some freshly picked basil leaves, which were just cut with scissors and scattered over the top. I drizzled on some olive oil, then sprinkled it with salt and freshly cracked pepper and a bit of sugar....oh, maybe a couple of teaspoons. It went into a 325F oven for an hour, then I gave it a good stir and returned it to the oven for another 30 minutes, until the juices had cooked down and the tomatoes were beginning to caramelize.In the meantime, I decided I might as well take care of several large Brandywines that were getting a bit on the ripe side, so I cored them, cut them in half, squeezed out the seeds and tossed them into a big casserole dish. I added salt, pepper, oil and a sprinkling of sugar to them too, and popped them into the oven with the cherry tomatoes. I left them in the oven for two hours, after which they were still a bit juicy.
The first batch, the cherry tomatoes, went right into the food processor. The larger, juicier tomatoes were poured into a strainer and allowed to drain for a bit. Then they were added to the food processor, and all the tomatoes were pureed together. The puree was then put through the chinois to remove seeds and bits of skin. The texture was perfect for pizza sauce, and oh, my, it tasted sooooo good!
I tossed the ingredients for the pizza crust into the bread machine, and pushed the "dough" button. Then I got some Canadian bacon and pepperoni out of the freezer, cans of pineapple and olives from the pantry, bell peppers and mozarella cheese from the refrigerator.......uh, mozarella cheese. Where is the mozarella cheese? Oh, no! I was out of mozarella cheese, and everything else was ready for making pizza!
Plans often go awry, and this was no exception. I grabbed a couple of frozen Italian sausages, a jar of my home canned tomato sauce, a cube of frozen basil, and a box of whole wheat spaghetti.
The pizza crust dough was plopped onto a cookie sheet in a big round mass, and put into the oven as an impromptu Italian bread. Everything else went back into the pantry or freezer for another day.We did finally get our pizza, for dinner last night. It was made with a purchased pizza crust, but the sauce was delightful. I may have spoiled myself against eating any store-bought or delivery pizzas ever again.
Oh, dare I mention I got my hand a bit close to the oven burner when I was removing the pizza? And I couldn't figure out why it kept feeling hotter and hotter as I moved toward the counter? Duh....the pot holder was on fire!
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The Heavenly Blue morning glory is beginning to blossom more freely now.
The blossoms are nearly 4" across.
Hundreds and hundreds of flower buds give me the hope that the vines will soon be nearly obscured by the lovely blue blossoms.********
Awwww. I broke my garden fork this morning.
A bench full of veggies, including the last two cabbages. I had to check the fall carrots for size. They have just two more weeks to bulk up, then I'll have to decide whether to pull and eat baby ones or leave them and hope they overwinter.********
A while back, Mr. Granny and I had to go to Walla Walla to the VA hospital to find out what had happened to one of his prescriptions. While we were waiting, I happened to notice this....
Would this make a cool indoor winter garden or what? I can just see pole beans growing up the side trellises, lettuce, radishes and carrots growing in the tub! It has a couple of grow lights up on top, and it could be wheeled outside on nice days, back inside when it gets too cold!No, I'm not going to build one. But we did just give away a car top fiberglass pod that would have made two of these very easily! I could kick myself for getting rid of it. I could have used half of it on a pair of saw horses, for a really nice salad garden. Outside, of course.
That sounds like it would have been a delicious pizza. Whenever I don't have mozzarella I use cheddar. It doesn't taste at all the same but I love it just as much. I know. I'm a bit strange.
ReplyDeleteWe over wintered some carrots last year but they looked all funky!
ReplyDeleteYour sauce sounds awesome! Will you be canning that up next year???
Daphne, I'm not much of a cheese lover, but I adore hot, melty mozarella. It just wouldn't have been right without it. Now, if I had planned on a taco pizza, I'd have had a whole big bag of Mexican blend!
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Apple Pie Gal, I've made enough of the slow roasted pizza sauce to freeze enough for at least a dozen large pizzas, so that will probably do us for the year. I just have to remember to take some to Arizona with me!
I'm trying to get Mr. Granny to go after a bale of straw so I can protect some of the garden stuff, like rosemary and carrots. He's trying to get me to use the rabbit hay, and just doesn't understand it would be full of seeds and make a big mess of next years garden beds.
What, no pictures of this wonderful pizza?? Your slow-roasted pizza sauce sounds really delicious. So far, I've only made homemade pizza with pesto sauce, as we have basil coming out of our ears. I'll try my hand at tomato pizza sauce when I grow enough tomatoes next year.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't realize you could turn pizza dough into Italian bread. Hmm, maybe I'll experiment more with bread baking when there's less garden work to do over the winter.
The original pizzas had no mozarrella or other cheese at all. one was just with tomatoes, oil and herbs.
ReplyDeletehttp://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Pizza/PizzaHistory.htm
when i visited italy, they were square! and no Pizza hut are going back to square pizza.
how the world changes through the years!
bocconcini is a nice change to mozarella too!
Thyme2, it was Italian bread in name only ;-) Actually the only difference between my pizza dough and Fleischmann's Italian bread dough is that I used oil and Fleischmann's uses butter or margarine. Everything else is just the same. I just made it into a big ball and slashed the top, let it rise, put a pan of water on the bottom shelf of the oven and baked it as bread. I didn't find it as chewy and crusty as I like, I prefer a crusty French bread. It made good toast for breakfast, though.
ReplyDeleteSydneyGardener, I usually do make square (or rectangular) pizzas. Mr. Granny likes everything on his, I like mine with few toppings, and it's just easier to divide the square ones up. If I ever gave him a pizza without cheese, he'd probably leave home ;-)
ReplyDeleteHome made cooking always spoils anything bought! Hope that your hand did not get burnt too badly. You can replace the fork but not your hand! Diane
ReplyDeleteAH what caught my eye in the last photo is the radio on the left. John
ReplyDeleteThat has happened to me more times than I would like to admit. I have used many other cheeses and have never had a bad pizza.
ReplyDeleteLove the indoor planter idea. You have the gardeners vision Granny.
I love tomatoes roasted like that and then sauced. I have a growing pile of ripe tomatoes on the counter, maybe I ought to just pop them into the oven and make some heavenly pizza sauce and do a homemade pizza for Friday's dinner. :D
ReplyDeleteI love that roll away garden - would be quite useful to have.
Diane, I didn't get burned at all, it was just a matter of my brain not realizing where the heat was coming from, LOL! I wasn't expecting it to be from the pot holder.
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John, we used to have one like that, except ours had a round dial on the front and picked up some foreign broadcasts, if I remember correctly. I traded it to my parents for drapes for our daylight basement family room! I have no idea what ever happened to it.
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Lorie & Kitsap, I thought that planter was so cool! If I had a basement in this house, I'd be tempted.
Sauce sounds Yum!!! I will try this recipe. planter idea is really cool.
ReplyDeleteGranny, your homemade pizza sauce sounds so good. That first picture alone make my mouth water.
ReplyDeleteI love your morning glories. They are so beautiful and peaceful looking. I hope the plant is soon covered in flowers.
Glad you managed to escape burn-free- a close one!! Your sauce sounds fabulous, I should file that one away.
ReplyDeleteOh no! No cheese. Next time, you are in that predicament, make a foccacia instead. Sometimes I like that more than pizza. Oh, and the oven mitt on fire, yikes! The indoor trellis thing is really cool. Can you image pole beans growing indoor. Cool.
ReplyDeleteSarada, it was yum. I've made it before, but without the sugar. It was the sugar that made it extra special as a pizza topping, as well as helping the tomatoes caramelize.
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Debiclegg, The first thing I do, when I come into the kitchen in the morning, is open the curtain and look at the morning glories. I just love them, and the color of blue is just gorgeous. Then I pour a cup of coffee and just sit and look at them! This morning there was a squirrel up on top, and I kept seeing this tail twitching and wagging back and forth. He did that for the longest time, then he moved into view and I swear, he was smelling the flowers! He just sat on top of the fence and buried his face in a flower, and it wasn't eaten or chewed up at all.
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Kelly, it was such a "duh" moment! Or maybe it was a senior moment ;-)
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Meemsnyc, I never even thought of foccacia! That would have been the smart thing to do.
I could see cucumbers growing up the trellises, too.
What a gorgeous garden. My senior mom has enjoyed peppers as part of her gardening project and would love yours as well! And I had to chuckle over the pot holder story as I've done close to that a couple of times. :) So glad you are ok though :)
ReplyDeleteKaye Swain, thank you!
ReplyDeleteHi Annie, I have invited you for "The 10 Things I Love To Do" Game. Do visit My Sunny Happy Garden blog to proceed on this game. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteLOL, J.C., thank you for the invitation. It might take me a while to think of ten things I love to do. At my age, I've forgotten how to do most of them ;-)
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