Mind-Blowing Pizza Sauce

The best pizza dough does not necessarily lead to the best pizza. The quality and choice of pizza toppings and pizza naturally have something to do with the final taste of your pizza. Thus, if you want to get great pizza, then you should have the best pizza crust recipe, the best pizza toppings, the best pizza spices, the best ingredients, and the best pizza equipment. You must also have the best pizza sauce.

Thus, a pizza loaded with all kinds of choice toppings, drizzled liberally with the best homemade pizza sauce that you can find, may give you nothing but a soggy and extremely messy pizza that pales in comparison with a simple cheese pizza or vegetarian pizza topped with sauce made so thoughtfully and carefully that the pizza crust, the toppings and the sauce all balance one another.Do not forget that you have the option of adding as many ingredients and spices to your pizza sauce. It's all a matter of taste, anyway. And here's one final tip: if you like a dish so much - say creamy carbonara pasta - try recreating the sauce and using it on your pizza. If it doesn't work, then use it the way it has always been used (e.g. prepare some pasta to use with your carbonara sauce).Defat the chicken wings by cooking them in boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using a large mortar and pestle, grind together the bay leaf bits, caraway seeds, cayenne pepper, coriander, cumin, garlic, mustard, paprika, thyme and salt for about 10 minutes. Add the brandy and lemon or lime juice to the pulverized herbs and stir into a thick paste. With a pastry brush, cover both sides of each wing with the herb paste. When no more remains in the mortar, squeeze the last few drops from the brush. Arrange the chicken wings on a baking sheet. Bake until the skin turns deep brown and is quite crisp approximately 30 minutes. Takes about an hour to prepare.CAJUN CHICKEN WINGSAdd the rest of the butter to the pan, turn it down to a medium heat and add the shallots and stock cube. Sweat for five minutes so that the shallots soften but do not colour before pouring in the brandy and water to de-glaze the pan. Simmer the juices rapidly for a few minutes before turning the heat right down and stirring in the cr�me fraiche.� 30g butter� 75ml cr�me fraichePreparation time: 5-10 minutesUp to two hours before you are ready to eat, crush the peppercorns in a pestle and mortar and press them into the medallions. The pestle and mortar gives the peppercorns the perfect texture for this dish, but if you don�t have one, put the peppercorns into a hard-wearing plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin. Leave the meat aside for the pepper flavour to penetrate the meat. Pre-heat the oven to 60C and put in two plates to warm.Venison au Poivre for TwoItalian style pizza naturally has basil and oregano. If you are using the fresh leaves, chop them into small pieces. If you are using dried herbs, crush them first using your fingers or a mortar and pestle assembly to release trapped flavors. Add the herbs and spices during the last few minutes of simmering.� 4 venison medallions� 1 tbsp each of black and whitepeppercorns� 100ml brandyThen Come the Pizza Sauce Flavorings and SpicesFive minutes before you are ready to eat, heat a large heavy-bottomed frying-pan until it is smoking hot and then add half the butter. When the butter is sizzling (the pan should now be extremely hot), add the medallions and cook on one side for 2 minutes (if the medallions are thin you could cook for less - say 90 seconds), before turning and cooking for a further 60-90 seconds.After preparing your tomato base, you should prepare a large, non-stick flat pan for cooking the sauce. To start with, heat some olive oil. Use the extra virgin variety if you want a stronger olive taste; this is especially applicable if you are using olives on your pizza toppings as the olive oil in the sauce will reinforce the flavor of one of the toppings. After heating the oil, you should melt some butter in it.Once you have your tomato base, evaluate its thickness. The best tomato base is a thick one. If you have added too much water during the grinding stage, check now if the sauce is not too thin. Thin pizza sauce will run off and will merely make the dough soggy if so. If you have made an excessively thin tomato base, you should let the lot simmer on low heat to let some of the water to evaporate. Beware that heating your tomato base to get rid of excess water will affect the flavor of your tomato base.It All Begins with Tomatoes

Do not forget that you have the option of adding as many ingredients and spices to your pizza sauce. It's all a matter of taste, anyway. And here's one final tip: if you like a dish so much - say creamy carbonara pasta - try recreating the sauce and using it on your pizza. If it doesn't work, then use it the way it has always been used (e.g. prepare some pasta to use with your carbonara sauce).

Author: Sean Lannin