..ok, they are simple.
But simple food made well from scratch can be just as good as fancy food made crappily. Not that I'm trying to refer to anything in particular.
First up, we have a kind of tomato meat sauce. I don't know what to call it, cause it was completely winged, and it's pretty standard. Add plain tomato sauce and tomato paste, ground beef, red onions, a bit of sugar, oregano, basil, parsley, other herbs and spices to taste and simmer for 2+ hours. Mushrooms would've been nice if I had them.
Serve over some form of pasta (I cheated and used tortellini prefilled with cheese), and grate some real parmesan on top. It was great! Simple, easy, and much better than any of those crappy jarred sauces.
A couple of days later, I made some meatloaf. You'll see a million recipes on the net, just pick one that sounds good. The meatloaf turned out pretty good--I would've liked some kind of tomato glaze with it, but I didn't have the ingredients for one, so I shredded some pepper jack cheese over the slices.
And finally, pepperoni pizza. I swear I will get this perfect someday. I hope.
Anyways, dealing with dough is a real pain. I didn't even make the dough, but stretching/rolling it out is a lot harder than it looks--some areas will bunch up, some areas will tear from being too thin, etc.
The pizza sauce was simple--can of plain tomato sauce, small can of tomato paste, oregano, basil, parsley, a bit of sugar. Very similar to that pasta sauce I made earlier.
Then get your oven as hot as you can (the hotter, the better--I used 500 degrees), put in the pizza, and wait about 10 minutes, or until it looks ready.
Whoops, a bit burnt. But hey, that's not a bad thing.
wait so what did you make the sauce of out of? you went semi-homemade on me and used sauce from a jar and added meat and herbs to it?
ReplyDeleteNo, I used a plain can of hunts tomato sauce, look up a picture. It's completely plain, and allows you to add whatever you want. It's like skipping the "buy tomatoes and puree them" step.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm not using that crap from a jar.
500 degrees? Really? It just comes at a surprise. Does that help with the crispiness factor?
ReplyDeleteHoly crap, a comment that isn't from Brian or me!
ReplyDeleteHaha yeah, most commercial brick ovens for pizza go at like 700-800 F, and a "traditional" pizza Napoletana is baked at like 900 F. The hotter, the better. I just can't afford to go hotter or else my pan will probably melt or crack.
It really helps with making a light, crispy and airy crust, which I'd much rather have than a dense crust where you taste nothing but bread in every bite. I would know, cause my first pizza was like that.
Worked like a charm, Transon! Made a pizza at 500 instead of 450 (just one of those frozen pizzas) and I'm so impressed by how much more flavor it has. I have a larger over that cooks at 600, I might try that one when it's not 12 pm and i'm not craving the munchies.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to keep up with your food endeavors.