Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Rustico Pizza Sauce with Grape Tomatoes and Basil

There is nothing like necessity to make your creative juices flow....or maybe that's just me.  When my hubby wanted to make pizza the other night, he apparently thought we had some pizza sauce (or is usually the case in our house, some leftover marinara sauce or even jarred pasta sauce).  Unfortunately for him, that was not the case.

However, I did have a few ingredients on hand that I hoped could turn into something resembling a sauce.  Most of the pantry stuff we haven't been able to unpack because of some problems in the basement, so I looked into my fridge and found a few things I could, hopefully, turn into a sauce.

A cup of golden grape tomatoes, a small ancient bell pepper, some leftover white wine, some garlic herb butter, and a dash of flour and parmesan later - we had a rustico sauce.  This had a chunky texture but was still spreadable - for more of a saucy consistency, you would need to cook this longer than I did.  But I'ver never had a pizza with a sweeter, more flavorful sauce anywhere.

It's a different kind of pizza sauce, but it's a really good different.  It was so good, I took some more of the grape tomatoes and another small ancient pepper and made another batch.  Yes, I'm looking forward to another pizza tomorrow!

1 1/2 T. garlic butter ($.10)
1 C. grape or cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped ($.30)
1 small ancient bell pepper (or 1/4 red bell pepper), minced ($.05)
2/3 C. white wine ($.15)
1 tsp. basil ($.05)
salt and pepper to taste ($.05)
1/2 tsp. flour ($.05)
1 T. parmesan cheese ($.05)

Directions:

Heat small nonstick skillet over medium high heat.  Add garlic butter.  Once melted, add the minced pepper and chopped tomatoes (seeds, juices, and all).  Saute for 3-5 minutes.  Add salt and pepper and stir well.  Stir in the flour completely, then add all remaining ingredients.  Cook 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cool 5 minutes before spreading on unbaked pizza crust.  Top with your favorite toppings and cheeses, bake crust as directed.

Yields: 1 small batch rustic pizza sauce
Cost: $.80

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