Tried and True-sday

 I've had a good share of Pizza's in my day. . . granted, the majority have been $5 pizza's, Pizza Hut, or Dominos variety.  The grease on it always grosses me out.  The sauce on it always grosses me out. . . I usually squeeze and wipe any sauce that I can off of it.  Yet, still I love pizza - strange.  Well, I also enjoy making pizza, which I must say is in a whole different league of goodness than any of the noted varieties. My sister, Michelle (who I get a lot of my great recipes from) gave me these recipes and my life has changed forever. . . or at least my expectations of pizza.  The sauce is especially exquisite, as stated in the title:).  I will never use store bought sauce again!  The picture below is just of the dough and sauce. . . with some added spinach just because I put spinach in-and-on pretty much everything last week. So, my suggestion is to make the sauce on  a rainy day or when kids are asleep at night and store it in freezer safe containers until you're ready to use them.  They freeze GREAT and it just gives the flavors more time to get to know each other:)  (The next time I make it I'm going to double or triple the batch and put them in freezer jam containers.  I'll be sure to label them so they don't get mistaken with my strawberry jam; not a good combination). Here you go, and happy cooking! 

Exquisite Pizza Sauce (makes 3 regular size pizzas)

    2 (6 oz) can Tomato Paste

    12  fl. Oz. Warm Water

    6 Tbs. Grated Parmesan Cheese

    2 tsp. Minced Garlic (I used 4 cloves-pressed)

    4 Tbs. Honey

    1 ½  tsp. Onion Powder

    ½ tsp. Dried Oregano

    ½ tsp. Dried Basil

    ½ tsp. Ground Black Pepper

    ¼ tsp. Cayenne Pepper

    ¼ tsp. Dried Red Pepper Flakes

    Salt to Taste

Boil for approximately 5 mintues.  You don't want all the liquid to boil out, but you want it to not be so runny, and then cool for at least 30 minutes before serving so it can marinate.  Can freeze.

Perfect Pizza Dough

Use Kneading Arm for KitchenAid
In KitchenAid dissolve the following:
     2 1/4 cup HOT water
     1 1/2 tsp. sugar
     1 Tbsp. salt

Slowly add and continuously mix:
     3 cups Flour
     1 Tbsp. yeast

Continue mixing and add:
     2 1/2-3 cups flour
     1-2 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning

Mix on high and add flour if needed.  Kneed dough for 3-5 minutes.  Dough should eventually pull apart from edges and bottom of bowl.  Remove dough from Kitchen Aid and place in large sprayed bowl- cover with light towel.  Place in warm location and let rise for 1 hour.

Roll out desired amount of dough.  It can make one really thick crust pizza or 2 large regular crust pizza's.

Bake at 450 degrees for 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and top with sauce, seasonings, cheeses, meats, veggies, etc. What ever you want:)  Bake an additional 10-15 minutes and your pizza has reached perfection.