There are few things on earth I enjoy more than good fellowship with friends around the table. I love hanging out with friends, eating good food and being part of a group. (Of course there are times when I need “down” time where I can simply chill out, like most things moderation is important.) While I don’t have a specific New Year’s resolution, I’d like to encourage my readers to open your homes to others and share time around the table. I know we all get busy, our houses get messy, and sometimes all we want to do is lounge around in our pajamas–I am speaking to myself here. At the same time, there is something being said about sharing our lives with others by sharing around the table. Before you offer further objections, you don’t have to have a spectacularly fancy meal or even have the cleanest house (ask anyone who has eaten at my house.)
When you have folks over, don’t feel like you have to make everything from scratch. Start where you are and work from there. I remember a time several years ago before William was born when we invited some friends over for dinner. It was important for us to spend time with friends even though we were all working full-time and led very busy lives. I remember this particular meal because we ordered pizza. Our desert was brownies from a mix topped with peppermint ice cream. We had a wonderful time!
I remember telling one of my co-workers later that we had these friends over and ordered pizza. My co-worker was appalled or surprised that I had done such a thing since the friends we had over were foodies themselves. She couldn’t believe that I would invite this couple over and not make everything from scratch. What I think my co-worker missed was that hospitality is less about the particular menu on the table and more about making room to spend time together. We still get together with this couple all these years later though our gatherings are crazier since there are four kids added to the mix.
For Jeffrey and myself, hospitality is one the most important values we think we can teach the boys. Both of us come from families where hospitality was taught to us around tables that always had room for guests. When we gather with others, we can do more than feed our bodies. We can feed our souls.
In honor of my pizza meal, I thought I would share my favorite way to make pizzas at home. Unfortunately, I am still searching for my favorite pizza dough recipe so I will not be sharing that today, but I am sharing my “go to” sauce. It is amazing, if I do say so myself, and you don’t even have to cook it. How easy is that? Would you consider opening your home this year? It doesn’t have to be fancy and it could be one of the best habits you could pick up this year.
Homemade Pizza with a crushed tomato sauce
Ingredients:
pizza dough (I prefer to buy mine at Whole Foods but am still searching for a homemade version.)
1-28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
¼ t. freshly ground black pepper
1 t. dried basil or 2 T. fresh basil
1 t. dried oregano or 2 T. fresh oregano
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. red wine vinegar
½ t. salt
shredded mozzarella cheese
toppings of your choice (mushrooms, pepperoni, sausage, pineapple, ham, red peppers, onions)
Directions:
Stir crushed tomatoes, black pepper, basil, oregano, garlic, red wine vinegar and salt together in a bowl. Taste, adjusting seasonings as you like. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Toss or roll pizza dough out and place on a pizza stone. Spread a thin layer of sauce on dough. (I reserve the remaining dough for future pizzas.) Top with your favorite toppings. Bake in a preheated oven until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden. Approximately 10-20 minutes depending on how many toppings you have on your pizza.
Dinah,
I LOVE the recipes on at King Arthur Flour. If you have some time to plan ahead, I recommend this dough: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/brick-oven-pizza-recipe. If you need something a bit more quickly, we love this one: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/pizza-crust-or-cracker-bread-recipe.
Thanks for the sauce recipe! Do you know what the difference between “crushed” and “diced” tomatoes might be (other than their shape)?
Lori
Lori, Thanks for the suggestion for pizza dough. I will give it a try this weekend. Yeah! Crushed tomatoes are a little thicker in consistency than the diced tomatoes. You could probably use the diced you may just want to see if you can crush them a little more or blend them a bit but not too much. You could also just drain off a bit of the liquid.
You inspired me! I read your blog yesterday and immediately called a friend and invited her over for dinner. Thanks for the reminder about the importance of hospitality!
Marissa – Good for you. Hope you have a wonderful time. Thanks for sharing.
I made this back in early January when we had my family up for my Son’s 7th birthday. The flavor of the sauce was excellent–I got a lot of compliments. Dinah, I want to know if you use all the sauce on the pizza? If so what size pizza did you make? I used all the sauce (made exactly as you outlined in the recipe) and it was too much and dripped off the pizza while cooking. (Note: this did not change the flavor which was still excellent). Just a bit runny in places. But I thought when I do this one again, I would find out if you used all the sauce on your pizza, what size pizza you made. If I did all that right, I may drain liquid from the crushed tomatoes before cooking and add it back as I cook so I can control how thick the finished sauce is a little better. Thoughts?
Sarah Thanks for commenting. I do not use all of the sauce on the pizza. I normally just put a thin layer and then save the remainder for future pizza endeavors. (We like to have pizza on Friday nights.) I will update the blog post. Thanks again.
This had become my “go to” pizza sauce. My husband and I are trying a “Low Carb” diet and I made a cauliflower pizza crust. I knew it would need some flavor so this was the sauce I made. JUST EXCELLENT. Best sauce ever–I am guessing it’s the red wine vinegar that gives it such a great flavor. I highly recommend this sauce!