Pi / Pie Day

Today is National Pi / Pie Day.  And while the men in my family really wish I was a good pie baker, the best I can offer them is a Pizza Pie.  Not sure why, but traditional pies just aren’t my thing.  So I thought I’d share a twist on Pizza Pie with you.

A few weeks ago we went to Texas for work and to visit family.  While there, one of the nieces made us a grilled pizza.  Seriously?  It was to die for.  Well, maybe not literally DIE for, but really, REALLY good.  We came home and had to give it a try.  We ended up making two and had very few pieces left over.  The crust was just our normal pizza crust.  You heat the grill up until you can only hold your hand over the grate for a couple of seconds.  You brush the grate with olive oil then place your shaped dough on the grill.  Close the grill and let it bake for 2 minutes.  Check it after 2 minutes and see if it’s golden colored with grill marks.  If so, remove from heat and flip over, so that you are putting your toppings on the grilled side.

I made this pizza sauce for one of our pizzas.  It came from littlespicejar.com and I found it on Pinterest.

A homemade pizza sauce recipe that’s sure to make your homemade pizzas taste so much better! This sauce is quick and easy to make, it freezes well, and has no mystery ingredients! Don’t you love knowing exactly what goes in your food?

Ingredients

• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed or finely diced tomatoes (the best quality you can find)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated onions (or finely diced for chunkier texture)
• 3/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 -1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (depending on heat preference)
• 3 cloves garlic (grated or minced)
• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. If your tomatoes are packed whole, pour them into a large bowl and using your hands break down the tomatoes so that they’re chunky but not completely liquidy. This can also be done with an immersion stick blender by just pulsing it a few times. Set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the olive oil, grated onions, oregano, basil, and red pepper flakes. Allow the oil to cook the ingredients for 3-4 minutes, stirring as necessary. Add the garlic and continue to cook for another minute.
3. Add the tomatoes from step #1, along with the sugar and salt. Turn the heat down to low-medium and allow the sauce to simmer for 30 minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust seasonings to preference. If you’d like a more concentrated tomato flavor, you can continue to simmer the sauce for an addition 15 minutes.
4. Use the sauce for pizzas immediately or allow to come to room temperature before storing in containers. Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 3 months.

For the pizza that we put this on we added smoked sausage pieces, onions, peppers and mushrooms that had been sauted ahead of time.  We then topped with a little mozzarella cheese.  For the other pizza we used Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce then put on some cooked chicken breasts and red onions along with some mozzarella cheese.  Be sure to not make your pizza too topping heavy as it will cause the crust to become soggy.  Put back on the grill and cook another 4 to 5 minutes until the bottom of the crust is golden with grill marks.  Eat immediately!  Enjoy!