Pizza Dough and Tomato Sauce with Roasted Eggplant

Every two weeks or so, my husband and I have homemade pizza or pizza turnovers. Take-out pizza is expensive and who knows from what the ingredients are made. We have a policy in our house never to have frozen pre-made food (TV dinners, pot pies, fried chicken, burritos, etc.) for meals. So, frozen pizza is out. However, we both like to have pizza every once and awhile. I came up with this pizza dough recipe to make our own pizza or pizza turnovers. Once the dough is made, the topping or filling is pretty much up to the individual.

Today we had sliced leftover pizza turnovers from 2 days ago that were served cold that could be dipped in (or topped) with my Tomato with Roasted Eggplant Sauce. My husband LOVES this sauce and I LOVE to make it! 

To make the Pizza Dough…

• 1 package dry active yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey  or brown sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of oregano
• 1 teaspoon of dried granulated garlic
• A pinch of basil
• toppings of your choice

Preparation:

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and honey in 1/4 cup of the warm water. Combine the flour and the salt in a big separate bowl. Add the oil, yeast mixture, and the remaining 3/4 cup of water to the flour and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon and then knead by hand. Careful not to add too much extra flour while kneading. The dough should be smooth and firm. Cover the dough with a clean, damp towel and let it rise in a warm spot for about 30 minutes.
Place a pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 500º F. Use the entire dough for one large thicker crust pizza or divide the dough into two balls for two 12 inch thin crust pizzas. Work the ball (or balls)by pulling down the sides and tucking under the bottom of the ball. Repeat 4 or 5 times. Then on a smooth, unfloured surface, roll the ball under the palm of your hand until the top of the dough is smooth and firm, about 1 minute. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes. At this point, the balls can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days.
If you use the dough right away, roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Add your sauce and toppings. Finally, cook for no more than 12 minutes (one large pizza). This time varies for the size of pizza and whether your making a turnover or not.
 


To make the Tomato with Roasted Eggplant Sauce…
I don’t have an ingredient list for this. I have the recipe in my head. Here are the brief instructions to make the sauce.

This sauce takes 4 hours total to make. Start early! First dice two small eggplants or one large eggplant into small pieces. Heat oven to 175 Celsius. Coat a baking pan with olive oil. Spread eggplant on baking pan and sprinkle with sea salt and lemon juice. Put eggplant in oven until golden brown.
While the eggplant is roasting…
Blanche 5 large tomatoes until the skins easily pull away. Set aside. Blanche 2 medium green peppers, one sweet red pepper, and one long yellow chili pepper until skins pull away easily. In a large saucepot, add about a 1/4 inch or more of olive to coat bottom of pot. Sauté a large clove of garlic and a finely diced onion in the heated oil. Take the skins off the tomatoes and peppers and chop into small pieces. Add the tomatoes and peppers to the onion and garlic. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add one beef stock cube, 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, tablespoon basil, tablespoon oregano, tablespoon thyme, one teaspoon black pepper, red pepper flakes to taste, 2 bay leaves, and a sprig of fresh rosemary. Stir all of this together. Now add a little box of tomato paste and two cups of water. Stir. The eggplant should be done by now. Add the roasted eggplant with it’s oil to the sauce. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cover with a lid for one hour while stirring occasionally. Remove lid and continue to simmer for 2 hours. The liquid should reduce to a nice level. If it reduces too much, just add more water. Not enough reduction, simmer longer.
That’s it!

This is really good on a hot summer day.
When I became pregnant, we banished our cats to the outdoors for obvious reasons. They have adjusted well. Even though they are outside, our little momma cat still comes everyday at dinner time to watch me set the table and have a chat. I thought I would share this picture with everyone. It has brightness problems, but you can still see her little head. Meow!