Pizza Sauce Recipe

Halloween is almost upon us, and that means that it's time to invite over your cool young friends and have a party.  And what young person doesn't like pizza?  It's great party food, because you can carry a slice around (on a plate) as you circulate, and nibble it while you converse.  Even vegans like pizza, if you don't put animal products on it, and you can make sure your pizza is vegan-safe by making it yourself--or even make it interactive, by inviting your guests to pick out their favorite toppings, let the guests arrange the toppings on a sauced pizza crust, and bake the pizza in your oven.

However you decide to throw your pizza party, you need a kick-ass pizza sauce to set a flavor foundation for whatever toppings you (or your guests) arrange.  Sure, you could just buy a sauce out of a jar, but you'll totally miss out if you don't try out this recipe, which you can prepare the day before the party:

Anton's Pizza Sauce

Makes enough sauce for several pizzas.  Requires about an hour of work.

2 T or more olive oil

Vegetables:
1 28-oz. can of tomatoes
2 medium onions (chopped)
7 or more cloves of garlic
1 6-oz can of black olives

Herbs and Spices:
2 T oregano
2 T basil
1 T fennel seeds
1 T mixed Italian-style herbs
1 T paprika
1 tsp ground chipotle

Get a sauce pan with a lid (DO NOT SKIP THE LID).  Put the oil in the sauce pan.  Set it aside, 'cause we're going to do all the hard work with the blender.

Run the vegetables through the blender.  If your blender is like mine, you will need to use the watery tomatoes to help the onions, garlic, and olives flow in the blending chamber.  Otherwise, you will need to stir a lot in the blender to get the unblended vegetables to circulate to where the blades are.  Also, unless you have a 2-quart blender, you will need to blend the vegetables in batches.

Anyway, put the blended vegetables in the sauce pan.  Stir it up gently, to mix the vegetable puree with the olive oil.  The olive oil helps the sauce taste "richer" and serves as a vehicle for the essential oils in the spices.  Maybe it helps keep the sauce from burning on the bottom of the sauce pan.

Put the lid on the sauce pan and turn on the heat.  Bring the sauce to a boil, then let it simmer until the onions no longer taste "sharp."  You will really appreciate that lid, because the thick bubbling sauce will spatter red all over your kitchen if you don't use the lid.  In fact, the bubbling sauce can be so messy, that I recommend you remove the sauce pan from the heat and wait for the bubbling to subside before you check to make sure the onions are cooked.

The cooking process should take enough time for you to set up the herbs and spices.

Anyway, once the onions are cooked, remove from heat, wait for the bubbling to quiet down, and stir in the herbs and spices.  Let the herbs and spices reconstitute and mingle in the sauce pan; I usually let this happen overnight.