quinn's place

pizza is a journey.

i've made a lot of homemade pizzas in my day, and i'm still trying to master my ideal recipes. homemade thin crust being my next endeavor...

but here are some 'zaws that are best because of their simplicity.

my friend whitney & i took a neapolitan pizza class from some real live neapolitans when we were in new york city, and i definitely have been following their advice on simpler toppings for homemade pizzas since then. if only i had a super hot woodfire oven and i could perfect that dough...

although i did just see some sort of goofy newfangled outdoor "pizza oven" at the hot tub store for $250. and the wheels were a'turning.

i mean there's really nothing to this. and yet so so simple and so great.

shoutout hot mama's pizza in the capitol hill neighborhood of seattle, who's incredible pesto pizza i aspire to recreate.

oh the imperfection of homemade pizza. so practically perfect in every way.

Homemade Pizza Basics: Margherita & Pesto

Total Active Time: 1 hour (2 hours inactive rising time)

Makes (2) 12" pizzas

Ingredients:

Thick Pizza Dough - (Recipe adapted from How Sweet Eats go-to pizza dough!)

1 1/4 cup warm water
1 TB olive oil
1 TB honey
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. (one packet) active yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour

Simple Margherita

14 oz. San Marzano peeled tomatoes (1/2 a large can - specifically these tomatoes!)
1/2 tsp. salt (this ratio of the San Marzano tomatoes to salt is ideal - you will have leftover tomato sauce)
6 oz. fresh mozzarella, sliced into thin rounds
a few fresh basil leaves

Simple Pesto

1/2 cup freshly prepared pesto
6 oz. fresh mozzarella
a few fresh basil leaves (optional)

Instructions -

Combine warm water, yeast packet, honey & olive oil in a large mixing bowl. Whisk and set aside until slightly bubbly, about 10 minutes. Add half of the flour and the salt, stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Add a bit more flour and mix the dough with your hands. Lightly flour a large surface. Add the remainder of the flour into the dough and form into a ball, kneading it on the floured surface until the dough is plump and not sticky. Just add a TB of flour at a time if the dough is too sticky.

Place the dough in a large bowl, greased with 1-2 TB of olive oil. Cover with a damp towel and let the dough rise for about 1.5-2 hours in a warm place.

Prepare your pesto as instructed. For the margherita pizza, either pulse the tomatoes and salt in a blender or food processor until smooth. Gently slice the mozzarella cheese.

Once the dough has about doubled in size, knead the dough on a floured surface with your hands. Divide the dough into two equal halves.

If baking on a baking sheet, preheat oven to 425 degrees F. If baking on a pizza stone, preheat oven to 475 degrees F and bake the stone about 10 minutes to heat it up.

I generally like to roll the dough out on a piece of parchment paper, where I build the pizza if I am baking the pizza on a baking sheet. These pizzas were baked on a pizza stone, in which case sprinkle the pizza stone with some cornmeal and carefully place the rolled out pizza dough onto the pizza stone and add the toppings there.

Prepare one pizza for baking at a time. Lightly brush the rolled out dough with a little olive oil. Spread about 1/2 cup of prepared tomato sauce or prepared pesto all over the dough - about 1/2 an inch from the edge. Top with 4-6 slices of fresh mozzarella and a few basil leaves.

On a baking sheet - Bake at 425 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes

On a pizza stone - Bake at 475 degrees F for 12-15 minutes

until cheese is browned to your liking and crust is golden!

Slice while the cheese is still hot, and serve immediately.

perfetto!

drew barrymore taught me how to make fresh tomato sauce.

i have watched this clip of her making her pasta sauce with ellen about 500 times.

i sometimes just put that video on when i can't think of anything to watch on youtube..which is kinda strange i guess haha. even with the vast expanse that is the world wide web, i still insist on watching this very clip over and over. it just makes me happy! if ya know anything about me its that i love ellen. soo much. and i love drew. soo much. put 'em together and i am entertained for life.

i just love drew. she is so enjoyable. and it is a total miracle of the universe that i had the opportunity to meet her and even have dinner with her with some friends after her book tour. my brain still explodes when i think about that night and the fact that my friend lauren casually called me the day before saying "so heyyy, would you wanna meet drew tomorrow?" ......"esssssssCuuuUSE ME?!?!?! whatchu just say??" i died.

i've loved her since the E.T. days, and being around her in person super solidified all the reasons why i love her. she was so cool and down to earth. just by coincidence, she had some sort of pasta with tomato sauce at dinner that night. i remember she ate her noodles all fancy by twirling the fork into her spoon. classy broad.

anyhoo, her method of homemade pasta sauce that she made on ellen is my go-to when i have a bunch of fresh cherry tomatoes around. they are always better in the summertime when they're in season locally, but at other times of year i'll use grape tomatoes if cherries aren't available.

cherry tomatoes are better to use for sauce because they're juicier, more plump, with a thinner skin. grape tomatoes seem to have a thicker skin that doesn't break down as well as the cherries do, but they'll still do the trick.

i've made this many times and i've figured out how i like it the best. i add chopped up zucchini and a serrano pepper. and extra olive oil in the sauce. the combination of everything is perfectly juicy, earthy, and pleasantly spicy with a rich texture.

and "fresh basil every 5 minutes," as drew says. haha.

i roasted the whole head of garlic in the oven just to have around. you could use fresh garlic cloves in the sauce, but roasted garlic smells amahhhzing and its so rich, sweet and flavorful.

just slice the cherry tomatoes in half and you're on your way to delicious fresh tomato sauce.

for the zucchini, i slice it into rounds and then stack some of them to chop it easily into bits.

with a good amount of olive oil, fresh or roasted garlic, juicy cherry tomatoes, minced serrano, chopped zucchini, fresh basil, and salt, you can have a rich & flavorful pasta sauce ready in about 20 minutes.

drew recommends fresh bucatini, which are plump spaghetti noodles. i got this pack when i was at eataly in new york city, and its great. i really love the texture of bucatini - its just a bit of a better chew than regular spaghetti noodles.

after the pasta is cooked, i toss it with olive oil so it doesn't stick together. then lay on the tomato sauce and some extra basil leaves.

this version of the sauce is vegan - but it would also be super tasty with some sort of flavorful ground beef or spicy sausage.

i always think its exciting when you can make things from scratch and adjust the ingredients as you like. i'd never actually made my own tomato sauce until drew showed us all how. ya never know where you're going to learn a new life skill!

i shall now refer to this as my drew b. bucatini. even though it doesn't have to be made with bucatini... drew b. bucatini just sounds right.

Homemade Tomato Pasta Sauce

Makes about 2 cups of tomato sauce

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

24 oz. cherry tomatoes (mostly red - some green & yellow are ok)
3-5 TB. olive oil
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
6 cloves roasted garlic*, or 4 raw garlic cloves (you can roast the garlic days in advance - store in airtight container in fridge)
1 serrano pepper, seeded & minced
1/2 a large zucchini, chopped into bits
1/2 - 3/4 cup fresh chopped basil
fresh bucatini pasta (1 inch diameter bunch)

Instructions-

* To roast the head of garlic, heat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut 1/4 inch off the top, remove most of the paper covering and discard. Pour a teaspoon of olive oil on the cloves to soak (about 5 minutes). Place in a baking dish or oven safe dish covered in foil. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Wash all the veggies and slice the tomatoes in half. Chop the serrano pepper and zucchini.

In a large pan, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil on medium/low heat and add the garlic. If using roasted garlic, mash it up in the olive oil with a wooden spoon. If using fresh garlic, toss it in the olive oil until the garlic begins to brown.

Add all the cherry tomatoes and increase heat to medium. Let all the juices from the tomatoes heat and simmer together for about ten minutes, stirring frequently. Add the chopped zucchini, serrano pepper, salt & pepper, and some fresh basil. Stir to combine.

If you're having pasta, at this point begin boiling a large pot of water. Cook your pasta as desired and strain the water. Return the noodles to the pot and drizzle a couple tablespoons of olive oil on the cooked pasta. Gently toss the noodles.

Continue to let the tomatoes simmer on medium/low heat for about ten more minutes, until the sauce begins to thicken. Add extra handfuls of fresh chopped basil every few minutes and stir into the sauce.

Serve your desired amount of bucatini with the fresh tomato sauce while its hot. Top with extra basil and freshly grated parmesan cheese if desired.