Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Mamma Mia!

As R trends more to the picky side of the food eating spectrum, despite employing all my efforts (I think it is more about power struggles, but more on that later), I found myself wanting a veggie-heavy pizza sauce to use on our homemade pizza. We have homemade pizza at least a couple times a month, if not more, so I wanted to advantage of the opportunity to sneak in some more vegetables.

I started with two red/orange vegetables: carrots and red peppers. Why? Three reasons: 1. they are both super healthy and full of antioxidants, 2. their color and taste makes them a good blend with tomato sauce, and 3. R doesn't eat either very often on their own.

This sauce is jam packed with nutrients and is just as tasty as a traditional pizza sauce. It is a bit more red-orange than just red, but the taste is spot-on. Not only is it tasty, it is super easy and can be made ahead.

Sweet Pea Pizza Sauce

4 plum tomatoes
1/2 red pepper
1 c of shredded or sliced carrot
2 t olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 t salt
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
2 T fresh basil

In a large fry pan, place the whole tomatoes and 1/2 red pepper, skin side down. Cook until the tomatoes and red pepper blacken, turning as necessary. Remove the tomatoes and pepper to cool. Once cool, peel (the skin should come off easily if blackened) all the vegetables and set aside.

Place the carrots in a microwave safe dish and add a few tablespoons of water. Microwave for 3 minutes to steam.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat in the pan you used for the tomatoes and peppers. Add the onion and garlic, cook 2-3 minutes. Add the carrots, salt, tomatoes, peppers, tomato sauce and basil. Cook for 1-2 minutes, remove from heat.

Pop the entire mixture into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Hope your pumpkins love this as much as we did,
SPC

9 comments:

The Mrs. said...

I will try this one for sure!!!

Live.Love.Eat said...

My son loves pizza but not veggies so this would be great!

Kiki said...

Hi. I wandered over from one fabulous mom after I saw you had lived in DC where my two sisters currently live....anyway, if I had known you had such yummy recipes I might have gotten here sooner.

I don't have kids but tend toward the picky myself...and have a funny tummy that doesn't really allow for many tomato based sauces, I usually use pesto for a homemade pizza...anyway, this sauce sounds so delish I'd love to give it a try...

Anyway, love your site, hope its okay if I check in from time to time...

JerseyBaby said...

I really need to try this as well as your whole wheat pizza dough (from California Pizza Kitchen I think). We eat a lot of frozen pizza and now that my Wegman's whole wheat dough has revealed itself as evil (HFCS), it's time to try something new, and you never steer me wrong.

Laura said...

Roasting an eggplant and adding it to the sauce is also an awesome way to add more veggies to it. And it makes the sauce a little "meaty" if you will. The world's pickiest husband ever loves it!

Deep in the Heart said...

Thanks SPC! I think the blending trick is key, too. Brian and the kids are not fans of the chunkier version. Good idea from fearless chef for eggplant. I'm always tempted to buy them and then never know what to do with them when I get them home. Speaking of which, do you a baba ganoush recipe?

Sweet Pea Chef said...

Thanks for the great comments.

Kiki, welcome!

Jersey Baby, thanks for the kudos. :)

Fearless, I love the eggplant idea. I am putting that one on my to do list. Awesome idea.

Babaganoush...I do have one Jenn...let me dust it off and get it up sometime soon.

Slacker Mama said...

Hmmm...I might have to try this. I've been off the pizza making dough for a few weeks...does your CPK recipe translate well to the grill?

Though eggplant would be a no-go in the Slacker house. I think John would go on a hunger strike if I tried to get him to eat it.

Sweet Pea Chef said...

SM--we use the pizza dough recipe on the grill all the time.