Crisp Pizza with Fontina, Gorgonzola, and Sage

Babe’s Country Cookbook, p. 120

10 ripe tomatoes (about 3 ¼ pounds)

¼ onion

½ red bell pepper

8 black olives, pitted

5 cloves garlic

6 tablespoons olive oil

¾ cup (about 4 ounces) diced Italian Fontina, or Danish is good too

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

1 fresh large ready-to-use pizza bread-crust (about 12 inches), or your favorite pizza dough

½ cup (about 2 ounces) crumbled Italian Gorgonzola, or Wisconsin-made Bel Gioso – an excellent second choice

12 fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces

Preheat your oven to 325F.

Core 8 of the tomatoes, cut them into pieces, and puree them in a blender or food processor. 

In retrospect, since this is from a "country garden" cookbook, they probably meant the little tomatoes that come on the vine instead of big hothouse ones. I made WAY more sauce out of these than the recipe called for.

Force the puree through a strainer into a bowl, and reserve. Peel, seed, and dice the last 2 tomatoes. Or, if you really need to get dinner on the table in a hurry, just dice the 2 tomatoes—skip the peeling and seeding. Reserve this separately from the puree.

Finely dice the onion and red bell pepper. Finely chop the onions and garlic.

In a roomy skillet, heat 5 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper, and saute for a couple of minutes. Just as they begin to brown, add the pureed tomatoes, chopped olives, and garlic. Simmer over medium-high heat until the sauce begins to thicken, about 15 minutes.

Add the 2 diced tomatoes. Simmer briefly. Remove from the heat, and stir in the diced Fontina and fresh sage. Season with the salt and pepper.

Apparently from-scratch pasta sauce is more pink than red. This makes me a little suspicious about what's in the canned stuff.

Brush the pizza crust with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to prevent it from becoming soggy. Depending on how crisp you like your crust, pre-bake it in the 325F oven for 5 minutes. Spread the crust with about half the sauce. You’ll have some sauce left over—refrigerate to use as a pasta sauce, or for making another pizza. Sprinkle the pizza with the crumbled Gorgonzola and the torn basil.

Pretty pretty pizza!

Bake in the 325F oven for 5 minutes, or until the cheese is all melty and the sauce is hot. Cut and serve right out of the oven.

Goes nicely with a fresh fennel or mushroom salad, and with a good red wine or your favorite beer.

Isn't it fancy?

My Rating: 4/5 "Loved making my own pizza sauce! Plus the basil/gorgonzola combination for the toppings was legit. Make sure you've got a good crust for this one, because the recipe is simple enough that the taste of the dough can really shine through!"