New York style pizza sauce and crust recipe

Hi All;
Shared my Italian sausage recipe, so , thought I would share the rest of my east coast pizza recipe's.  Its just the best !

For the crust) 1/2 tbs yeast, 1 tsp sugar, 1 cup warm water.  Add together in large bowl.  Leave alone for 5 minutes while the yeast activates.
Mix in  1.5 cups of flour, add 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tbs of olive oil, Mix in more flour to make a workable dough  Knead , rise in covered oiled bowl.
Punch down , roll out on corn meal/ flour  board  Shape to size, add toppings.  Bake at 450 for 20 + minutes

New York style pizza sauce, this is a very potent sauce... the longer you cook it down the stronger(better) it gets...  do not over apply, it will overpower everything.

Start with 1tbs (goat) butter (cow butter is OK too) and 1tbs olive oil in sauce pan heat slowly, add 2 cloves(or more)  fresh garlic I squeeze it ,can be grated or minced as well. 1 tsp oregano , pinch red pepper flakes, and a large pinch of salt. Stir constantly until fragrant but not overly browned.  Add tomato's,
Use apx 28 OZ of tomato's , I use home grown blanched peeled tomato's or you can use canned  stewed / whole peeled, any will do but home grown is best ! 1tsp sugar, pinch of or fresh basil, cut one  onion in half and place both half's cut side down on top.
Bring to simmer reduce heat,  barely any bubbles ,stirring occasionally . Cook Slowly... for hours , longer the better. Remove onion halves and basil twigs . Cool, place in fridge, will last up to two weeks. Remember very strong sauce , use sparingly.
Our pizza gets hot Italian sausage, lots of pepperoni, fresh mushrooms, sliced sweet pepper and I top with a combination of mozzarella, cheddar, and pecorino Romano  all goat or sheep cheese.  
My wife requires A-2 A-2  so we use goat and sheep dairy products.  A-1 A-1 folks can use any dairy product they enjoy.

Apology's for the worthless photo, my real camera is down, must use wife's phone and deal with google photo...  pain in the rear !  

Good recipes. That is my standby recipe for pizza dough too (with bread flour). I like to make sure and layere plenty of mushrooms or thin sliced tomatoes under the cheese to add lots of moisture.

Do you pre-bake your dough? I always bake it for 10 minutes before the toppings go on. Have never figured out how to bake it all from "raw" without the crust being mealy (maybe because I don't have a pizza stone).

Hi Lucrecia;  

Adding thin sliced tomato sounds like an excellent idea. I think i'll give that a try!

No, I have never pre- baked a crust.  I do not have a pizza stone nor have I built a wood fired cob oven (but I sure would like to)

I use a round metal pan with 1/8" holes throughout. It is marketed as for pizza.  Timing is everything with a pizza crust.  I learned as a 14 year old in an east coast Italian restaurant . Be Fast ,pop open oven, lift crust  take a peak ,if its not perfect shut the oven fast (14 year olds get yelled at if they are not fast enough...) Seems the oven must maintain temperature... or so they said. When its perfect, take it out and slice it up.

Sounds easy right ... Ha Ha , I am my own biggest food critic , Rarely can I get my wife to admit it was less than perfect ...maybe, the crust was slightly over done,   not the charred ,blackened bottom that I was whining about... in reality it had a few blacker spots than it should have ...  

Is it a possibility that you might be your own biggest food critic as well ? :)

Thomas, looks like great recipes.

Why do you do that with the onion, cut it in half, then remove it at the end?

Hi Cristo;  
Thank You !   They sure are favorites here!  
Yes , leave the onion on through out the whole cook down then remove and do what you will with it.   I always feed it to the piggys but alas for rest of this year and most of next the piggys are feeding me!

HA Ha piggy farmer humor !

thomas rubino wrote:
I use a round metal pan with 1/8" holes throughout. It is marketed as for pizza.  Timing is everything with a pizza crust.

Just realized we may make different crusts. I use a regular non-stick (but oiled) pie pan to raise the dough and then bake it. Do you do a thin style NY crust?

I make a thick soft crust (Chicago style?) and if I don't pre-bake it for 10 min it never comes out right. I just recently learned how to make what I consider "good pizza" but I am no gourmet cook. For me the secret is the mushrooms or sliced tomatoes to add juiciness, and also some ground cayenne (dried from the garden). I don't like hot foods but cayenne and a little salt really seems to make the difference flavor wise.

As far as being a food critic, lately I have been pretty happy with my pizza making skills and it appears to be my Mastiff's favorite food aside from steak, he freaking loves the soft and chewy crusts (I like them too but feel guilty if I don't give him the crust after eating each slice).

Yes , of course that explains it.  I have eaten Chicago style lots of times, but I have never tried to make it!  Your method may be the proper way to make it.

As far as sharing the crust with your best friend .... well you wouldn't be a very good friend if you didn't !  

You know what's missing around these beautiful mountains? New York pizza by the slice. And enchiladas. And tacos. And calzones. And chicken fried steaks. And gumbo. And mesquite smoked brisket. And a New York deli.

That sauce looks excellent. I use a pizza stone. I'm more of a thick cruster. The stone helps cook the bread more evenly & thoroughly. I usually do a thick sourdough crust with (preferably) homemade mozzarella. Will do thin crust to try this recipe. When in Rome ...

Thanks

Thomas, thanks for sharing.  If I can remember to buy pepperoni and mozzarella ... one of these days I will try your recipe.

Mike Barkley wrote:You know what's missing around these beautiful mountains? New York pizza by the slice. And enchiladas. And tacos. And calzones. And chicken fried steaks. And gumbo. And mesquite smoked brisket. And a New York deli.

That sauce looks excellent. I use a pizza stone. I'm more of a thick cruster. The stone helps cook the bread more evenly & thoroughly. I usually do a thick sourdough crust with (preferably) homemade mozzarella. Will do thin crust to try this recipe. When in Rome ...

Mike, I just had to quote what you said.  I have been and lived in several places where you just can't find those foods.  Especially, when you are craving Mexican food in North Carolina.

So I learned to cook all of them except the New York pizza!  I have no idea what it taste like.  I have heard on TV that you eat it by folding it ??

Thomas, what kind of flour are you using in your dough recipe? My wife and I have struggled with pizza doughs; when we start to stretch them out into something resembling a circle, the dough springs back a lot, and we find it difficult to get the dough stretched out and we usually end up tearing a hole or two in the process.

James Freyr - it sounds like you just need to let the dough relax. A technique that I like to use is to stretch it a little, walk away, stretch it some more, walk away, etc. until the desired size and shape is reached. There is definitely a sweet spot in the proofing where it's easiest to work with, too little and you get the issue you are dealing with, too much and it won't hold shape well, it's too loose.

Mike, I just had to quote what you said.  I have been and lived in several places where you just can't find those foods.  Especially, when you are craving Mexican food in North Carolina.
So I learned to cook all of them except the New York pizza!  I have no idea what it taste like.  I have heard on TV that you eat it by folding it ??  

haha yes indeed. I learned early that if I wanted to eat the foods I grew up with & also new foods discovered while traveling that I needed to learn to cook. So I did. Grandma was an amazing cook so that helped. I can make almost anything better than most restaurants. Gumbo is the exception. That's an art form. One of my winter projects is to learn the secrets of that. All the Mexican food around here is wrong. Very wrong. It's basically ketchup & American cheese on top of gmo tortillas. No tiene sabor. Nada. Es muy malo. NY pizza almost folds itself. Very thin. Usually slightly greasy from cheese & meats.

For pizza dough I use 50% all purpose flour & 50% bread flour. For thin crusts go with the all purpose only. The organic varieties of this brand. flour I let the dough rise once, punch it down a little, then let it rise again. The trick to getting it fully stretched out without ripping is to do it in stages. Stretch it some then let it rest about 5 minutes. Stretch it out more then let it rest more. Do that 3 or 4 times until it is full size. Small tears can be repaired with an extra piece of dough. A pizza stone helps keep it from shrinking back. The rest periods help prevent tears.

James Freyr wrote:Thomas, what kind of flour are you using in your dough recipe? My wife and I have struggled with pizza doughs; when we start to stretch them out into something resembling a circle, the dough springs back a lot, and we find it difficult to get the dough stretched out and we usually end up tearing a hole or two in the process.

I just dust the countertop with flour and use a rolling pin (though I am sure some would say that is sacrilegious!).

Hi Guys; Been out of town for a few weeks.  
I use regular all purpose flour.
I let the yeast and sugar ferment for a few minutes in warm water before adding flour
I always rise twice .
The dough must rest as it is stretched.
I also use a rolling pin after it is close to the right size, but I use a dry Parmesan cheese with a little corn meal  rather than flour on the counter top.
You must hold your tongue just so or it will rip... :) Sometimes it just does !
I never could do the spin in the air method of crust forming...


My next venture is going to be an attempt to create my own pepperoni...  Was reading up on different recipes just last night.  May take a while as they must hang and age. I will report back when I come up with a good recipe.

Thanks to share it. I would try this.