Pizza Sauce, Coming Soon!

I've gone to the beach twice in the past three weeks to see a friend who will soon be moving across the country (she's a Marine and being relocated to a new base). I've had a great time both weekends I was down there--cooking, picking blueberries, seeing other friends, playing with her daughter. And while I was down there, we made pizza. She's not a big pizza (or bread) eater and I'm not really either, unless it's socially. But I'm about breaded out right now.

Since she'll be moving soon, I didn't want her to buy a lot of special things just for me to cook with (though it was nice of her to offer) and I didn't want to haul a lot of stuff with me or buy it there. It somehow removes some of the fun when Wal*Mart is right around the corner complete with all the supplies you need. We pretended it wasn't there for the most part.

The first time I made the sauce (which I'll be posting soon), I was flying blind. But a marinara-style sauce really isnt' that difficult as long as you don't have a cold or something else that effects your sense of taste/smell. The key was trying to make sure we got as much as we could, nutrient wise, out of the tomatoes--after all, why make pizza any less nutritionally sound than it already is? Tomatoes have alcohol-soluble nutrients, meaning you need some sort of alcohol (say, red wine) to fully benefit.

For alcohol my options were tequila (three different types, all her husband's), Jagermeister, or amaretto. I chose the amaretto. Its natural sugars combined with the earthy-nutty flavor of the almonds complimented the sauce nicely. Of course, dried oregano and other herbs--plus a lot of onion, garlic, and mushrooms, didn't hurt either!