Sunday is a good day to recharge and prep for the coming week.  I spent part of this past Sunday tweaking a pizza sauce and dough recipe from Rachel Ray and made some to freeze.

Recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 can plum tomatoes (28-32 ounces)
• * 3-4 tablespoons grated onion (grate over food processor or blender to catch juice)
• 2 small cloves garlic, pasted or finely grated
• 1/2 teaspoon ground fennel or fennel pollen
• A few leaves of basil, torn
• A few grinds of sea salt and pepper
• * 1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Makes topping for 6 to 8 pizzas

PREPARATION

Blend the ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.

*I finely chopped my onion instead of grating it.  I will grate it next time or use a blender.

* I also added a splash of red wine vinegar and omitted the sugar since my tomatoes were a little on the sweet side.

Freezer Prep

I use these screw cap freezer containers a lot and to help with head space I placed a folded piece of plastic wrap inside and pressed it against the sauce to better protect it from freezer burn.  As you can see I don't get very creative with labels and since I reuse the containers I like the P-Touch labels so they can be removed after use.

Pizza Crust 

I adapted this quick and easy pizza dough recipe from Rachel Ray as well.  I subbed out 1 cup of the flour with a whole gran grind that I use for breads and the rest with AP flour. I got four baseball size rounds. I wrapped them individually in plastic wrap and froze them together in a single zip lock bag.

INGREDIENTS

• About 1/4-1/3 cup dry white wine (a 3-count in slow stream)
• About 3 teaspoons dry active yeast (1 1/2 envelopes for each batch of dough), such as Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast
• 3/4 cup very warm tap water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
• 1 round teaspoon fine sea salt or kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 2 1/2 cups double zero flour (such as Molino Spadoni brand Gran Mugnaio Farina Tipo OO)

Makes 4 12-inch thin crust pizzas

PREPARATION

Combine the wine, yeast and water and stir to dissolve the yeast. Add the honey, salt and olive oil, a turn and a half of the mixing bowl, to the bowl, then stir in a cup of flour at a time to incorporate – stir to combine as much flour as possible, then turn out onto floured pastry board or marble counter and combine by hand, then knead for 6-7 minutes. Rinse the bowl, then dry and lightly oil it, return the dough to the bowl and cover with clean towel. Allow the dough to rise in a warm corner of the kitchen for about 45 minutes.

Cut the dough into four pieces, knead each piece and cover again. Let stand 15 minutes more, or until ready to make the pizzas.