Pizza/Marinara Sauce

Just half an onion makes this Marinara.

Well not *this*.  This is a pizza.  The sauce, dummy.

So the best part of the pizza experiment was the sauce that we put together.  We've been making it frequently just to dip things in it.  It is also butt-simple.  I think what makes it good it the mix of fresh and dried herbs.

I avoid too much basil in this sauce for two reasons.  One, my pomodoro sauce is basil rich and I want this sauce to taste different.  Two, traditional margherita pizza has plenty of basil on it.

To make this into marinara sauce you should start with the oil, anchovies and half a finely chopped onion.  After the onion has sweated out for 5-6 minutes add the garlic and continue as before. 

You'll need

• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 anchovies
• 2 cloves garlic (minced) or 2 inches from the squeeze tube
• 1 rounded Tbsp fresh oregano leaves (no stems) chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning (or 1/4 tsp each dried basil and thyme)
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 can (28oz) San Marzano tomatoes

Crush the tomatoes with your hand in a bowl if they weren't already crushed.  If you don't do this now, you will spend 10 long minutes smashing them with a fork while this is cooking like I did.

Pick the oregano leaves off the stems and make a pile that would basically fill your cupped palm.  Chop this down to a big Tbsp worth of oregano.

Put the olive oil in a skillet on med-low heat and add the garlic and anchovies.

Smash the anchovies with a fork.  Watch out, it might spit a bit if the oil gets too hot. Avoid browning the garlic.  We just want to flavor the oil.

Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, and the rest of the spices.

Stir together while it comes to a boil.  Add the sugar once it is hot.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes.  Stir occasionally to help incorporate the oil into the sauce.  Smash any tomato chunks while you stir.

Taste for salt and pepper, then allow to cool a bit before use. My use was a margherita pizza on wheat crust.

Crispy Sous-Vide Chicken

You won't believe that it isn't undercooked.

I did a version of Michael Voltaggio's sous vide chicken thighs in the new rig tonight.  I took minimal pictures so I won't post this as a recipe until I do it again, but it is a winner.

The original recipe calls for skin-on but boneless thighs, but if your supermercado is like mine they have unmodified chicken parts or skinless-boneless chicken parts.  I decided to go bone in.  I added some time to the sous vide to account for the thermal mass of the bone.

Basically I patted the thighs dry and cut off the excess skin flap on each one.   I seasoned the bottom (non skin) side with garlic sea salt and lemon pepper.  Each piece was bagged with a half tsp of unsalted butter and a thyme sprig.  Vacuum away and place in a 145F sous vide bath for 2.5 hours.

After the cook, unbag the thighs and pat completely dry.  Scantly salt the skin and place (skin side down) on an oiled skillet (or griddle) over med to med-hi heat. Do the skin side for 5 min or until the skin is crispy but not burned.  Turn over for 2 min on the seasoning side.

Check out the quick potatoes in the background...

Plate and eat.  When I do the update I'll have to pretty up the plates with some color, but the flavor is awesome.

His and ...

Hers chicken and potatoes.

New Sous-Vide rig!

Upgrade to the lifestyle.

I decided to treat myself for my b-day and bought an Anova sous vide circulator.  A great bang-for-the-buck unit that I got on sale because a new version is out.  I took the old rig out to the desert.  Of course I just realized that the roaster would've made a good deep fry rig...alas.

The vessel is a Coleman stacker 48 (30ish quart cooler) with a cutout in the lid.  Currently testing how long for it to take a full load of cool water to 150F.  

Tomorrow night I'll make some chicken thighs and try to remember to take pics so that we can have another recipe on this blog.