Ancho Chile Pizza Sauce

Ancho Chile Pizza Sauce

Can obviously be adapted into a pasta sauce. Or the chile can be omitted if you don't want a spicy sauce. Or you could add a variety of other herbs to suit the toppings on the pizza, thyme if you wanted caramelized onion and goats cheese pizza for example. This is a guideline recipe for a basic tomato sauce and is really very versatile. (Like every recipe)

1 Red onion, diced
4/5 Chopped Sun-dried tomatoes
1 Ancho Chile
Three cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 Bay leaf
Salt
Oregano
Fresh parsley, chopped
Balsamic vingegar
Olive Oil
2 cans of tinned tomatoes/a lot of fresh tomatoes
-Tomatoes chopped and juice reserved
Fresh Basil

If the ancho chile is dried prepare it by first soaking it in hot water for 20 minutes. Then, open the chile up and remove the veins and the seeds from the inside. This is easily done by simply scraping a knife over the flesh of the chile. If you wish, save the water used to soak the chile to add to the sauce to give it some extra spice. Dice the chile and set aside.

Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the diced onion, chile, sundried tomatoes along with the garlic, parsley, bay leaf, a teaspoon of salt and as much oregano as you feel is necessary. Once the onions are heated through add a dash of balsamic vinegar. Fry until the onions are soft, taking care not to burn them. Add the juice reserved for the tomatoes.

Using tinned tomatoes is obviously much more convenient but if you are using fresh you could perhaps roast them (to bring about a greater depth of flavour and a sweetness to the sauce) or grill them (to make them smokey) Once cool, peel them and remove the seeds but keep the juice. Chop them and set aside to use in the sauce.

Let the sauce simmer, about an hour is required for the tastes to really infuse.
Chop some basil and stir it in once you've taken the sauce off the heat.
Allow the sauce to cool before you add it to the pizza.