for the love of mayonnaise a blog about sandwiches.

The reason I wanted to create this sandwich stemmed from a recent purchase of multi-grain ‘sandwich rounds’ at the grocery store. I had seen them occasionally in the bread isle but I never bought them for some reason. Well the other day, getting bored with the typical bagged bread selection and not having a sandwich in mind that would require a trip over to the bakery for something fresh, I grabbed a pack. They’re awesome. Thin, soft, a nice whole grain flavor and perfect for 2 year olds who don’t want a ton of bread and need their sandwiches to be flat so they are easy to handle.

The circular shape obviously made me think of pizza even though our homemade pizzas are always rectangular. I whipped up some pizza sauce and threw this bad boy together and it was the most perfect, individual-sized, pizza that you can eat like a sandwich.

So first I will give you some ideas on making your own pizza sauce. We prefer to make our own at my house because it is delicious and everytime it tastes different. I use a few base ingredients and then I just add them to taste. Every batch my husband claims is the best one yet. If I want my sauce sweeter I can do that, if I want it more acidic, I can do that too. I also always stock my shelf with different brands of canned tomatoes because the quality of the tomato and the type of tomatoes that they use has everything to do with how the sauce will taste. The ones I typically keep on hand are San Marzano tomatoes but some of the brands you can find in my pantry include Cento, Redpack and Furmanos.

Canned tomatoes are one of those things that truly get better after being canned. You’re more likely to have a better tasting sauce using canned tomatoes as a base than you are fresh. You can do this numerous ways. You can use canned whole tomatoes and then throw them in a food processor or you can do the same thing with diced tomatoes. I like these two methods because I have more control over the chunkiness of the sauce. Also, you pay extra for them to ‘crush’ the tomatoes for you if you buy the crushed kind so why not just do it yourself? If I do buy the already crushed kind I get the one that has extra chunkiness as advertised on the can because I like my sauce that way.

Experiment how you like with the below ingredients or throw in some new ones you think might taste good!

Pizza Sauce
Ingredients:
Canned Tomatoes (whole, diced, crushed)
Garlic (fresh or garlic powder)
Oregano
Basil
Sugar or Honey
Salt & fresh ground Black Pepper

Directions:
Start by throwing your tomatoes in the food processor to get the sauce to the consistency you want. You can also add tomato paste to it if you want something a little thicker. Then start adding ingredients, mixing and tasting. Keep in mind the flavors will become stronger as it marinates and sits so it will change over time. Scott always says it tastes better the next day.

Now, although there seems to be a universal confusion over what is considered Margherita Pizza and no it has nothing to do with Jimmy Buffet or tequila you smart smart people, here is a little history. Margherita pizza was named after Queen Margherita Teresa Giovanni visited Naples in 1889 and Don Raffaele Esposito was tasked with creating a special dish for her. His wife helped him come up with the pizza with colors that represented the Italian flag and since then pizza made with fresh mozzarella, basil and tomatoes can be considered Margherita pizza. I added pepperonis to this one so my husband would eat it and since they are red I don’t think we need to call it by another name. You can really put whatever kind of pizza toppings you like in this sandwich.

Margherita Pizza Sandwich
Ingredients:
Whole Grain Sandwich Round
Fresh Mozzarella
Fresh Basil
Pizza Sauce
Pepperonis

Directions:
Heat up your panini press or your George forman or your grill or whatever you have that gets hot and you can press a sandwich in.

PUT YOUR BREAD IN THE TOASTER. If you opt not to do this, the sauce will make your bread too soggy and it will fall apart when you try to remove it from the grill.

Once your bread is toasted, place the mozzarella on the bottom piece. Then spread your sauce on top of the cheese. You want there to be a barrier between your sauce and both sides of your bread to prevent soggy-bread syndrome. Then place your basil and your pepperonis on top of your sauce and top with you other piece of bread.

Place this in your very hot press or grill and keep an eye on it, it won’t take too long. I would have preferred to grill mine longer than I did for these picture as the cheese wasn’t totally melted but that makes for a super messy situation. Take it out and let it rest for a few minutes so you don’t smush your cheese out when you take that first bite.

I also like to dip mine in some of the prepared cold tomato sauce. Just look at that. Delicious.