Sun Gold Margherita
It’s that time of year again when we’re flush with sun golds. The occasion calls for making one of my favorite summer sauces from slow and low roasted sun gold tomatoes, garlic, basil and a generous bath of olive oil. After cooking for about an hour and a half, each tomato is peeled and pressed through a fine mesh strainer or food mill. The resulting sauce is so incredible on pizza or pasta and the oil that remains in the pan is a revelation- drizzled on some good bread, used in a salad dressing, or on whatever else you can think of. The skins can also be used to make a killer tomato paste/spread - pulverized with a mortar and pestle - and slathered onto some toast. Nothing gets wasted. The sauce is so perfect I wanted to keep this pizza super simple with sun gold sauce, mozzarella, basil, and grated pecorino Romano. Video of the process is below.
Ingredients:
Sun Gold cherry tomatoes (2 – 3 lbs)
Garlic (4 cloves smashed)
Grated pecorino Romano cheese
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Basil
Mozzarella
Sauce Instructions:
The real heart of this pizza is the Sun Gold sauce. It’s so simple but as Frank Prisinzano would say – it’s insane. Set your oven to 275F.
Fill a deep skillet with the tomatoes. Pour in a generous amount of olive oil. The tomatoes don’t need to be submerged, but you want a healthy layer on oil in the bottom of the pan. This oil, by the time you’re done, will be a transcendent addition to grilled veggies, salads, or anything else you can think of.
Add the garlic and a generous amount of basil, toss together.
Roast for about an hour and a half until the tomatoes are fragrant, soft, and the skin is starting to fall off.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool a little before handling.
The next part is the most labor intensive. You will now peel each individual tomato and squeeze out the meat into a bowl.
Reserve the tomato skins which can be dehydrated and made into salt, or pulverized in a mortar and pestle to make a delicious tomato paste/spread.
Use your fingers to mash the tomatoes and transfer to a wire mesh colander or a food mill and press to remove the seeds.
What’s left is an amazing bright orange tomato sauce that works well for pizza and pasta dishes.
The Dough:
For the pizza dough I have been very happy using a Ken Forkish recipe from Flour Water Salt Yeast for an overnight dough with levain. It’s one of the few recipes that I have decided not to mess with as it always yields great results. Recently I’ve been using Caputo Manitoba flour which has been delivering wonderful results.
The Assembly & Finishing:
Stretch your dough working on a lightly floured work surface.
Spoon on the Sun Gold sauce evenly and generously.
Evenly spread out slices or torn chunks of mozzarella on the pizza.
Hit it with a layer of freshly grated pecorino.
Drizzle a little olive oil on top.
Bake in the oven according to your specific temperature and style of oven. I use a wood fired oven and like to keep it around 750-800F and it cooks in about 2-3 minutes, constantly rotating the pie with a peel. If baking in a conventional oven, this will typically be at a lower temperature (550F) and it will take several more minutes.
Remove from the oven and finish with some more freshly grated pecorino and fresh basil leaves.
Slice and enjoy!
