No Time Naan Pizzas

I am not one for shortcuts. I like to make my ice cream, my breads, my stocks, my sauces, my everything from scratch. Which is easy for me as a single, only semi-social, loner who loves to cook. Fine. Perfect.

But I must admit there are moments, even in my low-key life, when there’s just no time. Maybe I’ve gotten lost in a Castle marathon and suddenly realize it’s 11pm and I haven’t fed myself. I probably got caught up writing a blog story about how I don’t have time to make pizza and now I really don’t have time to make pizza. Maybe I slapped on my good pants, rouged my lips and went to dinner with friends, feeling the need to look the best, as I am the only one not dating, came home depressed needing pizza… or maybe I just fell asleep on my couch woke up with my brain screaming, “PIZZA” as it frequently does and I am desperate to silence the beast.

Furthermore, I am a firm believer in that old Mark Twain anecdote, “Time is money, money is power, power is pizza, pizza is knowledge.” Okay, that was April from Parks and Rec… but it’s a powerful concept nonetheless.

So why not order a slice? Yeah… and deal with the judgmental looks from the delivery guy as you yell to no one, “Pizza’s here”?  No thank you. He knows, that you know, that he knows that no one else is in that apartment but you keep calling to ghosts to save some face – we’ve all been there.

Okay, why not walk around the block to get a slice? Are you kidding? It’s 3pm…. on a Wednesday, I am obviously in sweats. And not the cute girl, “Oh I just got out from a Soul Cycle class and my hair still looks perfect sweats,” we are talking gray on gray on gray on gray sweats, old track team sweats, your brother’s stained and forgotten, so you’ve stolen ’em, sweats.

So what’s a girl to do? I’ll tell ya. Make Naan Pizzas! I’ve always got some Naan on hand. It’s a great addition… I mean alternative… to your plain old white bread consumption. I make flatbreads with it, I make middle-easterny tacos with it, I bite two holes for eyes in it and make masks out of it for when I’m feeling silly. But my all time favorite thing to do is slather it in a quick HOMEMADE (I’m not that lazy, just hate leaving the crib) tomato sauce, cover it in fresh mozzarella and bake it into the easiest, fastest, most delicious, shortcuttiest pizza.

I don’t remember promising you a recipe but here’s my recipe for super fast, beyond easy tomato sauce and my not-so-recipe recipe, more of an assembly guide with fun remarks, for making my No Time Naan Pizzas.

Enjoy!

Tomato sauce – let’s do this. You’ll need tomato purée, olive oil, garlic, salt, bay leaf and dried parsley.

Heat the oil in a small sauce pot and add the chunkily chopped garlic. Cook until golden. Remove the garlic from the pan with a slotted spoon and reserve.

Add the tomato purée, salt, bay leaf and parsley to the oil. Cook over med-low heat for 30 to 40 minutes. If the tomatoes are a little tart you can add a pinch of sugar. Adjust salt and pepper as you see fit. Set the tomato sauce aside.

These are the toppings I like – but you do what you please! There are no rules. Remember that garlic we removed from the sauce? Yeah, that’s it up there in the picture. It’s golden and sweet and is a great topping.

Preheat your oven to 400° F. Get your naans – toast them in the oven for, eh, 5 minutes.

Slather them with that HOMEMADE SAUCE!

Top as desired. I do one classic moz and basil. I do one mushroom and fried garlic. But you do you.

Place in 400° F oven and bake until the cheese is melty, the basil crispy, the mushrooms tender, the world at peace. It’ll take about 10 minutes.

Get your grays, put on some junk tv, find a cat and get to grubbing’.

Pizza so good even your cat will want some.