I hadn’t made pizza in a while and decided to try a new sauce last week. I started with this one, dubbed the  Ultimate Pizza Sauce.  It seemed like it would be way too thick as written but I was especially intrigued by the fennel seed. Unfortunately, after I started making the sauce I realized I had no fennel seed so I need to make it again. I bought the fennel seed my last trip to the grocery store but thought I’d post this as I made it, since it was quite good even without the fennel. I used way more sauce than the original recipe called for, but cooked it down.

• 2 Tbs oil
• 1 Tbs butter
• 1/2 an onion, chopped very finely
• 1/4 cup celery, chopped very finely
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 15-oz cans tomato sauce
• 2 6 ounce cans tomato paste
• 2-3 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbs chopped fresh basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• (and 1 tsp fennel seed if you want to try that!)

Heat the oil and butter in a saucepan large enough to hold all the tomato sauce without spattering too much. Add the onion, celery, and garlic and saute 5-10 minutes over low until very soft. Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste and stir until smooth.

Add all the rest of the ingredients and stir while bringing to a simmer. Turn it down to a very low simmer or it will spatter all over. Cover partially and cook at least half an hour, longer if you’d like. (I think I ended up at about 45 minutes to an hour.)

Take the bay leaf out and spread the sauce over your favorite pizza dough. I like to prebake my pizza just a few minutes before spreading sauce.