Potential game-changing progress this weekend! I've been thinking (yet again) that putting my tomatoes through a blender is probably not a good idea. But I've been hesitant to buy a food mill, and for whatever reason, I guess I thought that was my only alternative. On another thread Quietdesperation said he pushed his tomatoes through a strainer, and Invertedisdead seconded that. Seemed easy enough to give a shot, and the results were terrific.
I pushed 7/11 through the strainer, and the result had the same look and thinness of the pizzeria sauces I've purchased. It was awesome. (See pic.)
Then I pushed just the tomatoes from a can of Cento San Marzano through, and the result was almost pure water. Next I tried the puree that was in the can of Cento. It looked fine, but the taste was horrible by comparison to the 7/11. It tasted like water with a bitter tin flavor.
Last I decided it was time to crack open a small retail-size jar of Tomato Magic. Tasted so good out of the jar. The result after pushing it through the strainer was notably thicker and darker in color compared to the 7/11. It tasted very similar to the 7/11, maybe a little richer, but I liked them both equally. (Note that the 7/11 was previously frozen while the Tomato Magic was fresh.)
I decided to mix the 7/11 and Tomato Magic for my sauce. I reduced the sugar way down, and otherwise went with my recent somewhat lower-oregano seasoning.
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Change number 2 this week was I tested Romano vs Parm separately, each on top of the sauce respective halves of the pie. I liked the parm better. The Romano seemed too strong. But my view seems to change on this bake to bake.
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Last, I increased the bake time to 8:20 (shout out to JKB's recent amazing slice that I think was at 9 minutes). Only the last 0:20 was directly on the stone. This was a nice improvement.
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When forming the pie, I made more effort to really stretch the dough when I knuckle stretched. I have a tendency to go around and around, and gravity does too much of the work. Also, while I pushed down on the rim quite a bit to flatten it, I did shape it this week which helped keep the cheese from sliding onto it.
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Negatives for this pie was a bit of cheese browning that I wasn't looking for, and some bubbles. Maybe a bit too much sauce, and probably still too much seasoning.
Positives, sauce consistency and resulting melt. Better stretched and baked crust.
Next time: Reduce the romano if I do a comparison again, probably try only strained 7/11, slight reduction in sauce, slight reduction in oregano, stick with 8:20 or longer the 0.0925 TF and everything else.
