Recipe - No Frills Pizza Sauce

Many years ago, before, like, the internet... (becomes distracted trying to remember what that felt like)... Anyway back in the early 80s, Beaver and I got this great pizza dough recipe from a real New Jersey Italian girl who we were close to at the time.  One night we decided to make her pizza, but none of my southern cookbooks had a recipe for pizza sauce.  In a pinch we made a sauce based on one from Southern Living's Chicken Parmigiana recipe, one of Beaver's all-time favorite birthday dishes.  It was perfect.  The kids don't know this but I have used this sauce on many, many home made pizzas over the years.  

I'm not knocking today's veggie packed pizza sauces so don't get me wrong.  This sauce, however, DOES do the job nicely, especially as a base for today's veggie packed pizza toppings.  Sometimes a little means a lot, flavor-wise.

No Frills Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

1 can (15-16 ounces) tomato sauce

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Procedure

Put first three ingredients in a small saucepan and heat to simmer.  Add butter and stir to melt.  Gently simmer covered for 10 minutes.

Makes about 2 cups.