Easy No-Cook Pizza Sauce

This easy no-cook pizza sauce is made with crushed tomatoes and smooth tomato sauce—ready in minutes and packed with bold Italian flavor.

It’s the same simple, delicious sauce we used at our family’s pizzeria—the first pizza place in our town to offer delivery, even before Domino’s! Whether you’re making a quick weeknight pizza or recreating nostalgic takeout nights, this sauce brings authentic pizzeria taste right to your kitchen.

 Things to know about This easy no-cook pizza sauce

• Use quality tomatoes: For the best flavor, use good-quality canned crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Look for San Marzano or Italian-style plum tomatoes if possible—they’re naturally sweeter and lower in acidity, which gives the sauce that rich, pizzeria-style taste. If they are whole crush them with your hands. for a slight chunky sauce or blend if you prefer a smoother consistency.

• No cooking needed: This sauce comes together with just a bowl and a spoon—no stove required. It’s perfect for busy nights or homemade pizza parties.

• Customize to taste: Add a pinch of sugar for sweetness, a splash of olive oil for richness, or a sprinkle of dried oregano and garlic powder for a classic Italian flair.

• Freezer-friendly: Make a big batch and freeze in portions. It keeps beautifully and makes pizza night even faster next time.

• Great on more than pizza: Try it as a quick dipping sauce for breadsticks, calzones, or mozzarella sticks! If your looking for a delicious pizza crust recipe I have one for you Neapolitan overnight pizza dough

Easy No -Cook Pizza Sauce

Turkey Meatball Garlic Toast

I love Meatballs as much as I love Pasta and for the same reasons. They’re just so easy, delicious, versatile and everyone loves them. This meatball garlic toast uses my  Mama’s traditional meatball  recipe reconstruct to fit my lifestyle and taste, using ground Turkey breast. While ground turkey isn’t my favorite I use it when I want a healthier option, plus you can never go wrong with Meatballs.

Plenty of Parmesan with a few simple ingredients and plenty of fresh herbs, turned that flavorless ground turkey into something totally drool worthy.

Three Tips When Making This turkey meatball garlic toast

First  when mixing  the meat into the other ingredients don’t over mix or overcook, both lead to tough hard meatballs.

A case in point to the last sentence, a new prep cook was mixing the mixture in the dough mixer, and that explained why the meatballs were rock hard. There is no nice way to put it, they were not good.

The other thing to remember is that  the meatballs are cooked twice first roasted, then in the sauce, so it’s easy to overcook them. Roasting the meatballs adds another depth of flavor and beautiful  color.

I try to use my handy- dandy toaster oven whenever I can. I don’t like turning on my oven every time I need to toast something, my toaster oven is one of my most used small kitchen appliances, if you don’t have one they’re well worth the cost.

Third this is another custom-able recipe, if you like the traditional use a high grade ground beef, or a mixture of chicken, beef, or veal.

Experiment,  food and cooking is meant to be fun and enjoyable, I have simplified and gave you made ahead tips to make cooking a journey, not a destination always learning, always finding new ingredients to satisfy our changing life style and diet…..Have Fun!!! If you love Meatballs you may want to try these meatball recipes Mama’s best Italian meatballs or for a vegetarian option try my  Melanzane polpetta Italian eggplant meatballs.

Ingredients

• 1 Lbs. ground turkey breast
• 6 slices crusty Italian Bread cut medium thick on a diagonal
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup chopped  Italian parsley
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbs. each chopped garlic and onion
• Salt and pepper
• 4 cups my easy marinara sauce
• 1 stick butter softened
• 1/2 cup each mozzarella, parmesan and sharp cheddar
• 3 tablespoons each chopped Italian parsley, garlic and onion
  Instructions
• Preheat oven to 350
• In a bowl make the cheesy garlic butter by mixing the last 4 ingredients
• Spread the garlic mixture on the bread slices
• toast  for 10 – 15 minutes.
• Mix egg, bread crumbs, parsley,  garlic, onion, parmesan  salt and pepper ending with the meat
• Shape into golf size balls
• Roast in a preheated 350 oven until light golden brown about 10 minutes
• Cook an additional 20 minutes in simmering homemade marinara sauce
• Top garlic toast with 2 meatballs top with additional mozzarella
• Return to oven just to melt the cheese

• Creamy Tuscan Chicken Penne Pasta – Easy Weeknight Dinner

You need to add this Tuscan Chicken Penne to your weekly pasta night menu. It’s a creamy pan sauce filled with sun dried tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms and goes prefect with the chicken and pasta. This is a delicious base sauce to add any shape pasta to, it doesn’t have to be penne, use what you have on hand.

My recipes and the way I cook is to use what  I have on hand, or what is on sale and the freshest seasonal  ingredients.  This meal came about because on a shopping trip I bought whole, skinless. boneless chicken breast, they were on sale.

I like to cut them into different shapes to use in different recipes. For this penne pasta I cut the chicken into strips.

The rest I cut into fillets for grilling or baking, lay it flat in baggies and freeze it.

It’s great when all you have to do is take the chicken out of the freezer and it’s pan ready for your recipe, for those busy night , when commitments are long and time is short.

This quick dinner can be on your table in about thirty minutes and has few ingredients so you don’t have to go to the store as often, because you forgot something, and leaving with more than you came for, plus a little extra frustration you didn’t have to pay for in this crazy times.

Things to know about this creamy chicken penne recipe

In this Tuscan Chicken Penne recipe, I use one of my favorite tricks—pasta water! I do this in about 75% of my recipes because pasta water is pure magic when it comes to finishing sauces.

Before adding the pasta to your pan, ladle in about 1 cup of the starchy, salty cooking water. It not only adds flavor but also helps bind the sauce and pasta together while naturally thickening the sauce.

Don’t forget to save the pasta water before you drain it—this is one of the easiest steps to overlook! I like to save extra just in case I want to adjust the sauce’s consistency.

Need to thicken your pan sauce a bit more? Try this trick: coat a pat or two of butter in flour and drop it into the sauce. Let it simmer for at least 5 minutes to cook out any raw flour taste.

This Tuscan-style sauce is a restaurant-quality base you can customize any way you like. It’s full of flavor and guaranteed to be a hit with your family. If you like family friendly pasta meals that come together quick and taste delicious try my tomato piccata shrimp bucatini.

If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you—leave a comment or tag me on Instagram so I can see your delicious creations. That’s truly my favorite part!

Ingredients

1/2  lb. penne pasta

1/2 Lbs.  skinless boneless chicken breast sliced into strips

2 Tbs. each olive oil and butter

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup white wine

4 cups spinach chopped

4 oz, sun dried tomatoes

1 cup parmesan cheese

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup reserved pasta water

1 Tbs. each chopped Italian parsley, and basil

Salt and pepper to taste

Instruction

1. Salt and pepper the chicken
2. Heat oil and butter add the chicken saute on high heat till golden, remove and set aside
3.  In the same pan lower the heat to medium add the onion and garlic saute until soft and translucent
4. Deglaze the pan with the white wine waiting until fully absorbed before adding  the cream, chicken stock, and pasta water
5. Simmer  covered until thickens about 15 minute
6. Add  spinach and sun dried tomatoes simmer 5 minutes longer.
7. Toss cooked penne in sauce add the parmesan cheese, Italian parsley and basil
8. Top with additional parmesan……. Enjoy!!!

 Pan seared Citrus Salmon

Don’t let the looks of this pan seared  Citrus Salmon dinner intimidate you. This salmon meal may look intimidating, but it’s not, it’s quick and easy too. It’s all made in one pan, with salmon, garlic, onion and the fresh taste of orange and lemon.

Not only is this citrus salmon easy and delicious, it looks and feels fancy. Best part? It comes together in less than 30 minutes. You’ll want to make this healthy meal often. It’s prefect for family week night dinners and decant enough for Saturday night dinner with friends.

This is a restaurant quality  meal you can make in your kitchen, to show off what a great chef you are.

Things to know about this pan seared citrus salmon recipe

Start by cutting the salmon into equal parts. The measurements in this recipe are for two, if you want four meals double the recipe. Salt and pepper the salmon, in a large saute pan bring the olive oil and butter to medium heat.

Brown salmon 3 to 4 minutes per side then remove fish, add the onions and garlic to the saute pan cook until tender and just beginning to brown.

Now add the lemon, orange juice. lemon,  orange sections, herbs  and one pat of butter coated in flour to thicken the sauce, simmer for five minutes, return fish to pan only to heat through.

Plate salmon pour sauce over sprinkle with additional Italian parsley and rosemary and enjoy a restaurant quality meal, made by you.

If you like salmon recipes that are easy to make and delicious try my quick and easy salmon piccata

If you made this recipe please leave me a comment and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram that’s my favorite part!!!!

Ingredients

• 2 6 oz. skinless salmon fillet
• 2 Tablespoons each butter and extra virgin olive oil
• 3 Tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 mandarin oranges sectioned
• 1 lemon sliced
• 2 Tablespoons each lemon and mandarin rind
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 2 Tablespoons each chopped rosemary and Italian parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Salt and pepper salmon
2. In a large saute pan melt the butter and olive oil bring to medium high heat
3. Add salmon saute until brown 3 to 4 minutes per side
4. remove salmon set aside
5. Add onion and garlic saute until tender and just beginning to brown
6. Add orange juice, lemon juice,  sliced lemons, mandarin oranges, honey, herbs and one tablespoon of butter coated in flour
7. Cook until sauce thickens about 5 minutes
8. Return salmon to pan heat through
9. Plate salmon pour sauce over sprinkle with additional rosemary and Italian parsley…..ENJOY