Lacagnina Pizza

Making pizza is a passion in our family. I remember my Grandpa Lacagnina making pizza at my grandparent's cottage on Lake Ontario when I was a kid. He had really long skinny fingers and made his own incredibly delicate, distinctive pizza dough. It was white as snow, with a cake like texture. My brother and I discuss this every few years, but neither of us has ever come close to making dough like Grandpa Lacagnina's. His pizza sauce was simple, with tomatoes cooked down to a very thick paste, some red hot pepper flakes, and some pecorino romano I would guess.
My mother has made pizza my whole life. Friday's were her night to make pizza when I was little. When she began working full time, not so much. Now we are all honored when she gets the itch because it is better all the time! I knew she really had accepted my new and wonderful boyfriend when she made him and me a pizza the day after cooking one of the best Thanksgiving dinners ever.
Her pizza making process, tools and talents have been perfected over the years because she is a reflective and adventurous cook. Her home made pizza dough has evolved into crispy clouds of heaven. I can't come close to it. I don't know who can. Her process involves details I can't seem ready to aborb yet. She uses her bread machine for rising the dough. My brother and I have been able to identify her pizza dough during blind taste tests. It's that good. I wish I could tell you I could replicate it. I can't. (My brother can't either, but he designs pizza toppings that deserve a blog of their own.) I can do a pizza sauce close to my mother's. My daughter's recipe is closer still.
Pizza Sauce Recipe
1 large can of the best tomatoes you can find. (If you have canned home grown tomatoes from your grandparents garden, better still. I use San Marzano tomatoes, canned roma plum tomatoes of some other sort if I have to.)
1 large onion chopped fine.
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
Red hot pepper flakes to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons of dried Greek oregano
Saute onions in olive oil until just translucent in a large, heavy bottomed frying pan. Don't brown the onions or the sauce will be too bitter. Add the tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and oregano and cook over medium heat. Let it bubble gently, stirring often until liquid evaporates enough for the consistency to be more like a thick lovely paste, about 30 to 45 minutes. Your house will smell like heaven. Use your favorite pizza dough recipe. I am too humbled by mother and my grandfather's dough to dare sharing a recipe for pizza dough here.