[ubuntu] Barebones VM image for development

Hi : I'd like a barebone Ubuntu VM image for development and production use. The goal is to not have any extras in this image but only sufficient components to run a web app server in it, possibly in Amazon EC2.
The image will be used for enterprise app development. I'd like to customize / refine the barebone image to suite my app's purposes.
How can I download or create such an image using the latest Ubuntu release? Any references to documentation will be great.

Thanks in advance!
Mike