Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I want to try my hand at making homemade spaghetti sauce. I was hoping for something that was really good and really authentic. I am wanting all the recipes for sauce I can find so if it is a pesto, or whatever, please send it my way.

Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by mammascookin

I want to try my hand at making homemade spaghetti sauce. I was hoping for something that was really good and really authentic. I am wanting all the recipes for sauce I can find so if it is a pesto, or whatever, please send it my way.

Thanks!

Here's a link to the recipe for Rao's Sunday Gravy plus some other Rao's dishes. It's a lot of work but you will be rewarded. pb

http://labellecuisine.com/archives/pasta/Rao's%20Sunday%20Gravy.htm

Here is my basic tomato sauce:

3 28-ounce cans of Italian plum tomatoes (preferably San Marzano tomatoes)
2 cloves of garlic
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon of dried basil
1 Tablespoon of dried oregano
1/2 cup of fresh basil leaves snipped or cut into a chiffonade

Put the tomatoes through a food mill. Cut each garlic clove into three pieces and put them into a deep skillet with the olive oil. Simmer the garlic till it starts to brown, but do not let it burn. Press the pieces of garlic flat in the pan and swirl them around in the oil. Discard the garlic pieces.

Dump the tomato product into the pan, quickly, then add the salt, pepper, basil and oregano and stir to incorporate the ingredients. Cook over low heat, stirring, for about ten minutes then taste to see whether you need to add any more seasoning. Turn the heat up to medium and cook, stirring often, for about 25 more minutes, then add the fresh basil and cook for another two minutes, stirring the fresh basil into the now-thickened sauce.

That's the way it should be done. Usually, though, I don't pay much attention to time. I cook the sauce till the water evaporates, however long it takes, add the fresh basil, and then cook for another couple of minutes. At this point I'll add enough red pepper flakes to provide a slight bite.

Michael, how come you discard the garlic? Just curious.

Thanks! Michael, that sounds extremely easy to make! I will try it this weekend!

I'd be more curious why you'd muck it up with dried basil if you have fresh available.

And IMHO you need to put in some crushed red pepper, to taste, with the garlic - which I'd never remove - just before adding the tomatoes, and and some finely minced onions with the garlic.

And while I'm being pissy, for a small quantity of sauce like that I'd never put it through a food mill. Lift the tomatoes one by one from the can, split them by hand and flick out the water and seeds over the sink and crush them into a bowl. When you're done, add the liquid in which they were packed.

I've run cans of San Marzanos through the large die of a grinder, but that's when we were making 30 #10 cans twice a day. In any event, I don't care for marinara without any texture. If they're good tomatoes they'll break down in the short cooking time.

This is a recipe that Sophia Loren developed--based on a regional version of pesto-Pesto Genovese--anyway--its an awesome pasta from an awesome women-the awesomest-in my book! When she arrived in Hollywood and was asked what her diet was to which she replied--"Everything you see--i owe to PASTA!

Linguini con Salsa Sophia!

2 cups Italian parsley
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pinoli
10 black olives, chopped
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 extra virgin olive oil
1 pound linguine, el dente cooked
pepper, freshly ground
4 anchovie fillets in salt, rinsed

1. In a mortar--pound together parsley,garlic,pinoli,anchovies,olives capers and onion until uniformly combined. Gradually add the oil in a small continouse stream while pounding--thill thick and paste like. Set aside.

2. cook pasta till el dente--drain--Place in hot,lightly oiled saute pan over medium heat---toss and cook about 1 min--till its is dry and starts to brown---Place in serving bowl.

3. Toss with sauce and a dusting of pepper or paprika

this recipe is from her book "Sophia Loren's Recipes and Memories" copywrite 1998 and it is REALLY GOOD!!! I would add my family recipe but i KNOW that the only way to get it right is to stand next to someone who cooks it right! But basically its a long slow cooked sauce that starts with a Boston butt a lot of tomatoes-whole-chopped and paste-and a big pan it also takes a few days---really--to achieve the right color and texture and in the end sausage and meatballs are cooked in it for its last hour or so of cooking. Its good but its a lot of work for a house as i cant make it for less than "Whole lotta peeples"--so i make it once every 4 mos and freeze it. I have never written it down--but if you want me to---the next time i make it i will have my anthropologist wife take notes and we will put it on paper.

Here is my Sicilian grandmother's recipe for Spaghetti Sauce... it's legendary in our family. It's so incredible you can eat it by itself

2 Tbl olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic
1/2 pound hot italian sausage, casing removed
1/2 pound ground beef
2 15oz. cans tomato paste
2 15oz. cans tomoto sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1-2 Tbs dried basil
salt & pepper to taste
4 cans(from empty tomato paste/sauce)

Heat olive oil in large heavy saucepan. Saute onions and garlic together for about 5 minutes. Add italian sausage and ground beef and brown until crumbly. Add tomato paste, sugar, basil, salt & pepper to beef/sausage and stir. Cook for about 3 minutes. Add tomato sauce to tomato paste mixture. Stir in 4 cans of water. Bring to a slow boil. Reduce heat and simmer all day...About 7 hours. Delicioso!

quote:

Originally posted by brightcopperkettles

Michael, how come you discard the garlic? Just curious.

Because once you've extracted all the flavor there's no point in leaving the garlic in the oil.

quote:

Originally posted by Scallion1

I'd be more curious why you'd muck it up with dried basil if you have fresh available.

And IMHO you need to put in some crushed red pepper, to taste, with the garlic - which I'd never remove - just before adding the tomatoes, and and some finely minced onions with the garlic.

And while I'm being pissy, for a small quantity of sauce like that I'd never put it through a food mill. Lift the tomatoes one by one from the can, split them by hand and flick out the water and seeds over the sink and crush them into a bowl. When you're done, add the liquid in which they were packed.

I've run cans of San Marzanos through the large die of a grinder, but that's when we were making 30 #10 cans twice a day. In any event, I don't care for marinara without any texture. If they're good tomatoes they'll break down in the short cooking time.

Hey, that's one of the ways I make it. I'm sure you make an excellent gravy.

Thank you, and I'm sure yours is delicious as well.

However: I'd never call what we're talking about here "gravy". This is marinara. "Red gravy" or "gravy" or "Sunday sauce" is a much heavier product, the classic, all-day, back-of-the-stove deal. I make that with chunks of veal bones (the unusable pieces below the osso buco) pork bones, big chucks of carrots, celery and onion, whole garlic cloves, some red wine, some tomato paste. After a while all of these get lifted out of the pot and discarded. Then, if you like, you can cook some meatballs, or some sausage, or, my favorite, some bracciole, in the gravy.

This is the proper sauce for "parm" dishes, as it's thicker and more intensely flavored than a marinara. Also good for baked pastas.

When I used to run the kitchen for a large (300 seat) Italian restaurant, we'd make the marinara pretty loose, only cooking it for about 1/2 hour, because it always got cooked down in the saute pan when individual orders were fired up. At home, I cook it to an immediately-usable consistency.

As you know, Michael, the simplest things in cooking are the hardest. Perfect scrambled eggs, a perfect roast chicken. And for me, perfect fresh fettucine tossed in perfect marinara with perfect reggiano is something I could eat pretty much every day. And like so much Italian food, it's all in the ingredients. Not just the tomatoes, but the olive oil, the quality of the garlic (I like to have the pieces in the sauce, but that's just me), the sweetness of the onions, having the proper kind of basil.

Thank you all! Now here is the other question as I see it has 1/2 way been brought up by Scallion...

When I am making the marinara sauce, what brand of Olive Oil would you recommend and also spices...I prefer fresh organic...but that is just me.

My Godmother is Italian (I am Puerto Rican). I would love to cook like her and Mrs. C who was my dance teacher for the Italian American Club of Iowa...yeah, they let me dance even though I wasn't Italian! My Godmother helped out a lot so I got to dance too. It was a blast! The food after was just amazing! I have not remained in contact with my Godmother as much as I should have but I still see her around from time to time. She isn't the patient type to teach a person to cook though. I believe her mother was from Sicily but don't quote me on that! Grandma Angie...ahhh the memories!

you'd have to taste the olive oil. you surely don't need the most expensive extra virgin to saute the garlic in a sauce, but you don't want garbage either. if there's a costco near you, they sell the bertolli xvoo for about $14 for a good-sized jug. it also doesn't have to be italian; there are lots of good spanish oils out there.

however, if you're going to be using it to dress grilled eggplant or peppers, for example, use the best you can find/afford.

oregano and thyme are the only dried spices i use. buy them in the smallest quantities. year-old dried spices lose their flavor. if you want reallly good stuff, go here http://www.kalustyans.com/

it's all you. taste your food as you cook, and you'll find out what you want and what you need.

The sauce I posted here is not a marinara sauce, it is
pommarola, or basic light tomato sauce. When I make a Sunday gravy I use bones as well, but I'll also use small roasts and add braciole, sausages, meatballs. I do not make gravy often.

Aside from the absence of onions, the distinction pretty much eludes me.

It is the absence of onions.

quote:

Originally posted by mammascookin

Thank you all! Now here is the other question as I see it has 1/2 way been brought up by Scallion...

When I am making the marinara sauce, what brand of Olive Oil would you recommend and also spices...I prefer fresh organic...but that is just me.

Scallion is 100 percent on target when he suggests that you not to use the very best olive oil for making a sauce. His recommendation of the Bertoli is a good one. The olive oil I use for everyday cooking is an extra virgin from Colavita that I buy for around $22 for a three and a half quart can.

He's also correct about how long dried spices will last, but we disagree about the use of dried basil.

If you don't like to order such things as spices let me suggest that you visit a restaurant supply store. You will pay more than a wholesale customer, but it will still be much less than in a retaiul store. I buy most of my spices there, including oregano, basil and thyme. I also buy peppercorns there. These all come in fairly large quantities, but the difference in the price you would pay for much smaller amounts in the supermarket makes it very worthwhile.

I really think you should look at the Kalustyan's website for spices. You can probably (I only know about buying in the store) get whatever size you need (they seem to sell most of their spices in 1, 2, 4 and 8 ounce packages) and you'll almost surely not match their quality. Buy some oregano from them and compare it to the junk you get in the supermarket.

And then there are the 15 or so different kinds of ground chiles, and the 20 or so curry powders...

If making red sauce, PLEASE don't add a bunch of sugar!!! Here in the South where they like everything sweet, they want to put cups of sugar in sauce. If you like a touch of sweetness, use a food processor and puree a carrot - adds just the right touch.

quote:

Originally posted by CarolinaBill

If making red sauce, PLEASE don't add a bunch of sugar!!! Here in the South where they like everything sweet, they want to put cups of sugar in sauce. If you like a touch of sweetness, use a food processor and puree a carrot - adds just the right touch.

If you buy good tomatoes, you don't need sugar. And the onions give off enough sweetness.

The good people of southern Italy can't be held responsible for the culinary atrocities committed in their name by the Miracle Whip-using cooks of the south.

Could we please smear the regional slurs on with a bit narrower brush please? Or eliminate them entirely? Thanks. I add sugar to tomatoes like I do to cornbread. No more than a teaspoon please...

Originally posted by CarolinaBill

"If making red sauce, PLEASE don't add a bunch of sugar!!! Here in the South where they like everything sweet, they want to put cups of sugar in sauce. If you like a touch of sweetness, use a food processor and puree a carrot" The olive oil I use first cold pressed it will state it on the label. I also brown off pork in the oil on all sides remove and set aside then add to last hour of cooking. I never use oregano use marjoram instead because I found that oregano can be bitter but I use it on pizza.As what Bill was saying about the carrot if needed I hand gate it into sauce to lazy to clean processor. Important note to remember treat garlic like a new bride low and slow if you turn up the heat to quick she will get bitter on you. ciao Jim