Homemade Italian Spaghetti Sauce

Where the flavor starts…

Italian cooking is not a quick process. It is a social event. The kitchen is the gathering place, and as I cook, there are wooden spoons flying around tasting my sauce. When I make tomato sauce, it slowly
cooks 2-4 hours depending on the amount of sauce I am making. The house is filled with such a pleasant aroma.  The meal is greatly anticipated and enjoyed.

As many Italian cooks declare “flavor in Italian dishes builds from the bottom up”.   True authentic cooking like my dad did started with lard as the base with finely chopped onion and any other vegetables like celery, carrot, or garlic.  Today lard has been replaced with a good olive oil and/or butter

Fresh Garden Ingredients

Growing Roma tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano, and basil in my garden allows me to pick ingredients fresh which adds to a flavor you do not find in a jar.  My sauce has fresh onion, garlic, spices, and tomatoes. If I make sauce out of tomato season, San Marzanos tomatoes are used. They can be found in most grocery stores.

San Marzano tomatoes are sweeter and add a special flavor.  Basil is one of the most popular and widely used Italian herbs.  Once cut from the plant it does not hold up very long. It is best to add basil right before serving your meal.

Italian Market

My tomato sauce would not be complete without fresh italian meatballs and sausage.  Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano tops off my pasta dishes. I make meatballs but have bought them pre-made along with fresh italian sausage from my favorite italian market, Jimmy’s, in Dallas, Texas.

Jimmy’s Food Market not only has freshly made sausage but other pantry staples.  I usually stock up on salami, olives, sticks of pepperoni, and a variety of cheeses. Parmesan Reggiano cheese cut straight from the wheel is hard to beat.

It is then my job to pack my ingredients (whatever they are) in a cooler and drive home only to immediately start my sauce. I do not freeze my sausage if at all possible. The sausage adds a flavor to my sauce that I can not duplicate especially when it is cooked very slow and at a low temperature having never been frozen. The sauce will have an excellent flavor prepared a day or two in advance. The sauce freezes well however, we use it for many days in a variety of pasta dishes.

I can take my sauce and add it to several of my favorite recipe from this cookbook.

Cracking the Code

So, the exact family recipe and where the sauce recipe came from has been a mystery.  I have 4 siblings and we frequently talk at length about how my dad made his sauce. We all watched him as we grew up but we did not pay close attention.  My brother Joe claims to have the secret recipe but getting him share it has been challenging. He dangles the thought of sharing it with us with the promise of the secret ingredient but never reveals it.  I am not sure he really has it but I know his sauce is different from mine. (Not that it is better but different.) I have dug through all of my parents recipes and no recipe was found. (The secret Cannoli recipe was found however!)  

We are all decent cooks but none of us can get it just right.  When does he put in the tomato paste? Does he use oregano in the sauce or the meatballs?  Does he fry his meatballs or bake them on a high temperature in the oven? Over the years, trying to get my dad to share the recipe, was like asking a toddler to explain what went on at the baby sitters house today. But an exact recipe?  Not!

He added this and added that without measuring spoons.  It was based on taste. We have not mastered the master’s sauce but we all have very good versions of it.  I find myself now, when asked for the recipe, becoming that toddler! I cannot articulate every step only cooking by measuring in palm of my hand. When my kids ask for the recipe I can only taste theirs and give them the all important step “let me fix your sauce”.  

So the saying “It never tastes as good as dads or moms” has much truth.

Below is my best attempt to articulate my homemade italian spaghetti sauce recipe. If you are looking for some cute recipe cards to keep track of all your favorite recipes, these are the ones I love. Find them here!

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