Like a thick meat sauce? Here's one I love to make when the weather starts to cool:

Ingredients you'll need
1 can (14 ozs) tomato sauce
2 cans (14 ozs each) stewed tomatoes
2 cans (14 ozs each) diced tomatoes
2 cans (14 ozs each) crushed tomatoes
1½ lbs chopped meat
1 lb sweet sausage
small jar of chopped garlic (4 TB)
sugar (3 TB)
basil leaves (to taste)
oregano (2 TB)
onion powder (2 TB)
Italian seasonings (2 TB)
Large pot
Frying pans



Directions
Combine all cans into pot and start cooking over a low flame. Brown the chopped meat and fully cook the sausage (over low heat) and when they're done dump into the sauce. Add all the spices and continue to cook over a low flame (just about simmering) for 3 hours. Stir occassionally.

I'm actually making spaghetti tonight, although I'm taking the lazy way about it and just dumping in pre-cooked meatballs. This recipe definetely sounds like a winner on a cold Saturday when I have 3 hours to cook and will welcome the heat from the kitchen. But, no wine in the ingredients?

Sounds good, sounds a little like my fiancee's.

She uses fresh garlic and onions though.

Here's a hint for those making sauce - add a chicken leg to the meat while you're browning it if you like a sweet sauce. Chicken and/or pork reduce the acidity.

That sauce sounds delicious, SC. Thanks for sharing!

I'll suggest it to my girlfriend the next time she makes spaghetti.

SC,

Can you subsitute fresh tomatoes straight from the garden for the can tomatoes?

Oh, and one other thing. You must take all the seeds out of the tomatoes (even the canned ones) because that makes it bitter. You have to put the tomatoes through a strainer.

Mig, of course, fresh are even better, but you need to cook them a bit first, and then run them through a foley strainer.

Is this an authentic family recipe or your own? I have my mother's version, and then my version, in my recipe(s) the garlic is not so prominant, and the sugar is not necessary if the tomatoes are not so acidic (in the old days canned tomatoes were VERY acidic, not so much anymore) and the fresh onions are a must... but thats just me, its whatever reminds you of home is what is important, I say, do it exactly as your mother, grandmother and/or family did to preserve the family recipe, then experiment on your own... for example my mother always used the bread crumbs from a can for the meatballs, but using fresh breadcrumbs just make the meatballs amazing... but when i want my mother's version, i make it her way

When you make meatballs, did you ever use milk instead of egg with the breadcrumbs?? I never did, but I have heard that.

SC - I noticed when looking over your list of ingredients that you use two 14 oz. cans of certain items. It might be easier to substitute one 28 oz. can instead (as well as being less expensive). Offhand, though, I don't know if the stewed tomatoes come in the larger cans, but the odds are they probably do.

Also, about the garlic: it is worth mentioning that the chopped garlic sold in jars is usually preserved in citric acid. This makes the garlic a lot more tart, IMO. The same quantity of freshly chopped garlic can be substituted if one doesn't mind doing a little mincing. (I only mince in the kitchen, BTW, and only when no one is around!)

And remember, folks, if anyone hasn't done this before, to drain the browned meats before you add them to the sauce. A slotted spoon and/or a wire mesh strainer are good to have around.

But, the recipe sounds great!

Signor V.

FWIW - anything other than freshly chopped garlic is crap, and not related to garlic any more. I put it in almost everything, and it has to be freshly chopped/sliced/whatever... otherwise, there's no point.

Packaged breadcrumbs are fine - that's how my mom made meatballs! So of course it's fine.

I don't like my sauce/gravy too "tomatoey", personally... I dislike the chunks... so pureeing may be in order in my take of the recipe...

Other than that, it sounds great...!

From the little I know about cooking, I DO know to strain the tomato seeds (so it won't be as bitter) but I don't do it... too much work... (Thats one reason I add an extra tablespoon of sugar).

Its a hit and miss recipe I developed myself over a few years. I used to add a half an onion (chopped up) and some braziole but I'm trying to watch my weight now.

Thanx for the chicken leg hint, SB.

Geoff and SV, I agree about the fresh garlic, but I'm too lazy to peel, crush, etc., so I simply use the jarred stuff.

Infamnia!

A pain in the ass, sure, but I like to slice the shit razor-thin like one of our favorite movies... and with less time, it's easily chopped... well, at least worth the time (IMHO)... I don't even like garlic crushers... I use a knife -- the most important part of prep!

Not if you use pudgy fingers to push the sausage into the pot (like Clemenza).

SC, your receipe is very similar to mine. However, I use tomato paste.

FWIW, I always use fresh garlic. There is nothing like the smell of the garlic & onion as you brown them off.

Now, my mother would use fresh tomatoes, and her own homegrown basil and make her own bread crumbs. I buy the jar basil seasoning, use tomato paste, and Italian seasoned bread crumbs (but add a little garlic, basil to them.)

And yes, do drain the meat after you brown it off. When I was young and new at cooking I didn't know to do that. You can imagine, I was disappointed in how greasy the sauce (or sugo as we call it) was. Also, one time, again as a newlywed and new at cooking, I invited another couple over for dinner. But....stupid me, only made a lb of pasta, meat, etc. It wasn't enough. I should have know better. But, that's how you learn. It didn't happen again. In my family, not having enough food is a disaster.

TIS

Anyone ever use braciole in their sauce along with the meatballs and sausage? My family would make the braciole with breadcrumbs, parsley, cheese and hard boiled eggs, deliscious believe it or not...

I used to all the time... I didn't do anything special with it, though.... just dump it into the sauce to let its flavor mix with the sauce.

A definite "must" for any sauce is to accompany it with some good bread. I prefer a crusty, light Italian bread with some olive oil. I'll add a few spices to the oil (basil, a little onion powder) and let it "sit" overnight and then dip the bread into it and then the sauce.

My mother makes braciole with pig skin as the meat. It is out of this world, plus it makes terrific sauce. It's getting harder and harder to find locally, though. Plus, you know it's just SO bad for you, but OMG it's delicious.

JRCX,

My grandmother and my mother would make it. I have never made it myself but would like to try. I remember they'd combine the cooked cut eggs, cheese, celery, breadcrumbs and other similar ingredients you posted rolled into a thin steak and tied with the cooking string and then cooked in the sauce (sugu).

However, as much as I have heard of braciole, I know it by another name, so am not quite certain it's the same. My family is Sicilian and perhaps it's slang I don't know. I can't even spell it for you because I don't speak (let alone write Italian). Sounded out it's Brewsh-a-lun-i. Anyway, that's what my family called it and I loved it.

TIS

Now thats what i call a sauce SC

Cut the crap....Where's Paulie?
Seriously, SC, that sounds great.

OK.... I'm gonna make another batch of my sauce tomorrow.

And for all you ball-busters, I bought some REAL garlic (and even a little garlic shredder).

My mom used to put pork neckbones in her tomato sauce, which gave it a nice sweet-and-smoky taste.
I don't work as hard as you do, SC. Instead, I have two choices for a thick sauce: Either start with a 28-oz can of tomato puree, or a same sized can of whole peeled or stewed tomatoes, using potato masher to break them up (if I want the "chunky" effect). Always fry two or three chopped cloves of garlic first. Then add 8-oz can of tomato sauce and small can of tomato paste. Use table wine and water to dilute to taste, and Marsala and sugar to balance out the acidity from the paste. Spices: 1 bay leaf, 1/2 oz. each of Italian seasoning, parsely, Herbes de Provence, oregano. I don't brown the meatballs before hand--I let them cook in the sauce. But I microwave the sausage for 2 minutes, then puncture them with a fork, before letting them cook in the sauce. Key is to let the whole she-bang simmer for hours, and to skim the fat from the surface.

OK... REALLY stupid question! I bought four things of garlic... each one of them has a bunch of "bulbs" in it (about 5 or 6 each). Is one of those "bulbs" considered a clove (or is the clove the whole bunch of bulbs combined)??

(Wow.... that fresh shit is GARRRRRLLLLICCCCC!!!!!)

All the little "things" bunched together are individual cloves, the sum of which make up a bulb.So if your recipe calls for 3 cloves, "crack" 3 off the bulb.

OK... thanx, pb. I used one whole garlic (about 5 cloves). (I'm making about 2 gallons).

That stuff is STROONNNNNNGGGGGG!!! (I wonder if it grows hair on your head).

Believe me, if it did, the way that I cook with it and eat it, I'd look like a Rastaman!



Fresh Garlic! Nothing like it! Adds a wonderful flavor to whatever you're cooking. Ummmmmmmm.

You should know that the taste that it adds to your food all depends on how you slice it or how big or small you dice it. The thinner you slice it the better. And if you dice it into very small chunks - pieces, it becmoes a bit more bitter when you cook it.

The "Goodfellas" way of thinly slicing it is the most effective when using it for a sauce/gravey. At least in my opinion it is.

To each his own, but for 2 gallons, I'd chop a few more cloves. But then, I guess it depends on how garlicy you want it. Sounds good though. I'll be making sauce for my lasagna for Christmas. I can smell the garlic browning now.

TIS

WTG, SC!!



Like TIS, I like a lot of garlic (problem is, people around me appreciate my love for garlic a little less than I do )

"It was a very good system."

"Hey Vinnie, don't put in too many un-jans..."