Simple but amazing pasta sauce recipe

I've recently spent some time in the kitchen with my buddies 100 year old italian grandmother and have to start a new thread for her red sauce. It's an adaptation of her great grandmothers, so the recipe is quite old. It's one of the most unique sauces I've ever tasted. Includes hints of baking spices, but doesn't over do it. Calls for good italian sausages cooked in the sauce (gravy). I believe it's a northern italian red sauce. I'll write it down soon. Probably making a big batch tomorrow. Stay tuned!

 

You sir are a very lucky person as you are talking about a sauce recipe that is a very private thing so tread lightly and make your intentions known ie ask before your share! The variations of sauces between regions is the secret. I watch ALOT of cooking shows and sharing family recipe secrets almost requires a ceremony.

I am uncertain so I thought I would bring this point up. The pasta that is used in so many recipes is store bought yet KEY so on that note if a pasta cannot be homemade what is the most genuine brand, Barilla?

 

We like our Italian sauce to be angry. That means Arrabiatta or Fra Diavalo.

Rao's rules. I snagged several jars of Arrabiatta at $5.00 - that's 50% off!
Alessi is old world. Hard to find. Fra Diavolo. See film.
Mezzetta. Rao's comes out ahead on this one, but . . . try the Arrabiatta.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0NCYp7mtiQ[/ame]

 

I have no idea of what brands sell in the US but here in Italy there are a lot of brands better than Barilla IMHO, still talking about "industrial" brands.

I mostly buy this http://www.pastagarofalo.it/us/ but looking at their website I see it's not easy to find it overseas.

 

Grazie. Do you make your own sauce or have you tried and liked Garofalo's sauce? I followed the link and found three locations in TX that sell this brand and believe it or not but Specs Liquors carry it and I have a location about 10mins away. Specs have before a sort of specialty food seller, I will let you know what I find.

You know, I could make a small batch of the "Simple but Amazing" sauce with a quality pasta I could divide it into say five small servings and incorporate it in with the grilled chicken breast and steamed veggies for the week. Cool.

 

She gave me the go ahead to share it with the world. I'm actually working on a batch right now to see if I can get it. One of the most important things is to find the highest quality italian sausage you can find. And I'm not talking about your garden variety grocery store packaged ones. Fresh, coarse grind, with a fair amount of fennel. Luckily here in Chicago it's pretty easy to find. I myself get it from Bari.

Regarding your pasta question. This is something I'm starting to test out. Bari, being an italian grocer in Chicago, they have what seems to be a million and one different kinds of dried pasta. Same goes for canned tomatoes. I picked up some Divella brand pasta and Bari brand San Marzano (style) tomatoes from california. Stay tuned!

 

I think I might have got it. It's hard adapting a recipe when you're taking notes and someone is throwing in a dash of this, a dash of that, a handful of that, etc. I'm going to let it simmer with the lid on a couple more hours to see if I got the seasonings jussst right.

 

OK Guys, here it is. This is my adaptation of my friends 100 year old Sicilian Grandmother's family recipe. No one in their family is much of a cook, so I volunteered to spend a few days in the kitchen to get all of her family recipes down for them - she remembers her grandmother making this sauce and saying it was from her grandmother, so you can imagine how old it might be. It was an amazing experience to say the least.

Keep in mind this serves as more of a "guideline" as her method of cooking is a dash of this and a dash of that.

Ingredients:

3 - cans 28oz San Marzano Crushed Tomatoes.
1 LBS - Best Italian Sausage links you can find. I get it locally from an Italian food store (Bari), coarse ground, natural casings, decent amount of fennel, good spice. I also use Spicy Italian. Use more sausage if you want a good amount of extra.
1 - medium/large Yellow Onion
8 - medium/large cloves of Garlic grated on micro plane (or sliced)
1/2 - Cinnamon Stick
1 TBPN - White Sugar
1/2 tsp - Fresh Nutmeg Grated on micro plane (maybe 1/4 tsp of the jar stuff - go easy if you don't have fresh)
Couple Dashes Ground Clove
Couple Dashes Ground Allspice
1 cup (8oz) - Drinkable Chianti, Barolo, or any italian table wine for that matter
Fresh Basil
1 TSP - Salt
Couple Grinds of black peppar


Get a crock pot, or any large pot will do.

Put in a couple glugs of olive oil - enough to coat the bottom - and get it hot. Take the sausage links and poke holes all over them. Sear them until both sides are browned. Take them out and set them aside.

Dice the onion, throw it in the pot with all of the drippings and cook until soft. Throw in 1/2 TBSP salt and a couple grinds of peppar. Add garlic and cook for a little bit until soft. Don't burn it! Add the cup of wine and deglaze the pot. Make sure to get all the little brown bits off the bottom. Simmer for a few minutes.

Add the 3 cans of tomatoes. Bring up to a light simmer. Throw in the half of cinnamon stick, 2 or 3 dashes of clove, 2 dashes of allspice, 1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg, and 1 TBSP sugar. Add the sausages back in for the remainder of its cooking. Taste it. I ended up adding another 1/2 TBPS of salt. Cover but leave it cracked, and simmer for an hour.

Take out the cinnamon stick. I used a slotted spoon and found it pretty quickly. Taste it. It should have hints of the baking spice without it being overpowering. Take out the sausages. At this point I threw in a sprig of basil, probably a dozen leaves. Cover and simmer for another hour. I took the basil sprig out because I thought it was getting too basily. Season to taste. Serve over pasta.

You should have a well rounded, perfectly balanced, old world italian red sauce. Looking forward to see what you guys think!

After awhile I'll get the recipe a little more exact, but this is pretty close.

 

^Adds to: Plan To Take Over Planet^


via rubber ducky

 

This recipe is a little lighter on the baking spice flavor from my last one. Still a good sauce, but just let it be known. Have fun!

 

Thank you and I cannot wait to try it out.

On another note I went by Specs today Reddol and they do carry Garofalo products but I only saw their pasta and none of their sauce (gravy) but they also carry Rao's aswell as Alessi.

 

Sorry I'm late.
I have never tried Garofalo's sauce, I like fresh home made sauces more.
Did you buy their pasta?


I feel like spaghetti alla carbonara now..

 

No I did not but I plan too. They also sell a brand of imported tomatoes that I am familiar with and they may have San Marzano aswell but I just did a quick search. It may actually be quite sometime before I make a batch though but I am looking forward to it.

 

I tried the OP recipe and it was good for a simple sauce I was surprised. It was a lot better than the stuff in the jars. I'm going to use it in my penne chicken with spinach in pink sauce recipe and see what happens.

 

We tried the original sauce recipe on this thread tonight. It was amazing! Simple yet very good. I added some meatballs after the sauce simmered for about an hour. Served with penne. Thank you for sharing!
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Yum!
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That looks fantastic!! If I may ask without getting off topic what is your meatball recipe? I as most people in this thread probably do is watch alot of cooking shows yet the amount of recipes for meatballs vary so much.

What meat is used in authentic Italian meatballs? I see alot of lamb being mixed with either pork or beef but I have never used it, thoughts?

 

This is how we make meatballs, and they come out fantastic!

Recipe makes about 1 doz handful size meatballs

1-1.25 lbs good quality lean ground beef or sirloin (90-93% lean) (you will be adding fat so believe me it is not dry - a very moist meatball
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2-3/4 cup (or more) freshly grated Parmesan, preferably parm reggiano
1/2-3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs (usually can find in the bakery)
3-4 cloves finely chopped garlic
Fresh chopped parsley (dried will do)
ice cold water - have about 1-2 cups on hand

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, except water. Be careful not to over mix, just combine everything evenly. Then make a small "well" in the middle of the meat mixture and add the ice cold water, a little at a time (you do not have to use all of the water.) You want to add the water until it will not take anymore so that you can still form a meatball in the palm of your hand, but a wet sticky one. You do not want the mixture to turn soupy.

Form the meatballs, you can do as big or small as you like, I do them about a handful size. Place them on a lightly olive oiled broiling pan (I put them on a rack so the excess fat drips down) and broil them on both sides in the oven about 7-10 min, or until they have a nice darker brown crust.

Then add them to the sauce (in this case I used the sauce from this thread) and simmer for about 30 min+ to finish cooking the inside of the meatball.

If you try this, let me know how you make out!

 

Thanks!

 

Gonna try this soon. Does any particular type of pasta go best with it?

 

Thank you for such a simple and delicious recipe! I'm the type of person that just can't leave ANYTHING alone (ask my wife ) but this time I decided to go ahead exactly as directed and couldn't have been happier with the results, it was sooo freaking good!

 

I've used a few cans of Cento & Muir Glen, as well. Haven't tried Hunt's, which uses no preservatives or artificial ingredients.

Worth repeating - There's a host of Canucks here who have nailed the San Marzano proposition. ****in' "eh"!

There's a lot to be said for either of the above keeping it simple, let alone the simplicity of the much appreciated recipe delivering such pleasing results.


via rubber ducky

 

Ok making this for the better half Sunday got San Marzano tomatoes and I have tried this before with my mother cant wait for the results always so simple but yet great. My mother told me to add a pinch of sugar to cut the acid?

 

I made this exact recipe about a month ago it's excellent don't add anything