Hi Everyone…
I am in dire need of a good homemade spaghetti sauce recipe. My grandmother used to make the best sauce I’ve ever tasted, but she never went by a recipe. She used to cook it for hours. Does anyone have a good recipe that they are willing to share??? It would be greatly appreciated.
A long, slow simmer of tomatoes, basil, mushrooms, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar and a pinch of baking soda yields a rich, dark sauce. Stir in Parmesan cheese and keep simmering. Let the flavors meld overnight, then serve with your favorite pasta.
A simple, slow cooked, authentic spaghetti sauce, as good as the restaurants serve…or better! The secret ingredient is baking soda, but do not taste the sauce right after adding it. Wait a while, and this sauce will not disappoint you. It is good right from the stove, but the flavors blend overnight. Best served with your favorite meatball recipe, where the meatballs cook in the sauce the last half hour. Be prepared to take a nap after eating.
Ingredients
4 (14.5 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes
2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
4 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
3 cups water
4 cups fresh sliced mushrooms
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 teaspoons white sugar
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
2 pinches baking soda
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Directions
1 Mix together whole tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, mushrooms, onions, garlic, sugar, salt and pepper, basil, and 1 pinch of baking soda in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring. Reduce to a simmer, and cook for 4 hours minimum.
2 Stir in another pinch of baking soda; the sauce will foam. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick and almost brown. Make sure to scrape the sides of the pan in to the sauce.
3 After the sauce is fork consistency, stir in Parmesan cheese. Watch that the cheese does not burn. Taste sauce. If it is too tangy or acidic, add another pinch of baking soda and simmer another 1/2 hour.
4 Cool, cover, and refrigerate overnight. The next day, reheat and serve.
Hope you all enjoy!
Mel :lol:
Thank you for the recipe… sounds wonderful!! Can’t wait to make it.
Was I ever happyto see this receipe, I do believe this is the one I have been searching for, I will try it very soon and get back to you
Hi everybody, you all are gonna laugh but I never really liked making my own sauce…my Dad had a recipe he liked, I’ll post it here for you but let me share what I’ve recently discovered about the cooking time. Scouseman is right, it’s the long slow simmer that makes the sauce taste so wonderful! I love to use the Prego brand of sauce…Parmesan cheese and garlic is the one I use most often. I cook, hamburger, chopped onion, garlic powder and fresh ground pepper to taste, together in a med saucepan. When meat is browned, drained of fat and onion is soft, I put meat mixture with a jar of prego in my crockpot. Cooks all night and the next day and all the flavors meld and the meat gets very tender. This is how I have done recently and will do my sauce from now on. Starting my sauce a day ahead is a wonderful discovery for me.
Ok, here’s my Dad’s recipe too.
Dad’s Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
3 T Olive oil
1 Lg onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, mashed
1 stalk celery chopped
1 lg can diced tomatoes
2 cans tomato paste
2 C’s beef broth or water
1 T salt
2 t basil
1 bay leaf…(I don’t use bay)
1 t oregano
1 T parsley (or to taste)
2 T sugar
1 C sliced mushrooms
1 T flour
2 t Fines Herbs
Saute onions, garlic and celery lightly
on high for 3 mins. Stir constantly.
Add tomatoes, paste and mushrooms,
salt and bay leaf. Simmer, covered 15 mins
Add flour, for thickening. Add rest of herbs
little at a time during the last 30 mins of
cooking. Enjoy over your favorite pasta!
A long time ago in Southern MD. I had a great, great aunt that made the best tomato sauce in the world. I have been trying to find out for over 30 years what she did to make it so good! This is the closest I have come to duplicating that sauce and this came from a person who posts on my recipe board…
5 or 6 pounds fresh tomatoes or canned whole tomatoes (we like plum tomatoes)
8 oz imported Italian tomato paste (not Hunts )
1 large sweet red onion
8 to 10 cloves garlic (yeah, at least that much)
dried basil, thyme, oregano, marjoram, rosemary (“Italian mix”)
2 lbs. boneless lean pork chops, thin ring of fat around
1 lb chourico sausage (a spicy, brilliant red portuguese pork sausage)
5 or 6 large Bell peppers (both green and sweet red)
good olive oil
whisper of sugar, if you must, though the red onion and red peppers take care of it
salt to taste, near the end of cooking, though there’s some in the sausage. Fresh tomatoes take up more salt than canned.
So – once you know what’s in it, it’s predictable what to do. Chop the onion and peppers, and mince the garlic. In a big heavy-bottom stock pot with some olive oil and some of the fat trimming from the chops, saute these till the onion is transparent and the garlic is golden, and the peppers are getting soft. Cut the chops and sausage into chunks and add to the onions and peppers, and sprinkle in the dried herbs (I use close to a tablespoon combined. This is a big pot of sauce) and sugar if you must. Saute hot to seal the meat – you may need a little more olive oil, although sausage will start to let off fat. Don’t pour it off – wait till the end to refrigerate it and let it rise. The spice mix in these sausages is what gives this sauce a taste like nothing else.
You’re going to want to scoop some of the meat mix out and have a wee sandwich right then and there. Go ahead. and have some dry red wine too.
Add chopped tomatoes and tomato paste. Cook at medium heat for a half hour or until the tomatoes are mush, stirring occasionally and crushing tomatoes against the pot. Reduce heat to very low, and cook it down for a good few hours, until the sauce is much reduced and quite thick. It will turn rather dark red as well, not tomato-bright, and that is the way it is supposed to look. In the last half hour of cooking, add a bit more of the mixed Italian herbs (maybe 1/2 teaspoon) for a top note.
Freezes beautifully.
I only have one thing to add to this… my relative was a smoker… she would have a cigarete in her mouth from the time she awoke till she went to bed… often the ashes would be the length of the whole smoke while she was cooking. We all watched her as she cooked and never ever saw her "tap off " the ashes into an ashtray or on the floor… but some how they always vanished… we often speculated that those ashes were what made her sauce so different. Like I said the recipe above is as close as I have gotten without adding ash.
Thanks, stoirmeil for getting so close!