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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Belated Concoction Monday - Sauce! Meatballs to follow

This recipe is the culmination and distillation of 7 years of experimentation, watching my Italian college roommate, and later my husbands Sicilian family, reading more recipes than I ever thought could exist for a simple tomato based sauce, and many, many trial and error situations. Here is my best, and I'm hoping for your sake you have a bit of natural cooking talent/ creative spirit b/c I am not big into measuring with this recipe. It's a taste and stir, repeat repeat repeat situation.

Spaghetti Sauce

shopping list

2 large cans San Marzano tomatoes, 1 cubed, 1 crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil
coarse sea salt
fresh ground pepper
one package fresh basil
1 tablespoon butter
pinch sugar
flat leaf italian parsley, one large handful, roughly chopped
4-6 ( depending on size) cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 medium or half a large vidalia onion, finely chopped
red pepper flakes
one cup each for garnish : parmigiano reggiano and pecorino romano ( perorino locatelli even better try Macaluso's market for it)


heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet or saucepan over medium low for a few minutes
add the onion and gently saute for ten-15 minutes over medium low
push the onion off the the sides, making a hold to put the garlic in at the center. saute garlic until it begins to turn a light blond color, if it gets too brown it will make the entire sauce bitter. If you've done this, it's ok, I've done it a million times. But you have to throw it out and start over. Now.

Next, stir in the two cans of tomatoes, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add a pinch or sugar and the tablespoon butter. Bring to a boil. reduce to simmer, add parsley. let simmer for an hour to two hours depending on how much time you have, but AT LEAST an hour.

hand tear the basil, stir in. The sauce needs to simmer about another half an hour, so make the pasta during this time. Usually I have some meatballs simmering in the sauce as well, recipe to be posted asap. As always, comments and suggestions are appreciated. Happy Friday!

Since Manola and I are going out to an Egyptian Art thing tonight, there is still hope for bar food friday! YAY

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