On the spaghetti trail....

[JR]

My family is of English/Irish/Scottish descent but making a good homemade pasta tomato sauce is one of those seemingly simple but ultimately challenging cooking tasks--like the perfect roast chicken.

A third generation Italian-American tries fo track down the recipe for her mother's sauce.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/dining/21sauce.html?em&ex=1172293200&en=76258841bd3df3ef&ei=5087%0A

To understand why I made my sauce the way I did, I needed to start closer to home, with my mother. She has been making spaghetti sauce for almost 60 years, from a recipe she learned from her mother, who had been making it with American ingredients since the early 1900s.

and

Getting a recipe out of my mother is like trying to get a 4-year-old to explain what happened at day care. She’s not one of those annoying and cagey matrons of the kitchen who build their power by dangling the promise of a secret ingredient that will never be revealed. She just cooks by hand, so she’s never really able to articulate every step.

Great story and included in a sidebar are recipes for the sauce and meatballs.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Really, the ingredients are going to be very similar in any recipe. I like making this in August with the most sun-warmed fresh tomatoes. I make a lot of it and freeze it.

A couple things I do that seem to make a difference.

1.) I let simmer for at least five hours.

2.) Roasted pork neck bones seem to work best.

3.) Some people use wine. I use an Italian fruit condiment of cooked grape must, which is the unfermented stuff of which balsamic vinegar is made:

http://denigris.it/eng/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=64

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Oh yeah. Be sure to carmelize the onions and peppers.

 

[JR]

Frank,

When I used to make my own sauce, I'd always include carrots and celery as part of the base.

I used to grow three types of tomatoes including roma (plum). They make the best sauce because they have the most pulp.

A good basic recipe is in that old 80's standby The Silver Palate Cookbook.

Some people add a bit of milk to their sauce to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes.

I like the roasted pork neck bones.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Some people add a bit of milk to their sauce to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes.

Yes, I do this sometimes at the end if the sauce is too acidic. However, if you carmelize the onions and peppers, the natural sugars the process brings out usually will mellow the tomatoes. Of course it varies from batch to batch because each load of tomatoes will be different, even from the same farm, depending on how much sun they got and at which point of ripeness they were picked. Thus one must tinker toward the end.

 

[JR]

Like I said, it's like roasting a chicken.

It seems like a simple task --which it is--but you're always playing with techniques for the PERFECT roast chicken.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

A homemade sauce is the one thing I've never been very good at making. Do you let the tomato seeds stay in?

Likewise when I sometimes give out recipes, people always ask how much of this and that goes into it and a lot of times I just say however much looks good, since I don't keep track of how much of this and that I use on some things. My mom's homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe and other recipes is a lot of the same way. Sure as hell turns out good that way though.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Do you let the tomato seeds stay in?

I do. I don't peel the tomatoes, either. But then I cook the sauce a lot longer than most people do and that stuff tends to dissolve.

Out of season, I use Redpack unpeeled crushed tomatoes.

 

[JR]

I take out the seeds but don't usually peel the tomatoes because I'll put the sauce through a food processor at the end--not to puree it but just to breakd down the carrots and celery slightly.

 

[Gold]

My mother, who is Irish but learned from my father's Italian mother, would put all this stuff in a pot and I remember they would use neck bones and it would seemingly take forever to make. We always got excited when spaghetti was for supper, but it took so much work that we would be lucky if my mother would make it twice a month - this was in the 60s and you probably didn't have stuff where you could preserve the sauce as easily.

 

[tommyp]

I take out the seeds but don't usually peel the tomatoes because I'll put the sauce through a food processor at the end--not to puree it but just to breakd down the carrots and celery slightly.

Sorry...as a second generation American-Italian, the carrots and celery have no place in any type of pasta sauce.

And let's kill this right off the bat: it's sauce, not gravy!

Gravy is for roast beef.

 

[spaceman]

"Heh, come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; ya make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs; heh…? And a little bit o' wine. An' a little bit o' sugar, and that's my trick."

 

[JR]

I take out the seeds but don't usually peel the tomatoes because I'll put the sauce through a food processor at the end--not to puree it but just to breakd down the carrots and celery slightly.

Sorry...as a second generation American-Italian, the carrots and celery have no place in any type of pasta sauce.

Celery, onions and carrots are a standard base for sauces, stocks and stews known as a mirepois

I'm not Italian so I'm allowed.

 

[tommyp]

"Heh, come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; ya make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs; heh…? And a little bit o' wine. An' a little bit o' sugar, and that's my trick."

JR:
Spaceman's on it. I could see that scene a hundred times and still feel as though I'm inhaling the aroma of a simmering sauce while my mouth waters in anticipation.

 

[ink-stained wretch]

After years wandering in the wilderness of tomato-based sauces, I have finally reached the Promised Land of cream sauces. Damn the cholestrol, add more butter, cream and Parmesean.

What's not to like?

 

[Buck]

I grew up in a neighborhood that was mostly Italian-American. I used show up my friends' doors when I knew they were about to sit down to dinner.
My friend Gene's grandmother used to make the most outrageous gnocchi.
My friend Cyrice's mom used put some of her homemade sauce in a zip-lock and give it to me to take home.

 

[patchs]

I'm third gen Italian-American, so I know a little about sauce.
My brother made some once with carrots in it, so it is allowed.
But personally, not my cup of tea. I'm not into crunchy sauce, I like it smooth, watery, more of a compliment to the pasta, then overwhelming it.

 

[Buck]

From Mario Batali, and he knows a little something:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 Spanish onion, 1/4-inch dice
4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried
1/2 medium carrot, finely grated
2 (28-ounce) cans peeled whole tomatoes, crushed by hand and juices reserved
Salt
Spaghetti, cooked al dente
Whole basil leaves, for garnish
Grated Parmesan, (optional)
In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the thyme and carrot, and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt and serve. This sauce holds 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 6 months in the freezer.
When ready to use, the cooked pasta should be added to a saucepan with the appropriate
amount of sauce. Garnish with basil leaves and cheese, if using.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Amazing. No peppers in Batali's recipe, either. I have never made it without green peppers and sometimes red, too.

I have never used carrot or celery in the sauce. However, I have at times dumped in some chicken or beef stock, which obviously had carrots and celery flavoring the stock, to add gelatinous body. Or sometimes I buy beef soup bones, the big ones with a lot of marrow, roast them with the pork bones and dump into the sauce.

I've also never not used oregano. Usually I use dried in the sauce, but if I can find fresh oregano it really makes a difference in meatballs. Fresh oregano is also amazing in salad.

 

[Buck]

Batali uses the carrots as a sweetener for balance.