Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Saucy Expectations

I don't even know how to start this one because I can't even compare. There are things we all grew up with our moms cooking and most of those things become our all time favorite meals, at least that's how I am and one of those favorite things is my mother's spaghetti sauce.

Everyone enjoying the sauce.
Izzy even wanted in on the action.
My mom makes the most delicious spaghetti sauce around. I must say that Noni, when she makes it, makes a kick ass sauce, but my mom's is legendary. Yes, legendary. Just ask Jasen. I think that is part of the reason we got back together so many times when we were dating. He just couldn't give up the sauce. It is a meaty goodness that has a kick and has simmered on the stove top all day. It is great.

Since we have been married, we are going on seven years, Jasen has been begging me to try and make the sauce. I'm not going to lie, I'm scared. How in the world is my sauce ever going to live up to his saucy expectations? He thinks because my mom makes it that I should be able to make it just as good. Not so. The woman uses no recipe and when asked about it she says, I don't know, I just do it. Thanks. Thanks mom for passing that down. Now I know if I sat there and watched, I would be able to at least get the ingredient list, no measurements, but a list, some how, it just wouldn't be the same. She's just the master of sauce, but I finally decided to give it a try.

I found this recipe that kinda sounded like it would taste good. It was part of the lasagna recipe I found and I thought, what better time than now? I went to the store, got all of the ingredients and started. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be which made me very leery about what it was going to taste like. Simmer, simmer, simmer, lets give this sauce a little try. HA! It's good! Not my mom's good, but a good start in the right direction. I used it in the lasagna and I must say, it was the best lasagna I have ever had. Better than eating out. Jasen even gave his seal of approval by cleaning his plate of any remaining sauce with a chunk 'o garlic bread. Now I have the bones of this sauce. I can do this. I can make sauce and I will improve on this and make it even better next time.

Here is what I did:
1lb sweet Italian sausage, I have also used mild Italian and I want to try hot next time

3/4lb ground beef

My FAVORITE kitchen tool.
Yes, as seen on TV, and it is AMAZING!
I use it for everything, not just onions.
For reals people, go get it.

1/2 cup onions, but I like onions, so I use about 1 cup of diced onion






It called for 2 cloves of garlic, crushed. I laughed and used about 6.

280z can crushed tomatoes
2-6oz cans tomato paste
2-6.5 oz cans tomato sauce
1/2 cup water, I just use the tomato paste can and fill that once

2Tbs white sugar

1 1/2 tsp dried basil, again, I prefer fresh, but dried will do

1/2 tsp fennel seeds, which I didn't have so I didn't use

1tsp Italian seasoning, again, laugh. I have this seasoning, that I know my mom does use. Tone's spicy spaghetti seasoning. I love it and use it for more that just sauce, but I covered the top of everything already in the pot, so yeah, ha to the 1tsp. Seriously? What is 1tsp really going to do?

1Tbs salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
4Tbs parsley

Ok, that sounds like a lot of things, but really, all you do is brown, measure, stir and simmer. Bear with me.

So, brown the sausage, take it out of the casing which I learned the hard way, ground beef, onion and garlic over medium heat. Take out the grease. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, sauce and the water. See, easy, right?


Season all of that with the sugar, basil, fennel(if you have it), Italian seasoning, the salt, pepper and the parsley. Never be afraid to season people! That is what gives you the flavor.


Stir and simmer covered 1 1/2 hours. That's it. Really, that's it. I told you it wasn't so bad.

This time we had it over ravioli and it was tasty. I also made white trash garlic bread. In case anyone was wondering, I wasn't lying when I said I make things out of nothing. We didn't have any garlic bread, but we did have some hogie rolls. How can you eat Italian with out garlic bread? You can't. So, here is my rendition of garlic bread, the white trash way.

Here is what I did:
Opened the hogie rolls and put them onto the cookie sheet
Generously spread on the butter
Sprinkle with garlic powder. NEVER use garlic salt, yuck, salt.
Turn the broiler on high, put the bread in and keep an eye on it. LISTEN UP! Keep an eye on it it. It cooks fast.

There you have it. White trash garlic bread. Hey, it worked.
White Trash Garlic Bread
It's even burnt. How trashy.


Working on cleaning his plate.

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