Spaghetti sauce

Here are some old links with recipes for sauce

Homemade Sauce

Spaghetti Sauce

Olive Oil
5 cloves garlic (or less depending on your taste)
1 medium to large onion, diced
2 cans peeled tomatoes (crush in hand)
2 cans crushed tomatoes
2 cans tomato paste
1/2 can of water
1/4 cup fresh italian parsley (curled) chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil chopped, plus a few whole leaves
Dried Oregano (3-4 shakes of the jar)
Salt & Pepper to taste
* Pinch of Sugar if tomatoes are really bitter.



1. Coat bottom of nonstick stockpot with olive oil.
2. Sautee diced onions on low heat until almost translucent.
3. Add garlic and sautee until brown (but not burnt!)
4. Add 4 cans of tomatoes + about a 1/2 can of water (use water to get all of tomatoes out of the cans) ** Use tomatoe puree instead of peeled tomatoes for a thinner sauce.
5. Season with 1/4 cup fresh italian parsely choped and 1/4 cup fresh basil chopped, a few whole leaves of basil, salt & pepper and dried oregano.
6. Bring to a boil and lower heat. Simmer for a few hours (minimum 1-1/2 hours - longer is better)
7. Add tomatoe paste and stir.
* Taste occassionally, add more spices as neccessary to your taste.
* Make sure to stir frequently so that it doesn't burn.
* If you keep the cover off, the sauce will come out thicker than if you leave the cover on (or half on) the pot.

REally, really easy...this is how my mother and her mother and her mother, etc, etc make it. My DH is really picky about food and he loves it!!!

Brown sliced onion in olive oil over medium heat until transparent. Remove. Melt half small can of tomato paste in oil, adding water as necessary (careful, it tends to sputter). Add two or more (depending on how many you're cooking for) large cans tomato puree (My grandmother swears by Tuttorossa..sp?) salt & pepper to taste and some dried basil. Simmer for at least an hour, but the longer you cook it the better it tastes.

I like to add chopped tomatoes - either from a can or fresh. You can also add browned chopped meat or meat balls, pieces of pork or bracciole are good too. If I add any meat to it, I cook it longer - for at least 2 hours.

Here's my version.
Depending on how much you need
smaller portion or larger
One or two cans of crushed tomatoes
(I'm not to crazy about really thick sauce so I don't use any tomatoe paste)

one onion chopped
3-4 garlic cloves minced

in a medium pot pour about a table spoon or two I never really measure just enought to lightly coat the bottom, toss in your chopped onion and saute until transparent, then toss in your garlic and stir, let the flavor of the garlic be come out and stirr for about 15 seconds, don't let the garlic burn. Then you pour in your cans of tomatoes and season with some salt pepper, oregano, then stir and simmer for about an hour minimum.

MIL makes a GOOD sauce and DH LOVES it....her recipe (from growing up in an Italian neighborhood)

2 cans crushed tomatoes (the big ones)
2 cans tomato sauce ( the little ones)
2 cans tomato paste (the little ones)
saute olive oil and garlic (onions if you like)
sprinkle basil and oregano over the top...enough to coat the top and stir in....let sit for several hours.

She'll also saute sausage (sweet or cheese & parsley is what DH likes) with some garlic and olive oil first and put meatballs in and simmer with that