Spaghetti sauce

[Worm of Despite]

Anybody make a special spaghetti sauce--you know, "secret ingredient" and such? I'd like to know your secrets. If you don't want to tell them publicly, feel free to PM me.

[dennisrwood]

sautee two cloves garlic, a large onion, and many mushrooms.

one can tomato sauce large, one can tomatoes chopped regular. simmer then add one bayleaf, some italian seasoning.

one red pepper, one green pepper, one yellow pepper sauteed with the onion etc.

mix.

[Worm of Despite]

Ah, thank you! Anyone else? I must know thy secrets!

[Lorelei]

If you want to intensify the flavor of any sauce add about 1 shot of vodka. The alcohol extracts the flavor from the herbs and then cooks off. The benefit of vodka to other spirits is that it does not itself contribute to the flavor.

[Dromond]

Vodka? Interesting... if you're sauteeing, perhaps. (imo)

I'd add a goodly splash of a deep red instead... merlot or burgandy,

add a small can of tomato paste, perhaps, since we're not talkin' scratch and 8 hours of love,

(and a little (1/2 tsp) of baking powder or soda mixed in when it's simmering will neutralize the acidic flavor of the tomato, and give it a softer flavor (if you're going homemade, otherwise it's probably been done to the canned already.

But remember, red wine rocks, in cooking.
Don't be shy about it.

[Menolly]

Spaghetti sauce, the recipe I cut my cooking teeth on.

<b><i>Pam's Meat Sauce for Pasta</i></b>

1 lb. ground beef (I prefer chuck for sauce)
1/2 lb. ground pork
extra light olive oil
1/2 cup onion, diced
5-10 cloves fresh garlic, minced (we love garlic)
1 carrot, diced
1 rib celery, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/4 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
28 oz. can whole peeled Italian style tomatoes, undrained
small can of tomato sauce (8 oz.?)
small can of tomato paste (6 oz.?)
3 fresh roma tomatoes, cubed with juice
Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, to taste
juice of 1/4 lemon
splash of balsamic vinegar
1 TBS (or to taste) turbinado sugar or honey
salt, pepper, granulated garlic, oregano, basil, anise seeds, bay leaves, cayenne pepper or Tabasco Sauce, cinnamon (just a dash, I'm trying to put a little into everything), Italian Seasoning, etc., all to taste
Fresh grated parmesan or romano cheese
Fresh Basil

Brown the ground beef and pork until just cooked through. Drain off fat and reserve.

Pour a thin coating of extra light olive oil into a hot 8 quart stock pot. Immediately add onion and sauté until just beginning to sweat. Add garlic and continue to cook until you get hit by the smell of the garlic, should be almost instantaneous. Add the carrot, celery, green pepper and mushrooms, one at a time until just starting to soften before adding the next vegetable. When all are softened but not mushy, add browned meats and heat through.

Keeping the heat on medium, pour the can of whole tomatoes into the stock pot. Use a spatula to break up the whole tomatoes into pieces (you can probably use canned diced tomatoes or break the whole ones in your hands before adding, but this is how I have always done it). Add the other canned tomato products and the roma tomatoes. Stir all with a spatula.

Pour a little wine into the bottom of the paste can (if you can, I open both ends and push on the bottom lid to squeeze all of the paste out). Swirl it around and then pour into the sauce can. Repeat, then pour into the whole peeled tomatoes can. Repeat and pour into the stock pot. Add the remaining ingredients to taste. Stir well, cover, turn heat down to simmer and cook for desired length of time. I prefer long cooking. To thicken the sauce, remove the cover about an hour before cooking is finished. Usually I'll put this on about 10:30AM and we'll sit to dinner about 6:00PM.

When you start your water for the pasta, stir in about 1/2 cup fresh parmesan or romano cheese. Stir. When you put the pasta in the boiling water, turn off the sauce and add fresh basil. Stir.

Cook pasta and add about 1/2 cup pasta water to sauce in the stock pot right before service. Stir to incorporate.

[High Lord Tolkien]

shhhhhhhhhhhhh........
Here is mine:

Spoiler

Prego Traditional

[Worm of Despite]

shhhhhhhhhhhhh........
Here is mine:

Spoiler

Prego Traditional

*GASP!* I won't tell anyone.

[onewyteduck]

The hubby tosses in just a small amount of Tequila!

[duchess of malfi]

Making it with fresh veggies and your own home grown tomatoes always makes for really really good sauce.

[Infelice]

3 ESSENTIAL ingrediants for any really good spaghetti sauce (IMO):

*garlic....TONNES OF IT!!!!!
*tomatoes .......IN A VARIETY OF FORMS!!!!!!
*red wine......HIC

[Damelon]

Spagetti sauce in a jar (Barilla) is the greatest invention since sliced bread.

[dlbpharmd]

Prego with Meat.

[Damelon]

I like just the basic sauce, you can always add things like meat - I like Italian Sausage myself in spagetti sauce.

[Sunbaneglasses]

I make a half homemade sauce out of prego,I add some extra garlic,some fresh basil,a wee bit of sugar,and a spoon or so of tomato paste and let it simmer for an hour or so until it cooks down to a richer flavor and thicker texture.

[mrsnull]

People, people, people

Oh, good grief....

You can not, must not,
should not, could not, would not
eat spaghetti sauce from a jar
- Especially the the sauce with the meat already in the jar.

Oh, Lord, help us!!
What is the world coming to????

Pam, your sauce sounds wonderful.

I love Italian food and make spaghetti many different ways.
Sarge is a wonderful pasta cook. We like it with tomato sauce or with olive oil. And I even like alfredo sauce, but Sarge is not so fond of it, so we rarely have it.
Here are some suggestions:

Start off with a can of tomato sauce (plain old sauce). I buy one of the big old cans and sometimes even us two of the big cans. Add a medium sized can of tomato paste and stir well until the paste is mixed in. If I have tomatoes, I will dice and add them. When possible, always use fresh, instead of canned, but if fresh is not avaliable, go ahead and use a can of (drained) diced tomatoes. To the pot, add fresh basil, fresh oregano, fresh parsley and a bay leaf or two or three. Top with a few drizzles of extra virgin olive oil.
Now, while your sauce is simmering (for about 30 minutes at the minimum, up to an hour if you have it), put a skillet on, add olive oil, toss in three to four cloves, sliced or minced (it truly doesn't matter), a chopped onion ( I make larger chunks of my vegetables), black olives if you have them, mushrooms - fresh, cut into chunks- green pepper (and if you have it, throw in red or yellow). When cooked, put into pan with sauce.
Boil your noodles and when cooked, do not drain, do not rinse. Use a pasta server, to lift the pasta up out of the water, let the water drip off and immediately drop into the large pan with the sauce. You don't lose your starch that way, and the pasta will taste better and not stick together.

[mrsnull]

I will add meat to the above recipe in the fring pan as well.

Another great pasta recipe:

Pasta with Zucchini
Before starting, take zucchini and peel every other space so that zuchini has a zebra effect. Slice off ends and then slice rounds of zucchini.

In large skillet, heat olive oil, then add three to four cloves garlic, add zucchini slices. Brown on one side then flip and brown the other.

When zucchini is browned, cook angel hair pasta (should take no more than 2 minutes - already have your water boiling).
Take angel hair pasta and put in skillet that the zucchini ws fried in, stir, getting up all the cooked on goodness from the pan, top with some more olive oil, zucchini and parmesean.
Very good.

[sgt.null]

and for those of you no good with fresh veggies, they sell Zuccini in a can, usually with tomatoes. happy eating!

[Damelon]

People, people, people

Oh, good grief....

You can not, must not,
should not, could not, would not
eat spaghetti sauce from a jar

As I said before, the best invention since sliced bread.