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Dec. 19th, 2004 05:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sereneGonna start recording my mom's recipes here so I can save them. I've been making her sit down with me and teach them to me in detail. So far, I haven't gotten her chopped liver right, but I have her spaghetti sauce on the money.
Because it's my mom, I learned this stuff without exact quantities, and my pot isn't the same size as hers, so she had to advise me over the phone about how much of stuff to use. I will put in quantities later, when it's light enough in here to see the cans. Yes, my mother has always made spaghetti sauce with canned tomato products and dried basil/garlic, as did her Italian mother before her (her mom came over from Naples on a boat). I have very strong associations with the taste of tomato paste eaten with the finger off the lid of the can.
Here's what I use to make approximately two quarts (a little more, but I'm, um, tasting the whole time) of sauce:
Olive oil
1 Onion, chopped
2 small (5 oz?) or one large can Tomato paste
2 large cans Tomato puree (or crushed tomatoes)
Dried basil (2 tablespoons?)
Garlic powder (2 teaspoons? I use less because the granulated garlic I get at the Berkeley Bowl is strong -- use your own judgment)
1 lb. Ground beef
1 lb. Italian sausage
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Start the night before you want to have spaghetti/lasagne for dinner.
Use a thick-bottomed pot for this. I use a six-quart pot, because it's the biggest I have, but mom's was much bigger. The sauce starts out filling the pot about two-thirds full, but cooks down considerably.
Cover the bottom of the pot with olive oil. Add a chopped onion. Sautee until the onion starts to soften. Add the tomato paste, basil, and garlic, and stir.
This part is important: Cook the tomato paste and stuff on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the olive oil is starting to turn black. I know, I know, but it's important. It takes around a half hour. If you don't see streaks of olive oil when you stir, you may not have enough olive oil in there. Feel free to add more. Always, always, always feel free to add olive oil to my mom's Italian food. :-)
Now add the can(s) of tomato puree. Then add one can of water for each can of puree, and two cans of water for each can of paste. Stir and bring to a gentle boil. Add the meat, crumbled up (sometimes mom would make meatballs, but usually, she would just crumble the meat). I made the sauce without meat yesterday, and it was great.
Lower the heat to barely a simmer and cook the sauce overnight, uncovered, stirring when you think of it. While you're awake and tending it, it should simmer gently. While you're asleep, it should be on the very lowest heat.
In the morning, breakfast in my house is a slice of bread soaked in the (still thinnish) sauce. Heaven!
Cook and stir occasionally until the sauce is the thickness you like. This will happen early in the day if you haven't used meat. Otherwise, it'll happen later. Do as you like with the grease from the meat. My mom leaves it and stirs it in, or skims it if it's excessive. Sometimes I soak it up with bread, sometimes I discard it. Once the sauce is thick, turn off the heat and stir in the parmesan cheese (mom says it cuts any bitterness. I like the sauce without it, but it's not quite right, if you know what I mean). Now you have mom's spaghetti sauce.
Sometimes when I was a kid, mom would cook italian sausages in this sauce, or meatballs, and make sandwiches. Yummy.
Because it's my mom, I learned this stuff without exact quantities, and my pot isn't the same size as hers, so she had to advise me over the phone about how much of stuff to use. I will put in quantities later, when it's light enough in here to see the cans. Yes, my mother has always made spaghetti sauce with canned tomato products and dried basil/garlic, as did her Italian mother before her (her mom came over from Naples on a boat). I have very strong associations with the taste of tomato paste eaten with the finger off the lid of the can.
Here's what I use to make approximately two quarts (a little more, but I'm, um, tasting the whole time) of sauce:
Olive oil
1 Onion, chopped
2 small (5 oz?) or one large can Tomato paste
2 large cans Tomato puree (or crushed tomatoes)
Dried basil (2 tablespoons?)
Garlic powder (2 teaspoons? I use less because the granulated garlic I get at the Berkeley Bowl is strong -- use your own judgment)
1 lb. Ground beef
1 lb. Italian sausage
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Start the night before you want to have spaghetti/lasagne for dinner.
Use a thick-bottomed pot for this. I use a six-quart pot, because it's the biggest I have, but mom's was much bigger. The sauce starts out filling the pot about two-thirds full, but cooks down considerably.
Cover the bottom of the pot with olive oil. Add a chopped onion. Sautee until the onion starts to soften. Add the tomato paste, basil, and garlic, and stir.
This part is important: Cook the tomato paste and stuff on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the olive oil is starting to turn black. I know, I know, but it's important. It takes around a half hour. If you don't see streaks of olive oil when you stir, you may not have enough olive oil in there. Feel free to add more. Always, always, always feel free to add olive oil to my mom's Italian food. :-)
Now add the can(s) of tomato puree. Then add one can of water for each can of puree, and two cans of water for each can of paste. Stir and bring to a gentle boil. Add the meat, crumbled up (sometimes mom would make meatballs, but usually, she would just crumble the meat). I made the sauce without meat yesterday, and it was great.
Lower the heat to barely a simmer and cook the sauce overnight, uncovered, stirring when you think of it. While you're awake and tending it, it should simmer gently. While you're asleep, it should be on the very lowest heat.
In the morning, breakfast in my house is a slice of bread soaked in the (still thinnish) sauce. Heaven!
Cook and stir occasionally until the sauce is the thickness you like. This will happen early in the day if you haven't used meat. Otherwise, it'll happen later. Do as you like with the grease from the meat. My mom leaves it and stirs it in, or skims it if it's excessive. Sometimes I soak it up with bread, sometimes I discard it. Once the sauce is thick, turn off the heat and stir in the parmesan cheese (mom says it cuts any bitterness. I like the sauce without it, but it's not quite right, if you know what I mean). Now you have mom's spaghetti sauce.
Sometimes when I was a kid, mom would cook italian sausages in this sauce, or meatballs, and make sandwiches. Yummy.
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Date: 2004-12-19 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 07:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-19 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 03:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-28 09:52 pm (UTC)I'll let y'all know how it turns out. So far, so wonderful smelling.