Stephanie (my friend in Seattle who Treena still calls Shawna) shared her recipe for spaghetti sauce. I tried it tonight and it was such a huge hit. Maddy had seconds and they both voted to eat it for leftovers (like they really had a choice)
I have her permission to post the recipe here. This recipe does require a bit of an appreciation for your grandma/great grandma/baba's recipes where she'd say
"put in some flour".
"How much flour grandma?"
"enough so it looks right"
Know what I mean? That kind. My mom has a recipe for "crunch" (you can buy it at starbucks and it's called an oat bar - kinda of close). Anyway, this recipe basically talks about how to get the wood oven hot enough. That's basically a lost art (except for Em and Kurt).
Anyway. I'm rambling. It's bedtime. I shouldn't blog a bedtime.
Here is Stephanie's recipe. Exactly how she sent it to me. I made it and its delicious so I'm going to say it's foolproof in its current form.
CUT and PASTE commencing NOW:
Keep in mind as you read this that this recipe evolved through trial and error so I don't have concrete measurments for a lot of this stuff.
Brown Mild Italian Sausage in olive oil, onions and garlic. (I started out making it with 1lb of sausage for a smaller batch. Now I use 4-6 Lbs each time and make a huge batch to put in the freezer. My kids love this stuff though so it goes fast and over the winter I will make 3-4 big batches) If you can only get it in the casings just cut the casings off before you brown them. The picture below was what I started out using, now I buy it in large tubes.
In a large pot combine:
Browned Meat
2-4 large cans of tomatoes that have been pureed in the blender (doesn't matter if they are sliced or crushed or diced as long as they are plain and you puree them) the number of cans depends on how much sauce you want to make and how saucy vs stewey you like your sauce
2-6 small cans of diced tomatoes with garlic, oregano and basil (here they come canned that way and I think they have more flavour because they have had time to meld together)
1-2 cans of sliced black olives
Chopped Mushrooms (as many as you like depending on how much you like mushrooms)
Dried Spices:Basil, Oregano, Italian Blend and a little bit of Red pepper flakes. Just dump them in. I have never used so much that it makes it taste yucky but you should use enough that the sauce turns a darker color when you stir them all in. With this though you can start slowly and add more if you need to.
Salt to taste (always wait until the end to add salt because the sausage will be pretty salty)
Bring to a boil then simmer on low for an hour. Eat it or let it cool on stove to freeze.
Last night when I made a fresh batch I added Zuchinni because it doesn't have much flavour of its own but I thought it would increase the veggie content and for the kids.
Enjoy everyone! (I used two of these packages, one can of diced and 1 1/2 cans of plain. That made a huge dutch oven pot full - I do not KNOW the size of pot she must use.....)
Thank you, Stephanie!
