Where it all began............Red Sauce!

     When I was thinking about what my first post would be, it became obvious, the first thing I learned to cook, and to this day still my favorite......mom's spaghetti and meatballs!  No good Italian would be without a great simple recipe for this basic home dish.  I have great memories of being in the kitchen with my mom, helping in any way I could.  Usually, I would get to mix the meatball meat, and taste it raw before anyone else (knowing what we know today about eating raw meat and eggs probably wasn't the best thing for me but I loved it and never had a problem, I survived without a child seat as well!).    Start the sauce with a few simple fresh ingredients.  A yellow onion chopped, some fresh chopped garlic, a good quality olive oil ( I prefer Colavita) and some good quality canned whole tomatoes (preferable San Marzano, they are more $ but definitely worth it).  Put the tomatoes in a large bowl and remove any skin or stems.  Crush them with your fingers when you are through so you know you got them all.  I then use an immersion blender to smooth any large chunks into a nice blended sauce.  Saute the chopped onion and garlic until onion begins to become translucent, add a tablespoon of tomato paste, and some salt and saute for a few more minutes.  Then add the crushed tomatoes and stir.  Let it come to boil and reduce to a low simmer.  Now add basil, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste.  I prefer fresh herbs for my sauce but dry is okay, be careful with dried oregano, it can be overpowering.  Next, add some brown sugar.  For a fairly large batch of sauce, I would use 1 large onion,  10 cloves of garlic, maybe 2 tbs. of brown sugar, salt, pepper, oregano, basil to taste (throw in a bunch of fresh) to 6 large cans of tomatoes.  Let it cook low and slow stirring and tasting for spice for a few hours!

Notice the orange bubbles that form on top of the sauce, that is a good good thing!