It’s sauce day

I can appreciate the effort. I used to make my own sauce from scratch when I had a family that loved “american italian”.

These days, I might have it once every year or two.

Since I discovered it, there’s only one way I flavor fresh pasta - a knob of butter, a tablespoon of grated pecorino romano, and a tsp of fresh ground pepper. I might simmer some grated garlic (microplane) in the butter first. I’ve tried adding basil but it just over-complicates things. It is good in a robust sauce like above.

Not knocking heavy sauce lovers at all. Just sharing my experience for the epicurious amongst us.

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@shop - I never squeeze the juice out either, because, as you say, it takes away from the flavor. I haven’t really thought about freezing meatballs, will have to do that also. Do you cook them before freezing so you just have to heat them up? I do freeze dinner-size portions of things like homemade tamales, enchiladas, raviolis, and empanadas. Will have to add the meatballs to my list, especially since I usually don’t add hamburger to my pasta sauce.

@eflyguy, that sounds delicious! I’ll have to try it that way also.

yes, completely cook them first. you can slightly undercook if you want. basically we just pull them out of the freezer, maybe hit defrost in the microwave for a minute (just to take the hard frozen edge off) and then let them heat up in the sauce on the stove while the pasta cooks.

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so… caci de pepe? :slight_smile:

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Pretty much, but not loaded up on cheese like you’ll find in most “recipes”…

One thing that struck me in Italy was how simple and light everything was.

yeah. i prefer “simple” in cooking nowadays. i used to try adding lots of things to recipes, but in the end, quality ingredients are what stands out. start adding a lot of flavors and you’re often covering up the quality ingredient. and that may be where some of the more complicated recipes came from. covering up the lower quality ingredients.

in the end, the sauce i make still adheres to that. there are really only 4 primary ingredients. tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil. the rinds are optional, but they add a little depth.

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Final assessment after cookdown, ~23 quarts. will probably can it all thursday night.

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I thought the same thing especially since it looked like a stock number printed on the sandpaper! …and I didn’t know that parmesan had rinds…dang you learn something every day in this forum! The sauce sounds yummy.

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