Anonymous wrote:Marcella Hazan.

https://www.thekitchn.com/marcella-hazans-amazing-4ingre-144538

Anonymous wrote:I am the person with the Italian MIL who made a cookbook 10 years ago.

I am so sorry for saying Daddy noodles so many times in that one recipe. I didn't realize I had done that. I was concentrating on removing personal names from my document when I was cutting and pasting the recipe.

Yes, I use 5 sticks of butter to make 6 quarts of spaghetti sauce.

Thanks for the compliments on the cookbook. I compiled more than 50 of my MIL's recipes, plus about 20 of my own, and another 10 or so from other family members. I also called up various family members and asked them to share some mealtime memories. Then I typed up their reminiscences to add to the cookbook. It ended up being close to 100 pages and needed a table of contents once it was all done. I made 19 copies for family and friends. All printed out on my home printer and compiled in 3-ring binders.
MIL's original recipe notes were written half in Italian and half in English.
The thing that surprises me now about the cookbook is how often I use it.

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there any Italians on this board? My 100% authentic Italian friends call their tomato sauce " gravy" and it is an all afternoon ordeal making it. Anyone authentic want to weigh in?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there any Italians on this board? My 100% authentic Italian friends call their tomato sauce " gravy" and it is an all afternoon ordeal making it. Anyone authentic want to weigh in?

Unless you are adding beef bones or something similar, it's not gravy.

Gravy must be an East Coast Italian American term. I am Italian American and everyone I know just calls it sauce whether it has meat cooked in it or not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL grew up in northern Italy. (She married an American soldier and now lives in the states). She is 88 years old. [b]Ten years ago I spent a week at her house writing down all her recipes. Then I went back home, typed up all her recipes and made a family cookbook that year for everyone for Christmas. [i]
Here is her spaghetti sauce recipe:

1 ½ pounds ground chuck
2 small ( six ounce) cans tomato paste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 ½ beef bullion cubes
One onion chopped real fine
2 cloves of garlic, cut up real fine
-- Nona says you can smash the garlic clove with the side of a knife and it will be easier to cut up—

Handful of parsley, maybe 1 ½ tablespoons. Chopped up fresh parsley if you have it, otherwise the dried stuff works too.



Put the butter and oil in a big pan. Put the onion in and sauté it. When the onion is sautéed, then you add the parsley. Then put in the garlic. The garlic will cook quick.

After all that is sautéed, use a slatted spoon to remove everything but the grease. Set aside the onion and spices in a bowl to use later.

Then you open your package of meat and put it in the pan. It will take 15 to 20 minutes to cook the meat. Keep turning it until it’s all completely cooked. Leave the grease in the pan. Add the onion and spices from the bowl.

Open your two cans of tomato paste. Scrape out the cans into the pan. Wait before you add the water. Mix in the tomato paste to absorb the juice in the pan and get mixed in with the meat. Let it cook for five minutes maybe.

Then use the cans and fill up each can 2 ½ times with hot water, and add to the sauce. Stir together.

Simmer slow for one to 1 ½ hours. You can add a little more water if you want.

------------
Here is my recipe for six quarts of spaghetti sauce:

-- My spaghetti sauce recipe started out as Nona’s spaghetti sauce recipe a gazillion years ago. But over the years I have modified mine here and there, enough so that my spaghetti sauce now tastes different from her spaghetti sauce. –

I always make six quarts of it and freeze it. I use two or three four-quart cooking pots for this.

5 pounds ground beef
One pound ground sausage
5 large onions, chopped real fine
1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic, maybe even 2 ½ teaspoons full. ( I buy those jars of garlic they sell in the grocery stores)
Five sticks butter
8 or 9 or 10 large (12 ounce) cans and two small (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
water

Cook the ground beef and sausage. Drain the grease into an empty coffee canister and discard it. Remove the meat from the pot, put it in a bowl and set it aside for now.

Cook the onions and garlic with the butter in two pots. As in, equal amounts of onion, garlic and butter in each pot. Once the onions are cooked, start opening your big cans of tomato paste. Maybe you won’t need all 10 cans. Scoop three cans each of tomato paste into each pot. (So, six total so far). Then refill each can ¾ full of water twice. Each time you fill it ¾ full, use a spoon to stir the water around in the can so you can get the last of the tomato paste out of the can. Put the water in with the sauce. Stir it up good. Add the meat, equal amounts to each pot. Stir it up good. Decide you want more tomato paste in the sauce. Open two more cans, scrape it into the sauce, do the water thing. Stir it up.

By now your two pots are getting so full that you realize that once you get the heat going good so the sauce will start to simmer, it is going to splat everywhere and you are going to have to spend two hours afterward cleaning up if you add any more tomato paste. So, at this point, you can either decide that you have used enough cans of tomato paste, or you can pull a third pot out of the cupboard and divide everything up all over again so you can add more tomato paste and water.

Then once you have it all figured out, simmer on low for 45 minutes to an hour. Stir often while it is simmering.

Once it is all done, ladle the sauce into quart sized freezer containers, label and date the containers and put them in the freezer. One quart of sauce is about the right amount to feed 3 adults. Well, if they put a lot of sauce on their pasta like most Americans do.

-- I don’t always use ground sausage when I make my spaghetti sauce. Just sometimes. --

That’s incredible! That’s a true gift.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there any Italians on this board? My 100% authentic Italian friends call their tomato sauce " gravy" and it is an all afternoon ordeal making it. Anyone authentic want to weigh in?

Unless you are adding beef bones or something similar, it's not gravy.

Anonymous wrote:My MIL grew up in northern Italy. (She married an American soldier and now lives in the states). She is 88 years old. [b]Ten years ago I spent a week at her house writing down all her recipes. Then I went back home, typed up all her recipes and made a family cookbook that year for everyone for Christmas. [i]
Here is her spaghetti sauce recipe:

1 ½ pounds ground chuck
2 small ( six ounce) cans tomato paste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 ½ beef bullion cubes
One onion chopped real fine
2 cloves of garlic, cut up real fine
-- Nona says you can smash the garlic clove with the side of a knife and it will be easier to cut up—

Handful of parsley, maybe 1 ½ tablespoons. Chopped up fresh parsley if you have it, otherwise the dried stuff works too.



Put the butter and oil in a big pan. Put the onion in and sauté it. When the onion is sautéed, then you add the parsley. Then put in the garlic. The garlic will cook quick.

After all that is sautéed, use a slatted spoon to remove everything but the grease. Set aside the onion and spices in a bowl to use later.

Then you open your package of meat and put it in the pan. It will take 15 to 20 minutes to cook the meat. Keep turning it until it’s all completely cooked. Leave the grease in the pan. Add the onion and spices from the bowl.

Open your two cans of tomato paste. Scrape out the cans into the pan. Wait before you add the water. Mix in the tomato paste to absorb the juice in the pan and get mixed in with the meat. Let it cook for five minutes maybe.

Then use the cans and fill up each can 2 ½ times with hot water, and add to the sauce. Stir together.

Simmer slow for one to 1 ½ hours. You can add a little more water if you want.

------------
Here is my recipe for six quarts of spaghetti sauce:

-- My spaghetti sauce recipe started out as Nona’s spaghetti sauce recipe a gazillion years ago. But over the years I have modified mine here and there, enough so that my spaghetti sauce now tastes different from her spaghetti sauce. –

I always make six quarts of it and freeze it. I use two or three four-quart cooking pots for this.

5 pounds ground beef
One pound ground sausage
5 large onions, chopped real fine
1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic, maybe even 2 ½ teaspoons full. ( I buy those jars of garlic they sell in the grocery stores)
Five sticks butter
8 or 9 or 10 large (12 ounce) cans and two small (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
water

Cook the ground beef and sausage. Drain the grease into an empty coffee canister and discard it. Remove the meat from the pot, put it in a bowl and set it aside for now.

Cook the onions and garlic with the butter in two pots. As in, equal amounts of onion, garlic and butter in each pot. Once the onions are cooked, start opening your big cans of tomato paste. Maybe you won’t need all 10 cans. Scoop three cans each of tomato paste into each pot. (So, six total so far). Then refill each can ¾ full of water twice. Each time you fill it ¾ full, use a spoon to stir the water around in the can so you can get the last of the tomato paste out of the can. Put the water in with the sauce. Stir it up good. Add the meat, equal amounts to each pot. Stir it up good. Decide you want more tomato paste in the sauce. Open two more cans, scrape it into the sauce, do the water thing. Stir it up.

By now your two pots are getting so full that you realize that once you get the heat going good so the sauce will start to simmer, it is going to splat everywhere and you are going to have to spend two hours afterward cleaning up if you add any more tomato paste. So, at this point, you can either decide that you have used enough cans of tomato paste, or you can pull a third pot out of the cupboard and divide everything up all over again so you can add more tomato paste and water.

Then once you have it all figured out, simmer on low for 45 minutes to an hour. Stir often while it is simmering.

Once it is all done, ladle the sauce into quart sized freezer containers, label and date the containers and put them in the freezer. One quart of sauce is about the right amount to feed 3 adults. Well, if they put a lot of sauce on their pasta like most Americans do.

-- I don’t always use ground sausage when I make my spaghetti sauce. Just sometimes. --

Anonymous wrote:PP here again. I will download the recipe for "Daddy noodles" while I have the files open from the cookbook I made.
"Daddy noodles" is pretty similar to pasta with Alfredo sauce.

Daddy noodles
Boil a 16 ounce package of medium egg noodles. Add 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons salt to the water once is starts boiling but before you put the pasta in. Cook, drain, return to pot.
Add a stick of butter and a sprinkle of garlic powder. Stir until the butter is melted.
Stir in a whole big gob of parmesan cheese. Like ½ to ¾ cup. Freshly grated parmesan is way better that the Kraft shaker thing.
Add a little milk. Like two ounces. Or if you happen to have heavy whipping cream on hand, add two ounces of that instead of milk.

-- Note from OP: We call it Daddy noodles because my husband came up with this recipe when the kids were little. 20 years later, we still call it Daddy noodles. --

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there any Italians on this board? My 100% authentic Italian friends call their tomato sauce " gravy" and it is an all afternoon ordeal making it. Anyone authentic want to weigh in?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marcella Hazan.

https://www.thekitchn.com/marcella-hazans-amazing-4ingre-144538

So this recipe is not too bland? She doesn't use any spices at all other than salt.