https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/130358/worlds-best-pasta-sauce/

World's Best Pasta Sauce!


Recipe by John Chandler Updated on May 6, 2022
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 1 hrs 40 mins
Total Time: 1 hrs 55 mins


Ingredients
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, sliced

¾ pound lean ground beef

½ cup minced onion

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

2 (6.5 ounce) cans tomato sauce

2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste

½ cup water

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 ½ teaspoons dried basil

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

½ teaspoon fennel seed

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions
Cook sausage, beef, onion, and garlic in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat until browned; drain fat.

Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and water. Mix in sugar, basil, Italian seasoning, fennel seed, salt, and pepper.

Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, about 1 1/2 hours.

Yup. Meet you at the Olive Garden.

I made this yesterday on a rainy day and it was very good. Easy because it's slow cooked in the oven and few ingredients. I browned ground beef and added it to the skillet when I expected about 2 hours remaining cook time.
https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-slow-cooked-italian-american-tomato-sauce-red-sauce-recipe

These San Marzanos are expensive, but well-worth it. They make excellent Marinara sauce. I buy them at Vace for less than what they're going for on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Strianese-San-Marzano-Tomatoes-Pack/dp/B004ROGYDM

Chicago 100% first generaion Italian American here, we NEVER called it gravy. Must be a NJ thing.

Anonymous wrote:OP of this thread here. We made the sauce, meatballs and pasta from scratch. I'm super glad that we did that but next time I'm definitely buying the jarred sauce. Not worth the effort. Pasta and meatballs (especially pasta) is infinitely better made from scratch.

Also, semolina flower not necessary for pasta. Regular all purpose flower is just fine. It was so much fun making all of this food.

Try Passata. Seriously. All it needs a a little garlic, salt, and maybe a squeeze of lemon. You can treat Passata basically like jarred sauce, but it’s so much better and not full of sugar and other crap.

Anonymous wrote:

Quit trying so hard to be authentic- I was just in Florence and found the food bland with very few interesting vegetable preparations. I am Italian- -American with grandparents from the poor Southern regions ( as most Italians probably are in the US- why immigrate if you have money?) and I like my food spicy and well-seasoned. I say grate good imported Reggiano- Parmigiano on everything. I also frequently put white sugar in my sauce( depending on tomatoes) and it doesn’t taste like ketchup and I am not ashamed. Put fresh basil at the end in your sauce.

I am also Italian-American (Sicilian) and anyone, including “real Italians,” who says no cheese with fish, garlic, whatever can go pound sand. It is freaking amazing.

OP of this thread here. We made the sauce, meatballs and pasta from scratch. I'm super glad that we did that but next time I'm definitely buying the jarred sauce. Not worth the effort. Pasta and meatballs (especially pasta) is infinitely better made from scratch.

Also, semolina flower not necessary for pasta. Regular all purpose flower is just fine. It was so much fun making all of this food.