feeling saucy

On a whim, I decided to make pasta sauce recently, so I promptly called my mother and asked for instructions. We refer to this as homemade, but I'm not entirely certain it deserves that label, because it doesn't involve any actual fresh tomato. Your mileage may vary; I just know this is kind of tasty.

One starts with a 28oz can of crushed tomato, a 15oz can of tomato paste, and about 45oz of canned tomato sauce (in this case a 29oz and a 15oz, but whatever's in stock, obviously). Dump these all into a large pot, cover, and simmer. This is where I made my first mistake. In general, it has been my experience that the ideal way to simmer something in a pot is to bring its temperature up to a reasonable level, then turn the heat down, cover, and continue cooking. As a result of this reasoning, I got to clean tomato sauce off every surface in my kitchen - including the ceiling - mere moments after cracking the first can. So believe me when I say you should start it on the lowest heat your range can swing, and do so with the cover on.

Once the body of the sauce is underway, one is invited to add whatever one thinks would be appropriate. Personally I went with well-diced onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, some ground paprika, and a truly absurd quantity of garlic powder. There is certainly an argument to be made for the use of fresh garlic instead - and some day I very much want to try the razor blade trick from Goodfellas - but I went with what I had on hand. I am not a big fan of mushrooms, generally, but the sauce would have been all wrong without them, no doubt due to the fact that my mother always included them. Whatever works.

In the future, if I'm feeling feisty, I might try such things as artichoke hearts, or perhaps even corn. I'm sure there are a variety of other options - feel free to suggest some.

At any rate, I also made meatballs. My typical meatball strategy is a pound of turkey, an egg, a third cup or so of french fried onions, and whatever spices strike my fancy at the time. (Bake for 20 minutes at 350°, flip halfway through.) The biggest problem with making these meatballs is that I tend to eat way too many while they're still warm, and this time was no exception. I doubled the recipe this time around, and tossed them in the sauce as soon as they cooled enough to move, but there still weren't any left after the initial dinner, so I'll probably make some more when I serve the leftovers.

I should note that these proportions produced a reasonably large pot of sauce - I fed five hungry people, several of whom went back for seconds, and had enough left over for a half-dozen or so more servings. It freezes well, as one would expect, and I know from past experience that having meat in the sauce doesn't change that. Once this is gone I might make a pot just to freeze; it certainly is convenient to have on hand.