Granny’s Spaghetti Sauce
Description
An unmeasured, rustic spaghetti sauce passed down without precise quantities — whole onion, pepper, and celery thrown in (not chopped), garlic mashed with a fork in a black iron skillet to release its juices, and tomato paste fried dark before everything simmers together for hours. The kind of sauce that tastes right when it tastes right, not when a timer goes off.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Combine the crushed tomatoes, whole onion, whole green pepper, whole celery stalk, Italian sausage, and dried herbs (parsley, oregano, thyme, basil, bay leaf, fennel seed) in a pot.
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Mash the garlic with a fork in a black iron skillet to extract the juices.
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Add about 2 Tbsp. olive oil and the tomato paste to the skillet.
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Fry the tomato paste and garlic over medium heat until the paste is dark but not burned.
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Add the fried tomato paste mixture to the other ingredients in the pot.
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Cook several hours over low heat, adding water as needed to thin the sauce, or leaving it thick if preferred.
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Season with sugar and salt to taste.
Nutrition Facts
Servings 8
- Amount Per Serving
- Calories 250kcal
- % Daily Value *
- Total Fat 13g20%
- Saturated Fat 4g20%
- Cholesterol 25mg9%
- Sodium 480mg20%
- Total Carbohydrate 18g6%
- Dietary Fiber 3g12%
- Sugars 7g
- Protein 10g20%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Note
Granny didn't measure spices — just a dash of this and that until it tasted right. She also never chopped the onion, pepper, or celery; she put them in whole and let them flavor the sauce.
Fry the tomato paste and garlic in the skillet until the paste turns dark but is not burned — this caramelization step is essential to the sauce's depth of flavor.
