Now that we have our meatballs made, it is time to make the sauce. Since we spent so much time making the meatballs from scratch, it would be sacrilegious to put them in bottled spaghetti sauce, so I recommend making the sauce yourself. You don't have to start from fresh tomatoes to prepare a sauce far superior to the factory made stuff, because you can put an ingredient in your sauce a factory simply can't, and that ingredient is love, which some argue is the most important of all. So lets get started and plate this baby up, I'm starving.
Note: It is important to realize that these recipes are merely guidelines to follow. They'll taste great as they are, but I encourage you to play with them and make the recipes your own.
Note: It is good practice to read the entire recipe, while paying particular attention to the "Notes", before you try to make the dish, as there are often subtleties that can be easily overlooked, which sometimes, can make all the difference in the world for the outcome.
Serves 4
Skill Level: Beginner
Prep time about 45 minutes.
Cook Time about 3 hours.
Ingredients:
- Condensed crushed tomatoes
- Red wine, Chianti would be preferable, but Merlot or Pino will do fine. (Note: the better the wine you use, the better the sauce. A good rule of thumb is, "If you won't drink it, don't cook with it." I used a bottle of cheap grocery store cooking wine. It was given to me and I preach "Use whatever is on hand" so I used used the wine I had on hand. With grocery store "cooking wine", salt has been added, so it really limits the amount of wine you can add to a given dish and you CANNOT reduce it that much, as it will become too salty.)
- 1 cup small diced carrots
- ¾ cup small diced yellow onion
- 4-6 whole cloves of garlic
- 1 tlb Dried basil
- ½ tlb Dried oregano
- Dried parsley
- 1 tsp sugar
- Parmesan cheese
- ½ loaf Italian bread
- Melted or Clarified Butter (I will show how to make clarified butter in a future post)
- Olive Oil
- Vegetable oil
- 1 Box of spaghetti
- Kosher salt
- Pepper (Note: preferably fresh cracked from a mill)
Tools Needed:
- 1 Stock pot
- 1 Sautoir Pan
- Wooden Spatula
- Chef's Knife
- Immersion blender or food processor
- Pan, Tray, or Cookie Sheet
Small dice your carrots and onions, then mince the garlic, pruning it as we did in Meatball Recipe - Part 1.
Put a few table spoons of olive oil in a Sautoir Pan, heat and add the carrots, seasoning them with salt and pepper.
Cook the carrots on medium-low heat for about 5 minutes.
Add the onions and season them with salt and pepper.
Sweat the onions, with the carrots, for about 5 minutes.
Add the garlic, seasoning with salt and pepper.
Note: Each time you season, you just add enough salt and pepper for the new ingredient. You are not seasoning the whole mixture each time. You should practice this seasoning method on all foods you cook, as natural foods do not come pre-seasoned from the market.
Cook for another 5-7 minutes on medium-low heat.
Note: during this process, you want to be stirring the carrots, onions, and garlic around so they do not burn or over brown on any given side.
Deglaze the pan with about ½ cup of red wine and reduce for about 5 minutes.
Add 2 ½ cups of condensed crushed tomatoes, the basil, the oregano, and the sugar. Lightly season the tomatoes with salt and pepper.
Note: If you don't have "condensed crushed tomatoes" and your using regular "crushed tomatoes", you will have to add 3 ½ cups and reduce (simmer) the sauce for about an hour, or until you have about 2 ½ cups remaining, before moving to the next step.
Add one cup of chicken stock and 12 meatballs to the tomato sauce.
Note: Recipe for meatballs can be found here:
About every 10-15 minutes, check to see that you have your heat in the sweet spot for a slow simmer. Once there, check every 20-30 minutes, and give the sauce and stir.
Note: if your sauce does become to thick to soon, simply thin down with a little water. Don't add to much, or you'll be 'back at square one' with reducing the sauce.Since I used a bulk sized can of condensed crushed tomatoes, I thought I'd show how to deal with it once you've opened such a large can.
Place 2 ½ cups of condensed crushed tomatoes in appropriately sized freezer bags, removing as much air as possible, and freeze until needed.
Note: I freeze 2 ½ cups, because most recipes I'll be making will use about that amount. So you will choose a portion size that matches your personal needs.
When the sauce is just about done, carefully remove the meatballs and use an immersion blender to puree the sauce smooth. Then return the meatballs and continue cooking.
Note: At this point, it is a good idea to preheat your oven to 350 degrees for the bread and put a stock pot full of water on the stove on high heat.
In a stock pot, bring 2 quarts of water to a hard rolling boil. Add 2 tablespoons of salt.
Measure out your pasta.
1 ¾ inches in diameter is 4 servings, or 8.1 oz.
Note: I am making only 3 servings of spaghetti, as my wife prefers angel hair for her pasta. About 2 oz of angel hair makes a single serving.
Note: While learning to portion out pasta, you can select an amount of pasta, place the pasta perpendicular to a sheet of paper and trace around it. Then see how many portions the diameter you traced made for your family. Keep the paper and the next time you make pasta, you can compare and adjust the amount accordingly. In just a bit, you could have a paper with portion templates to feed any number of people hanging on your fridge. Very handy.
Drop pasta in boiling water.
Immediately stir to make sure the pasta doesn't stick together.
When the pasta is done, pour into a strainer and add oil and mix well, as to coat all the pasta.
Note: Use vegetable oil, as olive oil will sour the pasta faster if you plan to keep it a few days.
Note: DO NOT run cold water over the pasta, as the pasta is still hot and will absorb water. If you do this you run the risk of over cooking your pasta.
Place pasta on a cookie sheet to cool.
Note: To see why the pasta has been twisted into nests for cooling, refer to "How to Cook Pasta" in the table of contents or click the following link: http://goldenislescooks.blogspot.com/search/label/How%20to%20Cook%20Pasta
Now for the bread.
Half the loaf of bread lengthwise and liberally brush on melted or clarified butter.
Cover the bread with garlic salt, parmesan cheese, and parsley. Place on a sheet pan and bake at 350 degrees until golden and crispy.
When the bread and pasta is ready, cut into 2 inch wide strips.
When the pasta and bread is ready, your meatballs are ready, I mean they should be, they've been cooking nearly 3 hours at this point, it is time to plate the meal.
Serve any way you like.
Enjoy!
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