All Day Versatile Sauce

Just as all the other reviews say, this is THE basic red sauce recipe. It's great as is, and it's also versatile: add a lot of chopped flat-leaf parsley in the last hour; add bay leaves at the beginning (making sure to fish them out at the end!); add chopped fresh basil in the last hour; add red wine at the beginning and boil off the alcohol; throw in a rind of hard cheese. I would add one teeny suggestion: canned tomato sauce is already pretty cooked, and this is a long-cooked sauce. You may want to use whole peeled tomatoes, which you can either dice and use with the liquid, or whirl it in the blender. It's no big deal, but it is a far less-cooked product, suitable for long cooking in the recipe.

Oh,boy,oh,boy,oh boy is this sauce good, no, wonderful! LIke so many other cooks, I can't resist a couple of little additions. I added a bunch,yes, a buch of chopped Italian parsely, some crushed red pepper flakes, and a pound of chopped mushrooms. Also, add a big pinch of baking soda to the sauce during the first hour of simmering. This makes for a very mellow, flavorful sauce. Make this sauce. It is the BEST!

excellent sauce, but use hearty bones if you intend to cook this in a crockpot, the neck bones fell apart and were almost impossible to remove from the sauce. a real winner!!

Excellent! This is what Italians' would call "gravy". I like to also brown several chicken pieces and add them to the sauce for even more flavor and then use the ground beef to make meatballs. Thanks Nan!

This was the best spaghetti sauce I've ever made! I've been looking for a real good homemade sauce and now I've found it. Everyone loved it! I couldn't find beef neck bones either, so I used 2 beef ribs. I also didn't use the ground beef because I served it with my homemade meatballs instead. I doubled the recipe and I'm going to freeze the rest. I'm passing this recipe on to all my friends. Easy and Wonderful!!

My husband claims to have stumbled one day upon a little "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant, run by an old Italian gentleman who had pots of tomato sauce slowly simmering in his tiny kitchen; this gentleman claimed that a good sauce could only be made by slowly simmering the sauce for a few DAYS. My husband speaks lovingly of that sauce every time we try a new recipe. Until now. This is the closest we have ever come to that fabled sauce; in fact, this probably equals that paradigm of flavor since memory has probably elevated its hallowed qualities beyond truth. This recipe is rich, flavorful and oh so useful. Lasagna, meatballs, plain on spaghetti, even as a sauce for pizza, you can not go wrong. I made the recipe exactly as described but cooked it in a slow cooker with the lid askew for 10 hours.

Very Simple, very Good Sauce. Now I can make a red sauce better than I ever thought I could. Very important to let it simmer at very low heat for several hours. I found that at the fifth hour, reducing the heat even more seemed to make it thicker by the 6th and final hour. Thanks! Can't wait to make this again.

This is a great bolognese sauce. I could not, for the life of me, find beef neck bones in all of Massachusetts, and ended up using pork neck bones, which I thought worked just as well. The smell in the house was amazing. Cant wait to use this for lasagna later this week!

I doubt I will ever seek a different recipe. This one's a DANDY.

This is truly the most wonderful sauce! My new all-time favorite!!!! I have gotten dozens and dozens of recipes from allrecipes.com and this is BY FAR the one that got the best reaction! It is lick-the-plate good!! I did add 1/2 tsp. of celery salt...YUM! Make this and you will be hooked. Thank you for sharing this recipe NAN!

What I have been looking for is a spaghetti sauce recipe. This recipe is just what the title suggests. It's "Versatile". The sauce can be used for a whole range of dishes, by adding or subtracting certain ingredients. By far, it is a great sauce. I added 2-1/2 teaspoons of salt, 2-1/2 tsp. dried basil,1/2 teaspoon pepper, 2 Bay leaves, and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes to the sauce. Some people suggested not adding the 3 cups of water--I added the water and put the lid on askew so steam could escape while the sauce simmered for 6 hours. My husband raved about the sauce. Thanks Nan, I finally have a sauce I can serve with pride.

I came across this recipe because we bought a beef and I didn't know what to do with the neck bones, so I searched for recipes with neck bones as the ingredient and found this one. This turned out wonderful although I did change a few things a bit. I used about 1/2 an onion, and I used about 1.5 lbs of ground beef. I added a bay leaf and some extra basil and parsley. At first I only used 2 cups of water but after about 4 hours it was super thick so I added the 3rd cup. At 4 hours, I also removed the neck bones because they were starting to fall apart in the sauce. I highly recommend this, my whole family loved it, including my picky 3 yr old!

I did everything as written except had a little over a pound of pork neck bones, threw in two bay leaves and didn't add the optional ground burger. At the sixth hour of simmering it was the perfect consistency. Absolutely delicious and will be my 'go to' recipe. I could see that using a few pork ribs would work equally well.

THIS A SUPER BASIC RECIPE.EASY AND VERSATILE.I ADD A TBSP OF DARK BROWN SUGAR AND A TABLESPOON OF APPLE CIDER VINEGAR TO GIVE IT SOME "LAYERS" OF FLAVOR...AND FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER...DELICIOUS!

Sorry, but this is a very bland recipe. I could add different ingredients next time but then it simply wouldn't be the same recipe.

It was really a bit too bland and too "tomato-y". I couldn't get the neck bones so I added extra ground beef, and even added 2 bell peppers to it. There was too much water so I had to cook the sauce for over 3 hours with the lid only half covering it so that the water could evaporate. It needs a bit more flavour so I had to add more basil, oregano, lots more parsely and even bit of salt and sugar. Was quite disappointed that it needed so many tweaks to make it tasty because the reviews really make it sound great. Still, it's a good jumping-off point for a basic sauce. Thanks anyway! :)

This is the closest recipe that I have ever found that is most like the spaghetti sauce that my father used to make. It is absolutley the best, very easy to adjust to whatever you are making.

Perfect, just as is. Incredible, really. My only tip is to be sure to use a cheap, fatty cut of pork-- the fat melts away into the sauce giving it flavor and the perfect texture to the meat.

Just like mom's! Easy and delcious!

This is the best slow-cooked meat sauce I have ever made. It also makes a great marinara -- I was asked to make a meatless sauce for a baby shower and used this recipe without the meat and it got rave reviews. Thanks Nan!

this was so good, reminded me of sauce my grandma use to always make made this again for the 5th time. Added mushrooms and alittle bit of crushed peppers. didnt add ground beef this time but added some italian sausage. Everytime we make it, i wonder why we dont eat this everyday. If you make this and its not a 5. you did something wrong

very good! I added red wine and less water and a pinch of sugar.

We loved this sauce, I did only add about half the amount of water called for so it wasn't so runny. Delicious, thanks Nan!

Wonderful, just wonderful. My family loved this sauce and asked that I never use any other one.

Fabulous!

I made this recipe without the pork bones and added ground sausage. I also omitted the water and it was just awesome! I made a lasagna with it for a baby shower and there was not a speck of food left in the dish. Thanks Nan!

This was an excellent recipe. I added in flavourful brown mushrooms and ground beef (right at the start) as well as a little cooking wine, it was a very tasty dish indeed!

Couldn't resist trying this recipe. However I found it to be less than I had anticipated from reading all of the rave reviews. I'll continue my search for that elusive sauce.

Great sauce.. I used it on so much and not just pasta. I used it as a dipping sauce for my Stromboli and for my Gnocchi Bake. What an Italian night we had

This did not have nearly enough spices what so ever. I would recommend alot more oregano and basil.

Great sauce!

I used this recipe over the holidays, and will not ever use another recipe for red sauce. This is the ONE. Thank you so much for this recipe. Wonderful...

I made this for dinner guests and everybody loved it. We used sausage and I added bay leafs. This was great. Thanks

When eating the sauce, it was bland, and has way to much tomato taste. I had to add alot more oregano, parsley, and basil to the recipe for a much more flavored sauce.

We enjoyed this recipe. Very Very good. Thanks for the post.

good basic recipe, neck bones really make a difference but are hard to find, it need a lot more spices for our personal taste though thnx for sharing

My whole family loved this recipe. I've been looking for the ultimate pasta sauce and so far I think this is the best. I've made it several times and just made a few additions. I add chopped fresh celery, some parsley (dried is fine) and bay leaf. If beef neckbones aren't available, pork neckbones will do fine. Keep the lid ajar if sauce seems too watery. I make this in a large batch and freeze some to have on hand for future meals.

Oh wow!! This is SOOO good!! My roomates and I had a hard time waiting 6 hours for it to be done...we kept having to sneak in sample tastes. I did double the amount of garlic asked for...AND added a TON of garlic powder and some salt. Italian food is absolutley my favorite food in the whole world, and this will now be added to my collection of great dishes to make!! Thanks for the great recipe!

I have used this recipe several times. I omit the neck bones. This is delicious.

My husband said it was as good if not better than his mother. That right there put it at a 5 star, because I'm swedish and apparently, the swedish have no concept of good Italian food. I always thought I did until I met my husband and he informed me I was wrong. Quite delicious, and well worth the wait. I used country style pork chops instead of a neck bone because I couldn't find one. I also added some garlic powder, 2 extra cloves of garlic, Italien seasoning, a pinch of rosemary, and a little seasoning salt. big hit here and will definatly make this again. 2/23/2004-I've made this 3 or 4 times so far, and it's better and better each time. This time I used it to make Baked Ziti one night, and pasta and gravy another night. Mmm Mmm Good!!

I really loved this sauce. It had just the flavor I've been looking for in a pasta sauce. This is definately a keeper.

this is the best recipe!!! everyone who tryed it loved it!! will most definately make this again. Made homemade noodles to go with it and then next day made lasagna!!! Perfect.

I am 100% Italian. I have searched and searched to find a really good pasta sauce and now I've finally found it. This is so wonderful. It gives me back the taste that I had as a child with all my relatives sauce. I no longer need to search. This is it. Thank you,

GREAT recipe! It's definitely versatile. I've used it for spaghetti, lasagna and manicotti. It's also great to make and freeze for future use.

The basics of this recipe is promising; however, it tastes completely flat and devoid of salt. It needs more meat (if it is to be a meat sauce) and the 3 cups water just ruins it. I have revamped this recipe and believe it is now "company worthy".

Very tasty! We have a bad habit of wasting food at our house. This sauce wasn't wasted AT ALL and gone before we knew it!

Exellent

This recipe is so much like the one I use. It was given to me by someone from Italy. I make mine in the oven in a huge roaster.

It was easy and turned out terrific.

I couldn't find neck bones at my local grocery store either so I just used bone-in pork chops & then cut the meat off the bones before serving (well basically it just fell off). The pork was so tender & delicious. I also added homemade meatballs during the last two hours of simmering. We love basil so I added more than called for & threw in some parsley & grated romano cheese for some extra flavor. This was very good & I will use it again. Thanks!!

SO GOOD!!! I like to add a hammock as well for something extra. Everyone raves over this sauce!!

I have used this recipe many times. I actually make it for 72 servings . I use it as the base for minestrone, lasagna, stuffed shells, or as a sauce for pasta with or without meat. I have used pork bones rather than beef bones. Sometimes it is all I can find. The flavor from the bones makes all the difference. This is a comforting sauce. You can add herbs, vegetables and meats to make it what you need. I like to keep some of this sauce in the fridge as a base for last minute meals.