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