Sometimes I enjoy a fast, tasty alternative to a classic recipe, like Poor Man’s Beef Stroganoff”….but other times, a long drawn out simmer with ingredients from scratch is precisely what enriches a dish and brings back memories.  Besides, I’m all out of my freezer supply of spaghetti sauce.

I’m sitting here awaiting Hurricane Sandy … getting calls from my daughter, Lindsay in Washington DC and my son and his wife, Dave & Cheryl in New York City…reporting in that they are fully prepared for the storm with emergency supplies and making sure that I am as well…and have decided to avoid the anxiousness of the storm by preparing a pot of spaghetti sauce.

The scent of tomato sauce simmering on the stove brings back my childhood summers of Mom canning in a steamy kitchen. My brothers and sisters were her army of weed-pullers and bean-pickers, not to mention all the planting, watering and hoeing we did….of course enjoying the fruits of our labors all winter long with crunchy dill pickles, homemade applesauce, minted pears, canned peaches, grape juice, tomato sauce, green beans, chili sauce, sauerkraut, jellies and jams, not to mention the frozen ears of corn, strawberries, asparagus, rhubarb, okra, peas…hmmmmm not only did she keep us busy and out of trouble, but well nourished too!!!  In the summer, it was torture.  In the winter, it was pure deliciousness!

Curiously, I’ve found this a metaphor for much in life…that the more sweat equity you have invested, the more you learn to appreciate the fruits of your labor.

What follows here is a combination of meat sauce recipes given to me by two Italian girlfriends years ago…and a secret ingredient my mother used whenever she canned her own garden grown, vine ripened tomatoes.  It’s one of those spices you can taste while thinking “I can’t quite place that flavor”….so rather than state “what the heck is that spice doing in a spaghetti sauce”, try it and see if it doesn’t enhance your pasta love affair!

And don’t let the list of ingredients intimidate you, it’s mainly a matter of tossing them all into a pot and simmering for a long time….well OK, browning the meat beforehand does provide a depth of added flavor due to caramelization, and briefly sweating the onions and garlic does drive off the harsher flavor compounds, and heating the spices does allow their oils to bloom, and the long simmer does allow the sugars naturally inherent in the tomatoes to sweeten the sauce….<sigh> there is a logic to how you throw together the ingredients, so consider yourself a culinary alchemist!!!

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbl olive oil
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 lb hot Italian sausage (casings removed)
• 1 lb beef neck bones
• 1 lb meatballs
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 medium green pepper, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 lb sliced mushrooms
• 1  32 oz can whole Italian tomatoes
• 1  6 oz can tomato paste
• 1  14 oz can Rotel Tomatoes
• 1 Tbl dried oregano
• 1 Tbl dried basil
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• pinch of sugar
• rind of parmesan or romano cheese
• handful of chopped fresh Italian flatleaf parsley

In an 8 qt pot, warm the olive oil over medium heat and when hot, add the neck bones.  Brown on each side and remove.  Now add the ground beef and Italian sausage and brown.  Add onions, peppers, garlic and mushrooms and heat for several minutes while the excess liquids evaporates.  Now add the tomatoes, using kitchen shears to cut up the whole tomatoes, tomato paste and a can of water.  Stir to dissolve the tomato paste.  Bring back to a simmer.  Add seasonings, nestle the neck bones deep in the sauce along with the cheese rind.  Simmer for 2-4 hours, stirring occasionally.  The sugar cuts some of the acidity of the tomatoes, however if you like your sauce sweeter, add more sugar to taste at the end of the cooking, not at the beginning…. as over the long cooking time, some of the natural sugars in the sauce will caramelize, and you don’t want it too sweet.

Meanwhile, make and roast a batch of your favorite meatballs.  Throw the meatballs in to simmer during the last hour of cooking the sauce.

You can now serve hot over your favorite cooked pasta.  Just before dishing out, add the fresh, chopped parsley to brighten the taste.

Or better yet, cool and refrigerate overnight.  Once the flavors all marry, the sauce tastes smoother.  Remove the congealed fat from the top the next day.  Remove the neck bones and bay leaves.

Freezes well.