18 Hour Sauce Thread

Mary Sicilia refers to 18 hour spaghetti sauce in one of her recent posts. When I was an insurance agent in St. Paul (MN), I had a debit collection every month at the home of an older (maybe late 60's) Italian woman. She was always cooking and I kept asking her for her sauce recipe. She finally relented and gave it to me when it seemed I was really serious about it.

I'm in the process of cooking up a batch now for our J2A kids and parents this Sunday evening. Here is the recipe, and I'd like to hear how it varies from yours, Mary. Of course, anyone else is welcome to kibitz.

Fabio's Spaghetti and Meatballs
Printer version of this recipe

Start with a pound or so of pork spare ribs, and some Italian sausage.

Brown the meat in a big sauce pan with garlic, olive oil and onions, and some oregano and basil and bay leaves.

After the meat is browned, drain the fat off and add multiple cans of crushed tomatoes, one can of tomato paste and some water (use judgment as to how much water). Also add more seasonings as needed.

Then cook hard, bring sauce to a boil, stirring constantly to avoid burning, and then turn down to simmer for about half a day. Then, cool and put in fridge until next day.

Next day, remove bones and extraneous fat from whatever ribs are not already separated from the bones, and return leanest of meat to the sauce. Heat on low and simmer for half another day.

Now the sauce is ready.

Oh, add meatballs just before serving.

Meatballs:
ground chuck or ground round, mixed with bread crumbs, parmesan cheese
and a little milk and egg yolk to form balls.
Brown in oven until uniformly done.