Fabio asks for comparisons. Warning:EVERY Italian family of my acquaintance has its own sauce and EVERY family believes that it's sauce is the best. My family's, of course, IS the best! ;>)

FOR COMPARISON SEE 18 Hour Sauce Thread

Sicilia Family Pasta Sauce
Printer version of this recipe

spare ribs, also beef stew meat and pepperoni

Multiple cans of crushed tomatoes (NEVER tomato puree, always tomatoes in juice)
and one can of tomato paste
fill the tomato paste can with red wine (some kind of Dago Red - usually chianti).

Also one cup of sliced mushrooms,
6 cloves of garlic chopped,
l onion (chopped), and
l green pepper (diced).

Saute all of this together and add to the sauce.
And one small can of chopped black olives.
Spices: cilantro, salt, black pepper,
a little crushed red pepper,
basil,
oregano (my grandfather always pronounced it Ore-ee-GON -oh),
a little fennel seed or anise (a little goes a long way!)
and one or two bay leaves.

Simmer AT LEAST 4 hours on Day One.
But we make and add the meatballs right before putting the sauce in the fridge --
that way they marinade overnight along with everything else.

simmer at LEAST 6 hours on Day Two.
(It is called l8 hour sauce because, ideally, you make it one evening after supper, simmer it for 4 hours or so, let it rest in the fridge overnight, and then bring it back out to simmer the next morning for 6 hours and serve it for Sunday afternoon dinner!

At least that was how it was ALWAYS done in my house of origin. And then we lived off of it, having pasta (which we called macaroni not matter what shape it was!) as a side dish the rest the week.

Meatballs:

My Aunt Mary, blessed of memory, generally used the famous "meatball" meat combination: 1/3 ground sirloin, 1/3 ground pork, 1/3 ground veal.

I think it made the best meatballs --- but I haven't been able to find that combination in YEARS -- even in real butcher shops.

mixed with bread crumbs, parmesan cheese
Spices: cilantro, salt, black pepper, basil, oregano, as well as a little garlic salt.
and a little milk and egg yolk to form balls.

Brown in oven until uniformly done -- that way they get uniformly done and they STAY meatball shaped -- even when they have cooked for six hours!
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Opps -
Looking at my family sauce recipe from last night's post -- I notice I forgot one very important thing about the meatballs. I always add 1/2 chopped onion and 1/2 chopped green pepper to the meatball mix in addition to the bread crumbs, cheese, spices, egg and milk. Makes them VERY tasty!
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