Red Sauce

This sauce is easy to make, flavorful, and adaptable. The recipe below is for a batch half the size of what my mom made growing up, but it can easily be doubled (or tripled) etc.

Ingredients

• Meat (whatever you like, I recommend sweet Italian sausage or Mom’s Meatballs) (You can make this without the meat, but I don’t recommend it. This sauce gets a lot of it’s flavor from the meat, I would seek out a vegetarian-specific recipe if you’re not using some kind of meat as a base.
• 1 can Pastene “Kitchen Ready” tomatoes
• 1 can Pastene tomato paste
• 4 medium-large cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 small/medium yellow onion, finely chopped (optional)
• 1 large red bell pepper, chopped (optional)
• Olive oil
• Parsley
• Onion powder
• Garlic powder
• Salt & Pepper

Recipe

1. Heat a 3 QT (minimum) sauce pan over medium heat until water flicked into it skitters along the surface. Add about a tablespoon of light olive oil or vegetable oil, just enough so the pan isn’t dry. Add your meat and brown it on all sides, then remove it from the pan and set aside.
2. If including onions and peppers, add them to the pan and cook until they start to soften, stirring frequently. If you’ve got time, you can caramelize the onions.
3. Add your tomato paste to the pan, stirring well to incorporate any fond from browning the meat. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes. Add your garlic and continue stirring until fragrant. If the pan is a little dry during this step, add a splash of olive oil.
4. Add the can of “Kitchen Ready” tomatoes, then fill the can with water and add that water to your pot. The sauce will look thin, but that’s OK, it’s going to thicken back up as it simmers. Add your parsley, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt & pepper. How much? I have no idea. I usually do a few shakes of each and then taste it in an hour and see what I think it needs.
5. Simmer, covered, for at least 3 hours. Ideally, you would get this going in the morning and simmer all day. When you add your meat back into the pot depends on your cook time and what kind of meat. The table below is a rough guideline.

Cook Times for Meat in Red Sauce

Meat Type	Cook Time + Method
Sausage	Can cook for hours, add it in as soon as the sauce is prepped and simmering.
Meatballs	Overcooking will lead to tough, dry meatballs. Add them back into your sauce with about an hour left before serving time.
Chicken Thighs	For a tender, fall-off-the bone thigh, return to the pot about 2 hours** before serving. ** I think. I have not done this in a while. I will update this post after testing.