After canning my homemade sauce for my children's Easter Basket gifts I decided to make it a regular part of my routine so they will not rely on "Ragu!" when they are not eating at my house. So, yesterday I made a large batch of sauce and was able to can 7 quarts of sauce for future use. (B.W. if you are reading this post and leave a positive comment one jar is for you!)
Making a large quantity was a little challenging to determine the taste because I never measure the ingredients, other than the water to paste ratio, which is always one can of paste to two cans of water. The flavor of the sauce also depends on whether or not I add Italian sweet sausage and/or my meatballs. This batch was made using sausage for added flavor. Hopefully our local butcher at Park Avenue Market never goes out of business because my children always seem to know if I use sausage that was not made with Mr. Ricci's sausage recipe.
My Recipe is made with paste not tomatoes because we like a thicker sauce on our pasta.
Season sauce with basil (fresh when possible, but dried will do), salt/pepper and garlic powder (over the years I have found that we get a bigger kick from the powder than when I brown fresh garlic) and a bit of sugar. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. The longer it simmers the thicker and better the sauce becomes.......deliziosa!
