Cooking the pasta

1.) When you get ready to cook the pasta (preferably a thin spaghetti) - make sure you add some salt to the water prior to boiling. Do not add olive oil, this is a common practice, but it makes the pasta slippery and the sauce has a hard time sticking to the pasta when serving. However, if you do not add olive oil to the water, you need to make sure that you stir the pasta often when boiling so the noodles don't stick together.

2.) When the pasta is done. (Usually takes about 10 minutes) be sure to drain the pasta as well as you can, get all the liquid out possible. After draining the pasta, put the pasta in a nice large serving bowl, add a little bit of sauce, about 1/2 to 1 cup full, mix up the pasta so there is just a little bit of sauce mixed in well with all the pasta, this will keep the pasta from sticking together in the bowl while you're trying to get everyone to stop talking and get to the table to eat.

3.) It is mandatory that you have garlic bread with this meal!

4.) This recipe makes a lot of sauce. About enough for 8 - 10 people with maybe a little left over, of course this all depends on the the appetite of your guests ;-) If there is any leftover please note that there is some mysterious thing about spaghetti sauce, it seems to get a lot better after it has been frozen. It make great leftovers!

5.) It is extremely important to have a nice sauce pot with a heavy duty thick bottom. I suggest something like this pot here: Farberware Classic Series 12-Quart Stainless-Steel Stockpot with Lid.


What to do with those leftovers!

One thing I get asked a lot is how to freeze the Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs leftovers. What I normally do is make a large pot that is always too much for the group I am serving so I often have many leftovers. I like to freeze my sauce in small one or two serving containers with one large family size container. I usually put enough sauce for two people in a small container with two meatballs in each container and then I will have one large container to thaw out for the family. It's nice to have the small containers ready to go when it's just me or the wife and I and not the whole family. Here is a photo of how I have prepared my leftover spaghetti sauce and meatballs. This is just prior to putting them into the freezer: (notice the horrible electric stove.. I so want to replace that with a new gas stove!)

What I do to thaw the Sauce and Meatballs after they have been frozen for a while just take out a container and defrost in microwave at defrost setting for meat. Halfway through I try to break it up a bit with a knife being careful not to break up the meatballs. After it's almost thawed out, I put it all in a small sauce pan and finish thawing out in the pan on low heat. Then serve. Quite yummy every time! There is this mysterious thing about Spaghetti Sauce, it's better as leftovers! Well, hope this helps. Happy cooking, happy times and share the LOVE!


Doubling the Sauce Recipe!

I get asked this one a lot too. What I have done that seems to work best is I do the whole deal double but in two separate pots and then I have a really large pot that I combine both batches into after both of the smaller pot are done. You may have to have a friend bring a pot or two to make this work. You can also just get a large pot and double everything but it does not come out as well. Proportionately with the meat and sauce and size of pot it just works out better making the recipe exactly as I have it called out and do that twice separately in two separate pots, that goes the same for the meat as well. you make the exact recipe twice at the same time, hope that makes since. Note: You can double the meatballs recipe and cook that with the one small pot which would give you 4 times the meatballs :-), if you do this though I recommend adding another can of tomato sauce and a bit more water). If you go the route of combining the two pots into a large pot, which is nice presentation by the way because you have a very large pot of sauce on the stove looking just wonderful, be careful with the meat. What I do is after both pots of sauce complete with meat are finished; I get the large pot ready, scoop in some sauce, and then scoop out the meat from both pots with a ladle and gently place them into the large sauce while scooping in more sauce along the way. When you have all the meat transferred into the large pot, then you can just pour what's left from the small pots into the large pots. Then I cook the large pot on low heat for a while. Gently mixing along the way, gotta respect the balls, you don't want them falling apart. About 15 - 20 minute of low heat and some stirring will allow for both the pots to mix well into one nice lovely large pot of grandma’s sauce ready to go! :-) This scenario would give you enough for about 20 people.


Extra tips on cooking the sauce

1.) Important tip from a site visitor: "Do NOT wear a white shirt while making this recipe".

2.) Cook with gas heat if at all possible. Electric heat is "horrible" for cooking. There is a lot less heat control with electric heat. Also, be very careful when cooking on an electric stove with your sauce. I have burnt my sauce for a very important get together and was very bummed about it. Whatever temperature your used to using on gas heat is actually a lot lower on electric heat. Electric heat is a much hotter harsher heat. So for example, what I have learned is that if I usually simmer my sauce on a gas stove at a temperature setting of say, medium hi, that equates to about medium or lower on an electric stove. We just bought a new home and it has an electric stove. My first priority is to get a propane tank and replace that horrible electric stove with a nice gas one.

How to make the sauce with fresh Tomatoes? I get this question a lot, so I felt this a good place to answer it :-) Personally I have not had good luck making my grandmom's sauce with fresh tomatoes. It's hard work using fresh tomatoes, but if you do it right it can be very good. The seeds are the problem. To many seeds can make your sauce bitter. There is a technique to preparing the fresh tomatoes to be used for the sauce, do that and then you can make my sauce the same way. All you have to do is use the fresh tomatoes in lieu of the canned diced tomatoes. However, I would still used the canned tomato puree. I recommend this website here for learning this technique: How to make and can homemade spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes AND meat - easy and illustrated! This site also shows you how to can the sauce as well. Pretty useful, although I have never canned my sauce. I just put it in Tupperware like I describe above.

Anthony's Sauce Blog
I am attempting to start a Blog, It's a work in progress right now. I will be adding simple every day stuff about ITalian cooking here. Little quick things I like to make and maybe some family stories. I really don't know what will be on there yet. Well, I have started it anyway :-) Check it: Anthony's Sauce Blog. It's a little bland at the moment, that's because the blogger templates kind of limit you.


Note: You will also find a lot of recipe secrets and tips in the sauce talk section of my site located here:
Sauce Talk + Recipe Tips!