Do you make your own Spaghetti Sauce?

I always make my own spaghetti sauce.

There are some good italian jewish cookbooks, one name on the tip of my tongue. Not that your grandmother's was the same, but that there might be clues.

So, listen, if you folks ever go to Rome..

I’ve been to Italy but I couldn’t find any sauce that was as good as my grandmothers. Now I know my grandfather was Sicilian but she was his second wife so not sure if she was also Sicilian.

I make my own sauce (using canned tomatoes).

The secret to a sweeter sauce is carrots.

Cook the carrots in a bit of butter in a covered pot (low heat) until they soften up. Grind them up in a food processor or blender and add to your sauce.

I don't know if that was your grandmother's secret but it's the one I use to make my sauce a bit sweeter.

Well, I sort of know sicilian cooking (from afar) and roman cooking from being there, and slightly know roman jewish cooking, and do not know about sicilian jewish cooking but am interested.

I still can't remember that book author that was famous back when I was paying attention, but now there are many, and a lot of blogs.

I'll bet it was sicilian sauce, but I'll only bet finny sence.

Carrots? That could be, I remember my mom getting mad because she couldn’t make that sauce like my grandmother, she would say my grandmother just uses Ragu and puts sugar in it.

Of course she knew that wasn’t how she made it.

I use carrots too, but I finely shred them first and I throw them in when the onions are just starting to caramelize.
Did your grandmother roast any of the vegetables, like peppers or garlic? That would make the sauce sweeter too.
Most of the Italians I know do use sugar as well.
It could be any combination of methods.

I got the idea of cooking my meatballs by frying them first from my grandmother.

I was told by my mother that’s how sicilian’s cooked the meatballs, first fried them then finished cooking them in the sauce. Other places in Italy baked them first and then put them in the sauce.

She did roast veggies!

I can remember being at her house while the sauce cooked all day. In fact I remember my grandfather teasing her about putting sugar in the sauce.

I got a recipe for a sauce from an Italian friend who got it from her grandmother. Sugar goes directly in the sauce.

When it's a meat sauce, the meatballs are fried first.

Carrots aren't in it, but I can see that a grated carrot would sweeten it up. I may try that.

Ceili is spot on about roasting vegetables.

If you have a gas stove just sit the pepper over a gas jet and let it char on the outside. It will be deliciously sweet.

And yeah -- you've got to fry the meatballs first.

I add home-roasted red peppers to my sauce for the sweetener. I puree them once they're done and add them in. Yum.

My wife makes great spaghetti sauce, but sometimes doesn't like to make it as often as I'd like. I use all the right stuff, and prepare the onions, garlic, red peppers and mushrooms separately before combining. Sadly I appear to lack her sense of balance and proportion in cooking. Mine is very good, but not nearly as good as hers.

However, I have found s sure way of motivating her. All I have to do is go into the kitchen and start assembling the ingredients and announce my intention to make a big batch, right now. Like a flash she's in the kitchen instructing me on how not to make a mess. Soon she gives up; kicks me out and makes it herself. I do get to caramelize the onions and peppers, shred the carrots, and saute the mushrooms, but that and pouring the wine are about it.

You're smart! I'm the same when my husband announces his intention to make something But he loves cooking so I just help with the prep work and clean up to keep the disaster at a minimum.

That's not unheard of. The adding sugar to the sauce, not the Ragu charge. I never used sugar but I use whole carrots in my homemade sauce. Then again, I don't want my sauce to be too sweet. I prefer a strong acidy, tomatoey sauce.

I just add a couple of large slabs of carrots which adds a touch of sweetness and a little color.

That's what I thought!

Thanks for all the input. I’ve been checking different Sicilian recipes online. Whichever one it is it’s one where everything is pureed because her sauce was very smooth, no chunks in it all.

I’ll experiment with a few different recipes and do some taste testing while I’m making it.

My sauce is all pureed too. No lumps and bumps.

Do you want the recipe? It's very simple. Nothing fancy.

I would love it, thank you Roberta, I will give it a try!

Sicilian recipes, be still my heart.. which, you know, tends to make tangents:

my favorite, not for sauce but for a kind of pizza:

http://able2know.org/topic/111460-1#post-3082196
Sfiunciuni con la Conza di Pomodoro e Cipolli

I don't have a good sauce recipe for you but I'm just surprised and sad that your grandmother didn't share her recipe - even with her family. All good recipes should be shared and family recipes should be handed down. Did she refuse to give it out when she was asked or did nobody think to ask her before she died?