I am not a big Italian food fan. I have never cared much for red sauce so have been limited in choices. I am good with pizza, but our pizza bears little resemblance to Italian pizza pie according to Lil Zen who has been there, eaten that.
But the prez of our quilt guild is a very talented cook and her Italian food is to die for. I was amazed how much I liked her sauces. She TOLD me how to make stuffed manicotti and then I had to figure it out from there. After some investigation and some trial and error, I came up with
Mama Riley’s All Purpose Red Sauce.
The recipe is below if you are interested.
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This is just an outline for red sauce. Everything is up to your taste. I like a sweeter sauce than most folks, and use the tomato paste and a TBS of sugar to get it. I use whatever onion I have in the fridge, about an inch of anchovy paste, and seasonings as it seems right.
Mama’s Riley’s All Purpose Red Sauce
Merlot - 2 cups
Whole, peeled tomatoes (smashed up, with juice) - 28oz can
Tomato sauce- 15 oz can, thinned with water as needed
Tomato Paste- 6oz can
Olive oil- 1-2 Tbsp
Chopped onion, about half a med size onion
Garlic - 2-4 cloves, minced
Sugar - 1-2 Tbsp to taste
Italian seasonings - 1 tsp
Red Pepper flakes - ½ tsp
Anchovy Paste - 1 inch
Parsley - a sprinkle
Saute chopped onion in oil, cook on low for 15 min. Add garlic, stir 1 min. Add merlot, simmer and allow to evaporate by about 1/3. Add salt, sugar, pepper flakes, Italian herbs, anchovy paste and cook for 2 min. Add tomato paste, cook for 2 min. Add tomatoes with juice and parsley and water as needed. Cook on low for 1 ½ hrs, stirring and adding tomato sauce/water as needed fro consistency. This makes about 5 cups and freezes well. I split it up between 2 or 3 jars to keep one ready and the rest frozen.
I use this sauce with stuffed pasta, just spaghetti, on hot Italian sausages, as pizza sauce, and as a dip for fried cheese sticks. In my my house, it’s kind of like Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, “I put that sh*t on everything.” I hope you find it useful and tasty.