Ok, here is my life's work when it comes to cooking....
I got the following hot/spicy recipe from an Italian guy named Vito Pasquale in 1986. Vito got the recipe from his mother who ironically was Croatian. I have worked on it ever since although the recipe is still probably 85% or 90% the same as when I got it from Vito.
Since I am an Engineer, whenever I have met another Italian woman (or man) who happens to make sauce, I ask them about their recipe. If they tell me something I have never heard before, I'll try it and if I like it, I'll incorporate it into the sauce. I have been working on it for 23 years. I have never had one child or adult tell me they did not like it. In fact, most come back for seconds so that tells me what they think of it. The recipe is designed so that you can tweak it to your own tastes. I "highly" recommend following it closely the first time you make it before deviating however. Let me know what you think via pm if you like and please I'll take any other suggestions you might have. The recipe can be easily doubled but you'll need a really big pot for that. Thanks and hopefully you will enjoy as much as I have:
Sauce Ingredients (single batch in a large cooking pot):
Olive Oil
Garlic Cloves (probably ½ bulb for single batch)
3 - 28 oz cans of Hunt’s Sauce (tried them all including Contadina and Hunt’s is required)
1 - 18 oz can Hunt’s Paste
2/3 can of Water from each Sauce can
3 cans of Water from the Paste can
Black Pepper (to taste see directions below)
½ tea spoon of crushed, cayenne Red Pepper
Red Pepper Flakes
½ cup Kraft Parmesan/Romano cheese
1 tablespoon Basil
1 tablespoon Oregano
2-3 Bay Leaves
1/3 Stick of Butter (optional)
2 Quarts Whole White Mushrooms (added to sauce after mixing is done)
1 Whole Green Pepper (optional)
1 Large Hot Yellow or White Onion
Sauce cooking instructions: (Note – never add salt or sugar to this recipe)
Crush about ½ bulb or about 3-4 cloves of garlic. Do not use powder. Coat bottom of cooking pot with Olive oil and turn large burner on to low heat. Brown garlic slightly in the oil and until a nice aroma is in the house. Note: I used to put garlic into sauce raw but got the idea for browning the garlic in oil from the movie the Godfather. It sweetens things up just a bit.
Add 3 cans of sauce and water to pot. Add Paste and water to sauce and stir thoroughly until paste is mixed into sauce. Blacken top of sauce lightly with black pepper. Stir and taste. This part is where you can tune the sauce to your own liking. Add little by little and taste. Be careful here as you cannot un-pepper the sauce! I typically blacken the top twice and stir.
Stir in the Basil, Oregano, Red Pepper, cheese and bay leaves. Note: I used to use fresh cheese here but found that sometimes sticks to the bottom of the pot. Use the grated kind from Kraft and gives the sauce a slightly salty flavor. Sprinkle the top of the sauce with the red pepper flakes. This adds texture and more hotness to the sauce. Mix all those ingredients well.
Add the stick of butter (optional) and let melt into sauce. Sounds weird I know but I got this tip from a guy on a plane. He said his mother always did it and it richens the sauce. I tried it and agreed with him.
Note – always place veggies in whole – never cut them up and place into sauce. I think this is why kids like my sauce as there are no little bits of onions or pepper floating around that they might not like.
Take old top layer off onion and put into sauce whole. I usually leave onion in for about 5-6 hours or until my taste buds tell me to take it out. Wash mushrooms and put them into sauce. Green pepper – Be very careful as this is a natural sweetener. Cut top and bottom off pepper and remove seeds. Place pepper into sauce whole and don’t leave in sauce for more than 1 (one) hour. Do not use other types of peppers like Red bell peppers or yellow peppers – these will make the sauce too sickening sweet. Do not use hot peppers like banana peppers as these tend to make the sauce taste sour. There are plenty of hot things already in the recipe.
Continue to cook sauce on very slow boil for 6-8 hours or more until you get the desired thickness. Once it begins to bubble, you might have to turn the heat down slightly. All you are looking for is a slow bubble. Stir every once in a while. Save some of your sauce cans to hold/discard grease that comes from the meatballs and sausage described below.
Meat Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves (no powder)
Kraft Parmesan/Romano cheese
Black Pepper
Oregano
¼ cup Olive Oil
½ cup Milk
Fresh Parsley
1 or 2 slices of fresh bread (no bread crumbs)
2 eggs
1.5 lbs Ground Beef
1.5 lbs Ground Pork
1.5 lbs Mild Italian Sausage (prefer homemade from a butcher if possible. Note have found that Hot Italian Sausage does not taste as good after it cooks)
Instructions for meatballs:
In a large mixing bowl, mix the beef and pork together with a fork. Note: used to use tri-mix (beef/pork/veal) but believe 50/50 beef/pork tastes better. Blacken the top of the meat with black pepper. Sprinkle Oregano lightly over the meat. Crush the two cloves of garlic over the top. Whiten the top with a nice sprinkle of cheese. Take a small handful of fresh parsley and chop it up, and sprinkle over meat. Add ¼ cup of olive oil – I usually just pour this amount. Add ½ cup of milk – again usually just guess this amount. Add the two eggs. Wash hands thoroughly before mixing.
Take a large baking pan (with two inch sides) (you might need two pans) and fill with about ¼ inch of water covering the bottom of pan(s). Mix ingredients above with hands and thoroughly mash it together so all the ingredients are spread evenly throughout. Take slice of bread and tear off little pieces and place into meat. Mix that together with hands. At this point, the meatballs should be mostly sticky and no longer gooey. If still too gooey, put some more little pieces of fresh bread in and mix. Generally, one slice of bread is more than enough. Note- bread crumbs make meatballs too dry – don’t use them. Pack meatballs with hands and place into pan with water. Cook meatballs for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees before adding to sauce.
Instructions for Sausage:
Cut sausage into 3 or 4 inch pieces. Coat bottom of a frying pan with olive oil and fry sausage on medium heat until slightly browned. This takes about 10 minutes tops. After browning, add sausage to sauce.
As sauce is cooking, grease will migrate to the top of the cooking pot. Continually remove/spoon the grease from the sauce while cooking. Use one of the empty sauce cans for the grease. Stir sauce every hour or two to prevent burning to the bottom of pan.
Use thin spaghetti or angel hair – do not break into small pieces. About 2 lbs. will easily serve 8 people. Add a small amount of olive oil to water before boiling noodles.
We have found that letting people take a plate, gather their own noodles, and then take the amount of sauce and other ingredients as they see fit works best. For example, some people like meatballs but not sausage or some do not like mushrooms. They also can scoop the amount of sauce they personally like. Have Red Pepper flakes and Kraft Parmesan/Romano cheese on the table.
Serve with Texas Toast or Garlic Bread. Salad is optional but unnecessary in my opinion. Almost always serve with lit candles for proper ambiance. Red Wine is a requirement. Cold water works best as the drink of choice in addition to the wine.