I have not posted this afternoon because I am cooking my quarterly batch of tomato meat sauce, as per my mother’s recipe that was handed to her from our Italian-Jewish relatives. Time consuming, but I get enough frozen to last for at least three months.

One of my readers requested I share the recipe, so here it is. The quantites below are for making a large batch, 9 meals for two (splitting a meatball), and an additional uncounted number of pasta dishes (meat ravioli, spaghetti, rigatoni, etc). Usually lasts Diane and I about three months.

Ma Zimmerman’s spaghetti sauce

Preparing the meatballs:
1.5 pounds ground beef (I use 93% lean, but a higher fat count would definitely improve the taste).
1 grated large onion.
2 eggs
0.75+ cup plain breadcrumbs (you use enough to make sure the meatballs will hold their shape).
salt
pepper

Mix to make nine large meatballs.

1 large sliced onion
3 large garlic cloves, sliced thin
4 tablespoons Crisco
4 tablespoons olive oil

Saute onion and garlic in Crisco/olive oil until golden brown.
Add meatballs and brown/sear them on all sides.
Put meatballs aside.
Discard onions and garlic, saving as much of the liquid as possible. (I use a potato ricer. I put the onions/garlic into it and squeeze out the extra juice.)

The sauce:
2 12oz cans of tomato paste
2 12oz cans of water (I remove the paste from the cans, piling it onto a plate to make it easy to use, and in filling the cans with water use that water to capture the remaining paste in the cans).
2 29 oz cans of tomato puree (if available. 28 oz works though)
2 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
1 generous tablespoon of oregano
1+ generous tablespoon of fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon of salt
sprinkling of pepper

Get a large stock pot. Over a high flame, put the liquid from the garlic/onion saute in the pot, add the tomato paste and mix until all the liquid is mixed with the paste. It should almost singe.
Add the water from the two cans slowly, mixing as you do so.
Add puree and crushed tomatos, mixing well.
If I use 29 oz puree cans, I then add about 1.5 cups more water, putting it first into the cans to capture all of the remaining puree and crushed tomatoes.
Lower flame to medium.
Add salt, pepper, orgeno, parsley.
Cook for 1.5 hours, stirring periodically and lowering flame slowly to just above low to keep the sauce simmering without overheating.
Add meatballs.
Cook another 40 minutes.
Eat.