Family Recipes: Meat Sauce for Pasta

When my sister was getting married, she asked my Aunt Lisette for family recipes. Aunt Lisette happily complied by hand lettering all our family's pasta sauce recipes. And then she doodled a bit on the page;-). She's incredibly talented and the resulting painting was a work of art we all wanted to hang in our homes. And so it is that we all have the same painting, framed differently in each house. My dining room, admittedly, is the home to the simplest frame, but I love this more than any other art hung in the house. 

Here, for you, is the meat sauce recipe that my aunt drew on our heirloom paintings.  

Saute 1/2 cup finely chopped onions in 2 TBSP of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Remove the onions when they become golden and just soft. Add 6-8 Italian sweet sausages, pork or beef ribs. (I often use a combination of meat) When the meat is thoroughly browned, return the onions to the pan. Add 2 large cans of imported Italian tomatoes that you mixed in the blender. It is optional to remove the seeds in a Mouli-Grinder (Gramma did this). Add seasonings: salt, pepper, 5-10 leaves of fresh chopped basil. You will need to add 1 cup of water. Simmer covered for 1 1/2 hours. Serve over fresh pasta or macaroni--Rigatoni, Ziti, or Spaghetti, Fettucine or Linguine, etc. Garnish with freshly grated Romano cheese (Locatelli is the best).