Sauce Talk continued... (Discussions about Italian food and family. Good times at the table and in the kitchen) Here, I have placed some of my email correspondence in regards to my recipes that may answer a lot of questions and give you some good tips along the way... and the best part is they're just plain fun to read! Good Italian food really brings back so many wonderful memories. If you have any wonderful memories and or tips in regards to great Italian cooking you grew up with or just want to talk about "the family" feel free to send them to me and I'll throw them up on the site. Ciao.... Take me back to the Italian recipes or enjoy all the great reading below!

Sauce Talk: Italian Family Recipe Discussions Part 4

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Hi Anthony!
For over 40 years I've been trying to find the right pasta sauce recipe that came closest to my Grandma's. Finally I've found it - Yours! Thanks so much for bringing so much joy to my kitchen. Your recipe is simply delicious!!!

Don Sciba ~ San Jose, CA

Hi Don,
I am so glad I could help you find "that one sauce". I know the feeling of wanting the exact sauce your grandmother made. That is why I have spent all the time I have on my site. I am on a mission now to reproduce every single recipe my grandmother made. it's not easy because her recipe where skimpy on the details. Ingredients like "some flour" and "a little bit of parmesan" and so on, so I am left to experiment until I nail it! Anyway, EnJoY the sauce and happy cooking! I am working on a new recipe now for Anisette cookies. The Anisette Cookierecipe will be up soon. This is one cookie you will never forget once you have tasted it :-)!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Anthony!
The Anisette cookies look delicious! This is what makes your website so outstanding - your illustrations. You have by far the best Italian cooking website on the Internet, bar none. I set up a nice leather bound 3-ring binder with tabs and dividers and have printed in color every single recipe and photos from your site. I no longer care if my wife cooks anymore because thanks to you I'm set for life! ~ Don Check out the Visitors Photos section of the site to see the photos that Don sent in. Thanks for the great pic's Don!!!

... and click Here for more sauce talk with Don.

Hi Anthony!
I've been Italian for 72 year, and every now and then something funny pops into my mind. Example: My Italian Uncle Carmen had a small farm. His neighbor was a black man who raised cantelopes. Uncle Carmen called him 'Mellon-John'!!

Gene Dodaro

Hi Gene,
Mellon-John, Ha!!!! :-) Thanks for the humor, it has helped me on the Monday morning :-) Italian for 72 years, wow, what a joy. So, do you cook Italian? My grandma Salerno moved to the US from Italy when they where kids and their parents lived in Italy as well. I remember well, spending a lot of time in the kitchen with my grandmother and my mom watching them cook and asking a lot of questions. I loved my grandmother so, she is missed dearly! What I remember most is all the love she poured into her food! Just wonderful memories! Wonderful! Well Gene, have a great day!! :-) I just added a new recipe to my site: Anthony's Anisette Cookies, oh momma mia these where a favorite around our house when I was a kid during Christmas time. We used to fight over the last cookie! Soo good! I finally figured out how to make it just like my grandmas! Very happy about that!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hi Anthony!
I'Thanks for the speedy reply, and whether you pass them on or not, I'll forward any Italian humor I come across. Both of my parents came from Calabria, Italy in the early 1900s. My Dad had a grocery-meat store (of which I have plenty of stories), and was the better of the two cooks in our family. Like you, I spent a lot of time watching my folks cook, and even though I'm the second last of 13 kids, I remember most of the recipes. - Especially the Christmas ones. Speaking of Christmas, can I assume you have lots of Italian cookie recipes on your site during the holidays? How about Tu-tu's? It's a chocolate cookie with spices and hazel nuts, plus sometimes a little chocolate icing. Again, Thanks and I'm putting your website on my 'favorite's list' as well as passing it on to my other Italian friends. Ciao! Gene

Gene,
Feel free to send me all the Italian humor and or stories you want to. I love to read them and will probably put many of them up on the site :-) I never heard of Tu-Tu's, can you send me the recipe? I Looove Italian cookies, especially Christmas Italian cookies!!!! Always the best treats ever! You are the second last of 13 kids... WOW! My wife is Sicilian and she is the last of 8 kids. I've had big dinners with their whole family, just an amazing time! You have to hold 5 conversations at once! Tricky, but you get the hang of it after a while. ;-) I look forward to hearing more humor and stories from you, especially some stories from the grocery meat store.

... and click Here for more sauce talk with Gene.

Hi Anthony!
My boy, a good Italian boy, is a shot and discus thrower (large good boy) at the local university. We have invited all of the throwers, male and female, and coach to an Italian dinner. We are in the mountains of North Carolina. The other throwers have never had Italian. I know they eat large quantities. I was wondering if you could make some suggestions on menu. I thought we would start with an antipasto plate with giardineri, hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, a few Italian cheeses and some pepperoni, hard salami and maybe some Capacolla, if I can find it. I thought we would have a salad of onions, tomato slices, mozzarella, all marinated in oil, vinegar and spices (do you have a recipe?). Main course would be your spaghetti with meatballs recipe. A second main course would be spaghetti with Italian sausage. Finally I thought I would have a few types of ice cream and some Pirouline. What suggestions do you have?

Guglielmo (Bill) Fioramonti

Hi Bill,
Wow, that's a big meal your going to be tackling for sure :-) Lot's of fun! I just had a big Italian feast for Easer at my house. I had to feed 7 adults and 13 kids! I converted the living room and kitchen into a small Italian restaurant ;-) You will notice in the first photo I have a bit more than what's on my main recipe. I doubled the meatballs and braciole recipe's, added Italian Sausage and added another large can of sauce and 2 can's of diced tomatoes, another can of paste and a little bit more of everything in regards to spices. I think I drank more wine then usual as well while cooking. I did everything the night before. Filled up the fridge. Then started to reheat the next day about 2 hours before everyone was there. Oh yeah, I don't really have this officially on the site yet, but here is a photo gallery of the Italian Sausage steps I take to add sausage to the sauce. Here are some instructions I gave on the sausage cooking process that I have in the "Sauce Talk" section of my site; "You will see in the photos that I actually boil the sausage in water right in the frying pan. Fill the pan up with water, just enough to almost cover the sausage. Then cook on high being careful to keep flipping the sausage. be sure to stab the sausage several times with a fork during cooking. CAREFUL, they squirt! You cook the sausage in this manner until all the water is cooking down and you are left with just the sausage frying in the pan, at this point, you keep cooking to get them nice and browned, even a little black in places, this is ok. Then you throw them in the sauce with the meatballs." Well, the menu you have planned sounds just lovely. Garlic bread??? I don't see Garlic Bread on the menu. This is a must: http://www.spaghettisauceandmeatballs.com/garlic_bread.html. Starting out with an Anti-Pasta is perfect! The salad sounds great too! I don't really have a recipe for the oil, vinegar and spices, this is just a some of this and some of that thing. You add some stuff, you taste, add some more and whalla! I took the liberty of forwarding your email questions to my mom as well. She cooks big meals a lot too. I asked her if she had any suggestions and here is what she had to say. Here is what my mom had to say:

Anthony, Seeing as how the "throwers" are invited, it would seem to me they need a little more CARBS for the dinner. I suggest serving sausage bread with the antipasto. I would not recommend two spaghetti entrees. They could serve spaghetti with meatballs sausage and of course Braciole. If they want another pasta course, I would suggest fettuccine Alfredo. Mix it up a bit. The throwers would love it and it is sophisticated enough for the other guests. Ice cream sounds a little boring . I would make home made cream puffs (I have Grandma's recipe) or at least Anisette cookies to serve with the ice cream. I wouldn't mind an invitation to that dinner........Love you tons,Mom"

I like her recommendations of adding the Fettuccini Alfredo and Cream Puffs! Yum! Let me know if you want me to get that recipe from her. Oh yes and the recommendation of sausage bread with the anti-past.... Oh man! Perfect! Sausage bread is so good!!! I'm going to have to get that recipe up on the site! Well, I hope you have a fantastic meal full of good times and shared love! :-) If you think of it and are so inclined, I would love to have some photos of the event to add to the "Visitors Photo" section of my site ..... no pressure though. It's so much fun getting photos of people having fun with Italian food! It's really not just cooking when you cook Italian, it's a major event! Happy Cooking and Happy Times! Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

... and click Here for more sauce talk with Bill.

Buongiorno Anthony,
I have a question for you. I have been wondering why you add water to the spaghetti sauce. I know alot of people do this, and I've always wondered why. Does'nt this diminishe the taste? I hope you can answer this question. With regard,

Stefano Andolini

Stefano,
The main purpose is so you can cook the sauce longer so as to properly cook the meatballs, Braciole, Pork chops and whatever else you throw in there :-). The water evaporates while your cooking thus allowing you to cook the sauce longer. If you did not add the water by the time your meatballs where done your sauce would be too thick. Hope this helps.

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hi Anthony!
I was on the Internet looking for Italian Meatball Recipes and came across yours. (I never had such a good time and a good laugh reading about recipes before in my life!) I'm the type of cook who doesn't bother with a recipe if it calls for more than 4 ingredients, but you provided such great step-by-step instructions that I am going to try your meatball recipe (at least I will have fun reading it)! Thanks, Anthony! PS: What exactly is "braciole" (I remember hearing of it on "The Sopranos")?

Debra J. Studzinski )

Hi Debra, I'm glad you enjoy the site. Cooking should be fun! :-) Hope you have a good time cooking and that it all comes out perfect! Let me know how it all comes out. Braciole is a rolled up Round Steak stuffed with bread crumbs, fresh garlic and parmesan, parsley, pepper browned and then cooked in the sauce for hours.! Quite lovely indeed!! Don't worry about all the ingredients, you just take them one by one. If you follow my instruction you will have an amazing meal, I promise :-) I have placed a photo sent in from a visitor (Jo from Hong Kong) on the right here to give you a good view of the finished product! YUM! makes your mouth water just looking at it! Happy cooking,

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hi Anthony!
Yes, I did tackle the authentic Italian recipe. Tackle is the correct definition of the experience. Not that it was difficult but very detailed and time consuming to do it correctly. I did follow the instructions carefully so of course it was a great success! It was delicious! It did take hours to prepare but I did have my Italian music playing and I even had a glass of red wine. I am sending you a picture of my table showing my success in preparing this delicious meal. Now, I have been requested to prepare the food again for next Saturday to celebrate Father's Day weekend. This time I will prepare the sauce and meatballs a head of time so that the dinner will not be so stressful. I will be cooking for some people that I have never met before and that will be stressful enough for me. Especially when someone brags of your cooking and how delicious it is. I now have to live up to the expectation that has been set. Anyway, I will again serve the spaghetti and meatballs, the most delicious garlic bread, Italianized vegetables and I will look at your other listed recipes. It was suggested that I prepare cordon bleu but that is French and not Italian so I may think of something else. Do you have any suggestions? I do plan to serve Italian Cream Cake. I am not so sure that it is a real Italian dessert but I make it very well and it is very delicious. Any advise is appreciated. Thanks again,

Linda

Hi Anthony!
One more thing.... As I wrote to you earlier, I made the spaghetti sauce and meatballs recently and now I will be making it again this next Saturday. After looking at your site today and seeing all the pictures sent in by other people who love your recipes, I have decided to not only make the spaghetti and meatballs but also try the braciole recipe. It is just that I have to make this perfectly as the guest I will be serving will be having great expectations and since I have never met them before I have to make a good first impression. They are actually in-laws that have not been so eager to meet me so you can imagine the stress that I will be under. Being part Italian I need to represent the Italian cooking very well. These people are used to eating at fine restaurants, eating on cruises etc. The pressure will be on........

Linda

Hi Linda!
Great! Glad to hear you "tackled" the sauce :-) Yes it certainly is a lot of work to do it right, but the hard work pays off in the end. Thanks for the pix and I certainly look forward to more! I will add these to the site this week. Do you have hi-resolution version of the photos? I prefer to get the hi-res version and work with those in Photoshop. I can receive up to 25 MB of attachments so don't worry about sending in the hi-res untouched photos. For suggestions I recommend Anisette Cookies! This is a wonderful Italian cookie classic that I have FINALLY perfected. It took me a long to to get this cookie to come out just like my grandma Salerno's but I finally nailed it! She was missing a lot of detail in her hand written recipe, but after much experimentation I finally did it. The recipe is here complete with photos and all you need. EnJoY! Wonderful to have with coffee after a large Italian meal. Good luck with father's day, may it be a great success! I think you will find making the braciole will add a lot more flavor to the sauce.?.

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hi Anthony!
We still enjoy your spaghetti sauce. I usually put in One sauce amount and Double the amount (48) of meatballs and Double the Pork Chops (my favorite part). It’s always wonderful. I would like to know how to make it with a little more sauce for that amount of meat, but not double. I don’t know what tomato and herb part to add.

Thank you,)

Jill Copeland

Hi Jill,
Sorry for the slow response. I've been absolutely swamped! What I do when I want to make just a bit more sauce is on top of the regular recipe add in (2) large sauce cans, (2) small petite (diced small) tomatoes and (2) small cans of paste. remember to add in the diced tomatoes and paste early on in the process when you are making the Italian roux ;-) So the tricky part here is when you add what I mentioned above you will have to add just a bi more of all the spices. This would include a bit more garlic in the beginning. Conceptually this would be 1/3 of all the spices and garlic you already put into the sauce but you need to put some in and taste put some more taste and so on, auh the fine art of Italian cooking.... Good luck! :-) Happy cooking!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

The Sauce!
What a wonderful recipe! I loooove your sauce, however the chef in me can never keep to a recipe... Here are my modifications..

First step, open bottle of chianti and pour 1/2 glass.. sip often and fill when empty. Make sure to leave at least 1/4 - 1/2 a cup for recipe. We LOVE garlic around our house and I use 9-12 chopped garlic cloves... I like a real meaty sause and add about 2 lbs. browned italian sausage. The good stiff dried remove from casings and chopped. I also add about 1/4 - 1/2 a teaspoon of crushed fennel seed. My grandma used to make the BEST lasagna in the world that had a very distinctive taste that I could never quite place until I started experimenting cooking myself.. It was the fennel seed! I know most say don't use fennel seed if you use the sausage, but it works for me. No measuring spoons! Pinches and dashes.. add what feels right! I prefer a little less of the sweet basil and more oregano than your recipe calls for specifically. Love! lots and lots of love, a good sauce is NOTHING without love.

Thanks for putting your recipes out there for the world to share! I have been experimenting with my own spaghetti sauce for years, and never quite realized how important adding the spices in steps brings out the full depth of the flavors until reading and trying your method! Spaghetti FOR ALL!

Tyler

Hi Tyler,
Nice to hear from you. It's great that you experiment. So many great discoveries to be made with food, especially Italian food! let's see, I shall start be responding to each of your steps one by one. ok, step;

Drink Chianti, this is important and will help with the rest of the process! GARLIC! Love da garlic! Lot's of garlic! This is a good thing, garlic good! :-) I too from time to time add sausage to my sauce, it adds so much to the flavor! Here is how I cook my sausage, http://www.spaghettisauceandmeatballs.com/recipephotoalbums/italiansausage. I keep forgetting to add this to the front page of my site. It's on my list. So many things on the list! Auh yes, the fennel seed. I to use fennel seed from time to time. My grandma Salerno and my Mom both are in agreement that when you have no sausage you add the fennel seed, but when you have sausage you don't need the fennel seed. I don't think I have ever tried both. I might have to do that. Fennel has such a wonderful robust flavor! No measuring spoon. Auh yes, well here we come to the real biggy don't we? This is what takes me so long to get my recipes up on the site. The real classic recipes, the one's hand written by my grandmother, had very little exact measurements. So I have a lot of experimenting to do when it comes to getting the recipes to come out just like my grandmothers. That is my ultimate goal, to get the recipe to taste exactly like what I remember as a kid. When I make sauce, I don't usually measure either, I just know exactly what to put in and when and it's always a shake of this a pinch of that, taste then add some more and so on. Long story about how I ended up with the measurements. The short of it was I was originally trying to spell out the recipe step by step for someone who was NOT a cook. Daunting work that was, never measured before, so I have to keep track of every single thing I did when I made the sauce. Anyway, at least I have a "measured" version of the sauce that people can recreate, then when they feel comfortable and confidant after making the sauce successfully several times they can then venture out into unchartered territory of culinary delights that await the pallet :-) Love and the amount of love your pour into the cooking is what makes Italian food so special! When I was a kid I honestly don't remember my grandmother sitting at the table, for that matter I don't remember much of her not in the kitchen. She was ALWAYS cooking and pouring her love for us into the food! The is a profound thing that one cannot truly understand unless you have been on the receiving end of that love! Well keep on cooking and always pour the LOVE into the Food! It's the passion and love for the food and the love for those you will be serving the food to that brings out the flavor and creates memories that last a life time and beyond!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hi Anthony!
About Anisette Cookies... I truly enjoyed the story about the dying man. It brought back many fond memories. Could you please email me the recipe since I never got it from my mother, I just remember the aroma. Thank you.)

Diane Hanley

Hi Diane,
Yes that joke has much truth to it! Anisette cookies are amazing and so many memories tied in with them. Wonderful! :-) The Anisette recipe is on the website now in full step-by-step detail complete with photos too :-) Happy cooking and let me know how they come out! I was so excited to finally get this recipe nailed down to the "exact" taste of my grandmothers. Her hand written recipe complete with stains and rips and smudges was vague at best when it came to measurements, so I had to experiment to get them just right. The Anisette recipe is here. EnJoY!!!! If you just happen to take photo of the cooking fun please email them to me and I will add them to the Visitors Photo section located here. Happy cooking and happy times!.

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hi Anthony!
My son and I (we love to cook...well, we actually love to EAT) are have a "summer sauce and salsa-off".......I am ARMED with your sauce recipe.....wish me luck.......any salsa recipes????????)

Thanks, Jeannie

Hi Jeannie,
Good lock with the recipe!!! If you take photo's of the event I would love some copies for the website, I could add them to the Visitors photo section. :-) Sorry I have no salsa recipes. Nice to see mother and son working together, very nice! :-) Have a good time and share the love.! Be sure to pour love into the sauce while you cook it, this makes it all taste much better. Note; if you make the sauce with the braciole, Meatballs and Pork Chops you get best flavor! Trust me! :-)

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hi Anthony!
Just wanted to say that I love your recipes (and comments), but the printer friendly version of the recipes isn't friendly at all! Am I doing something wrong? I'm a retired 60 something female living with my retired 70 something husband in the Dominican Republic. I spend a lot of time roaming the internet for recipes and even more time cooking. Italian food is our favorite, but getting your recipes to print is making me crazy. HEEEELP...... Please. Thank you,)

Dianne Christophers

Hi Dianne,
Sorry the printer friendly recipe is not printing. I can't imagine why, it's just plain text, can you print out other web pages? Which recipe are you trying to print out? I could make a word doc. For you. But really strange that you can't print out the printer friendly version. All the printer friendly version is, is a webpage with most of the graphics removed. You should be able to print any page that you view on the internet regardless of what's on the page. You may have some problems with your printer setup? Really not sure why that particular page would not print for you. I suggest trying to print other pages from other sites and see if you still have problems. Let me know if you want me to send you a different version of the recipes.

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

... and click Here for more sauce talk with Dianne.

Hi Anthony!
Love it! My daughters 17th birthday is coming and she wants Italian. Great sight...I will make the sauce and meat balls! Is it ok to make a day ahead and then heat before serving? Also, she requested stuffed shells. I dont know if this is an authentic dish, but I have made them before and she and her friends love them. Do you think I could make the shells the day before and then bake them that day? Im wondering if the pasta would get sticky or funky. Im downloading the music as I write this...GREAT SIGHT and a lot of fun.)

Eric Petrovich ~ So. California

Hi Eric,
Yes, the sauce you can make a day ahead of time, let the pot cool for a couple of hours after cooking then just place the entire pot in the frig. meatballs, braciole and all - in the pot. Make sure you have a cover on it. Then the next day you just reheat the whole thing. The sauce actually taste better this way, everything gets to marinate in the sauce. However I would not recommend this with the stuffed shells. You can make the filling ahead of time put that in the frig and have that already to go.With the sauce done and the stuffing for the shells done, stuffing the shells is no big deal really. I use that same filling for the shells as I do for my lasagna. I'm glad you like the site. The whole thing is a labor of love. I love Italian cooking and I love sharing this food with others. Really it's all about the love for the food and those whom you are making the food for, this is what makes all the hard work worth it! I hope you have a perfect day for your daughters birthday! 17!! Oh my! I have an 11 year old boy and an 8 year old boy.. I am NOT ready for teenagers! Trying to savor the moments I have with them now at this stage in their love. Children are such a blessing!!! Well happy cooking and happy times!?.

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hey Anthony!
(or do your compatriots call you Tony) either way. Love your site! Love the recipes and the stories. Self taught Cajun and Creole Chef here, but my first love is Italian. Thought I'd seen most. My cousin gave me your site, bless his soul, Made such an impression I invited him to the Masters golf tournament. Keep up the good work. I am sendin you my favorite "Jambalaya" (I was listening to Eric Clapton when I wrote it) recipe from some place down around Houmas LA. I saw 'bout, cause when I learned it, we were out in the bayou at a"fish camp". I served this at my restaurant Treybon! in Augusta GA. Hope you like it. See Steve's Jambalaya recipe here! Great recipe! Thanks for this awesome recipe Steve!

Steve Mitchely

Hi Steve,
Hi! Glad you liked the site :-) It's a labor of love, Italian cooking is such great fun when you make the right way where it takes you all day. I always says Italian cooking is not just cooking, it's an event! LOVE the Jambalaya recipe! The Cajun lingo takes me back to when I used to live in New Orleans. Did you used to live there, or around there? Great fun place to live. The food..... amazing! I lived in Algiers for a while and then in the Old Algiers point area. Lived there for 10 years. I do believe the partying to years off my life! Houmas, LA... I think you mean Homa, I had friends there. Also used to hang out in Fat City, Morgan City, New Iberia, woo, let me done told you da have sum nise food in New Iberia, hoooooooweeeee! Anyway, thank a bunch for the recipe. You ok If I throw it up on the site? Would love to share this with my visitors. Have happy times and keep on cooking. If I am ever in Augusta GA I will be sure to stop by and check out Treybon! For sure! You make crawfish aytofe' there? (Who knows how the heck you spell that!). I miss that dish a lot!?.

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hi Anthony!
Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful spaghetti sauce recipe along with such detailed and informative instructions! If you get a chance, I’d love to know the answers to the following questions:
1.) In the recipe for the sauce, you state that it calls for either (2) 28 oz. cans of Tomato Puree' ("Hunts") OR (2) 28 oz. cans of Tomato Sauce ("Progresso"). However, at the store, I mistakenly picked up (2) 28 oz. cans of Progresso Tomato Puree’ (instead of the Hunts brand, as specifically indicated for the 28 oz. cans of puree’, and not the progresso ‘sauce’). QUESTION: Why do you call for 28 oz. cans of Hunt’s Puree, or Progresso Sauce? As I understand it, puree’ is somewhat thicker than sauce. Is there a significant difference between Hunt’s tomato puree and Progresso tomato sauce that I should be aware of? Is it okay to use the Progresso brand 28 oz. cans of puree’ instead of Progresso brand sauce here? Why the distinction between brands, or whether the item is labeled as ‘sauce’ or ‘puree’, if the amount used is the same – (2) 28 oz. cans?
2.) What is the purpose of mincing the garlic cloves involved – as opposed to pressing them through a garlic press – for the sauce recipe? What is the difference, or reason, to manually mince the garlic instead of simply crushing it (aside from having garlic-smelling fingers, of course)? Is it okay to just crush the garlic through a store-bought garlic press here? Thanks in advance and once more for your fabulous recipe and cooking tips! Yours,)

John

Hi John,
These are great questions. I see you are a man of details, I like that, always makes a better end product for sure :-)

1.) To answer your first question about the Puree vs. the sauce; I'm glad you brought this to my attention. I've been meaning to update the sauce about this very subject. I have found that using the Sauce in lieu of the puree' produces better results. I had them both on there because I was undecided. There seems to be little differences between the two in regards to final taste, however after I have experimented with this several times, well ok, maybe 20 or 30 times ;-) I am certain that the "tomato sauce" is the better way to go. In regards to the brand names, I do find Hunt's to make a superior product than the other brands out there, but overall the difference seems minor. I am going to update my site to reflect the use of tomato sauce only and Hunt's only to put aside any future confusion, so again, I thank you for reminding me of this. it was on my never ending loooong list of things to do.

2.) In regards to the garlic, well, the short answer is mincing the garlic is how grandma Salerno and my Mom did so it is how I do it. Kinda like family gospel, know what I mean? Grandma would NOT approve of a new fangled garlic press thingy ;-) However, I do prefer having the little small chunks of garlic in the sauce and in the meatballs vs.. the crushed garlic. Wirth the crushed garlic there are no little chunks of garlic to speak of really, your left with an apple sauce consistency that pretty much gets lost in the sauce. You loose the visual of actually seeing the garlic chunks in the sauce and on the edge of the meatballs. Presentation is a hugs part of the overall experience of enjoying the food. Plus I feel you get a more robust flavor with the fresh minced vs. the crushed. There you have my philosophy on the garlic, plus it would just not be the same if my fingers did not smell like garlic the whole day, something would seem to be a miss if that where not so.Hope this helps :-) If you tackle the sauce be sure to let me know how it all comes out and feel free to send me fun photos of the event :-) Would love to have more photos for my Visitors Photo's section. happy cooking and happy times!!!!?.

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Anthony!
Thanks so much for your quick response and the clarification – it makes sense. (I agree, I’m a Hunt’s fan myself, I just realized I grabbed the wrong thing b/c I was in a hurry at the time.) I understand what you’re saying about the garlic! In fact, I’ve found that most professional chefs appear to recommend mincing garlic instead of using a press, for exactly some of the same reasons you do. I think the larger chunks are more pungent and would give off more flavor into the sauce. I love the smell of garlic so much that I won’t mind it on my fingers, so I’m going to mince away. Anyway, thanks again for responding and providing this great stuff on the internet! It’s rare to find quality information out there. I’ll let you know how it turns out – making it for my girlfriend’s 44th birthday.

John

Hello Anthony!
Your other recipies, sound just like my Grandma's and are all delicious!. The eggplant parmiagiano, brasciole, sauce, meatballs, is all like i do it! but the lasagna , come on thats manga cake style!!! (canadianhahah) we put in grated boiled eggs, ground veal or beef, grated mozzarella, and parmiagiano cheese. first sauce on bottom of pan, then drained boiled lasagna noodles, then your fried and seasoned ground beef sprinkled all over, then your grated boiled eggs spread on top all over, then shredded mozzarella cheese, spread all over, some parmagiano, then some sauce spread and repeat, last layer being just the noodles, sauce, parmiagiano, and mozzarella NOW THATS ITALIAN LASAGNA!! take care , love the music too you have on here-)

Lisa

Hi Lisa,
Well that lasagna recipe is how my grandma Salerno and Mom made it and that's all the Italian I know ;-) However I must say what you described below just made me very hungry and I WILL be trying out your suggestions. Yum Yum!!! I just heard another tip about meatballs. Guy says he makes it all exactly like I do but instead of ground meat he uses all ground sausage right out of the sausage links. Takes the sausage out of the skin and uses that for the main meat, now that sound so good I'm just going to have to give that one a try! ~ You know, it's funny... I get a lot of suggestions about adding eggs, eggs in the braciole, eggs in the meatballs and now eggs in the lasagna. What's strange is my grandma Salerno did not use eggs in anything, maybe she just didn't like eggs I guess ;-) Happy cooking and happy times!!! Share the love always!.

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hello Anthony!
Hey guy how are you doing these days. I haven't e-mailed you in awhile, but, I have been checking your website periodically in case you have put in some updates. I do, however, have a couple of questions for you. On your sauce recipe, it seems as tough you may have changed it a little. When I first previewed it, I don't recall you having two types of onions, now you do. One yellow, one vidallia. Do you need both? Is one better than the other, or does it not matter?Also, do you by any chance have any suggestions and or recipes for a homemade pizza sauce? Do you thinks it's ok to use thawed frozen bread as the dough? Or do you have other ideas? How has everything been going with you? Fine I hope. Well, I won't keep you, just let me know what you think and e-mail me soon. Take good care of yourself, Anthony.

Always, Bonnie

Hi Bonnie,
Hi, yeah, long time. All is very well. Life is great! So glad you brought the onions to my attention. 1 Vidalia Onion (...not too large but bigger than medium) is what it's supposed to be. Just the one onion, not two. Eiik! Gotta fix that. One day I was making the sauce like I always do and noticed that the onions I always use were Vidalia onion, so I update the recipe to be more specific about the onion but in the process forgot to delete the original mention of onion so it now reads two onion instead of one. Geeeesh! Must have been tired that day. I will fix that now to read just the (1) Vidalia onion. Yes I feel the Vidalia onion makes a difference, it gives me the flavor I'm looking for. I have not tackled a good homemade pizza yet. The onion bread recipe I added here: is the closest thing to pizza my grandmother used to make. I will be coming up with a variation to that recipe as well which is the same thing basically but cooked in a lasagna pan with the dough on bottom and on top like a sandwich. That's how her mom made (my great grandmother). Frozen dough works well. I used that for sausage bread. Ugh, there is another recipe I need to get up on the site. I have to get busy huh?Well, nice to hear from you again, hope this helps.!.

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony