Italian Pasta Sauce – Adapted from Grandma’s Recipe
1-2 lbs (or more!) Spicy Italian Sausage – Pick one that you like, I prefer ones with plenty of fennel and ones that are still juicy after cooking them for a while.
1 Head of Garlic
1 tsp Marjaram, dried
1 tsp Oregano, dried
1 tsp Parsely, dried
1 tsp Fennel Seeds, dried
1 tsp Rosemary, dried
2 Bay Leaves, dried
1 sweet Onion, sliced
Fresh, boxed or canned Tomatoes
Olive Oil
In a large sauce pot, put a fine layer of olive oil on the bottom and heat on med. Add Italian sausage, uncut. In small bowl or pot add Marjaram, Oregano Parsely and Fennel. Add 1/4-1/2 cup of boiling water to herbs and let sit while sausage cooks.
When sausage starts to brown and plump, pierce the casing with a fork or knife to let the sausage oil escape. Begin to cut the sausage into serving pieces of your choice, I prefer 2-3 inch links. Add Onions and Garlic, I buy pre-peeled garlic and use about a handful on anything I cook. put 1/3 in with the sausage, dice 1/3 and crush the last 1/3rd. This gets all the best garlic flavors into one pot!
Crush the fennel and rosemary with a mallet. Add herb mixture, save the herb water for later, adding now will not react well with all the oil. Have tomatoes ready to go into the pot once the herbs brown slightly. Add tomatoes and herb water.
Reduce to a simmer and add more herbs to taste. I do not add salt or sugar since the sausages bring a lot of that into the mix. Enjoy immedeatly, simmer all evening cook then freeze, it is all good. Top with a little fresh herbs if desired. Add meatballs if desired.
Serve with a good pasta that will hold sauce, Gnochi, rigatoni, springs (they all taste the same to me).