Hey Mambo, Mambo Italiano!

My mother grew up on the South Shore in Massachusetts, near the Pardo family, who owned a restaurant that she spent a good deal of time at. She said that Mrs. Pardo was old school Italian, making her own pasta, her own sauce and kept chunks of real Parmesan cheese covered in mold in the cooler.

When I was in high school, my mother found a recipe for homemade pasta sauce that was very similar to the sauce Mrs. Pardo made. After years of eating sauce from a jar, this recipe changed the way I viewed pasta sauce.  It was flavorful! Needless to say, I'm spoiled by homemade pasta sauce now and hesitate at the thought of buying a jar...even if I'm out of my own sauce.

Since Ma found this recipe almost 22 years ago, I’ve tweaked it many times, trying to perfect it. I’ve tried it with Chianti, with white wine and dry red. I’ve added and subtracted the amount of tomatoes, using pureed and whole plum. I’ve played with the herbs. And finally...FINALLY...I've perfected it to my own taste buds.

Traditional Italian Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:
4 (28 oz.) cans of crushed tomatoes
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves of fresh garlic (you can never have too much garlic!)
2 ½ cups of Merlot wine
2 to 3 tablespoons of dried oregano
2 tablespoon of onion powder
6 fresh basil leaves
Salt & Pepper

Directions:
In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Crush the garlic into oil and sauté until golden brown for a minute or two. Slowly add half of the crushed tomatoes (2 cans) and half of the Merlot, stirring continuously.

Add the remaining tomatoes and wine, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer.

Add the oregano and onion powder, and simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Finally, add the basil. Salt and pepper to taste.

This recipe makes 10 to 12 pints and may be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week.  You can also freeze it for much longer (I’ve kept it for up to 6 months…but ordinarily it gets eaten loooooong before this!).

This is really just a base sauce.  It can be used now or you can let it simmer for another couple hours to really thicken it. You can also add ground beef, ground turkey, sausage or chunky veggies to add flavor and texture.

And that bread you see in the background, that's sourdough Grandmother Bread, from Chickens in the Road. This has become my favorite bread recipe! So yummy!!!