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Edited on Sun Feb-10-08 09:39 AM by hippywife
all the time now and sub mushrooms for the meat. But if you don't want to add mushrooms, the sauce can still be flavorful. I usually don't measure, been making it so many years I do it by sight alone, but I'll try to approximate something for you. You may also want to consider using a pasta other than spaghetti. Long spaghettis use more sauce than say a rigatoni or penne. The cooking time for them is a little longer but they will also stand up better to staying in the hot water til you're ready to serve if you under cook them just slightly.
This will make one large pot (5 quarts) which I think will feed about 10-12 people. So increase it as needed. I would probably still make this in single batches rather than trying to make one to feed that many people if you want the flavor to be preserved. I learned to make it from my Italian gran but she always started it with meat and added meatballs to it when it was close to being done.
2 TBS olive oil 1 TBS minced garlic 2 15 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes, undrained (plain - no added flavoring) 3 8 oz. cans of tomato sauce 3 6 oz. cans of tomato paste (reserve one) water (see note in directions below) 2 TBS sweet basil (I can't abide the taste of oregano or Italian seasoning.) 1/2 c. grated parmesan 1/2 tsp. red pepper flake salt, pepper, granulated garlic to taste
Place the olive oil in the pan and allow it to heat slightly before adding the minced garlic. Add the garlic and let it simmer but not brown. Add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and 2 cans of paste. Stir well to dissolve the paste and stir in water til it reaches the appropriate thickness. (I usually do this by adding warm water to each of the sauce cans so it also gets the last of the sauce out of the can, too.) Add the basil, salt, pepper, pepper flake, and granulated garlic (not too much since you started with garlic) and allow to simmer on medium heat stirring often. Once it gets hot, stir in the grated parmesan. Allow to continue to simmer, stirring often, until it cooks down just a tad and slightly thickens. If it isn't quite thick as you like, add the third can of paste and a tad more parm cheese. Taste and adjust your seasonings as you like.
You can also do this in a large crockpot and it works just as well.
If you are making this meatless because of the cost and not because of anyone's dietary restrictions (and how can you really know with this being a fundraiser and that many people coming) you can always buy a small amount of good Italian sausage links, add them to the pot in the beginning, and let them cook in the sauce for the flavor but not serve them.
The seasonings don't seem like very many or that they would give the sauce that much flavor but they do, along with the parm cheese. Oregano and Italian seasonings can be too bitter tasting to me (my mom used them) but my Italian gran only used sweet basil and never put anything like else in it, such as onion. It's probably all in what you are used to tasting so it's going to be hard to completely please everyone, anyway, if you think about it so keeping it simple is probably best.
I hope this works for you.
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