Bevrs is right, the sausage makes this sauce. The other thing that makes it great is simmering it all day long. A sauce like this should not be "raw" (cooked a short time) but simmered slowly for a long time (and if you don't have a slow cooker you can do it stove-top or in the oven).
Even though the sausage really makes this a great recipe, it's still possible to make some really fine sauce with no meat. I'd increase the wine in this recipe (good move, Bevrs!!) and the herbs just a little, and use a few more mushrooms and some chopped fresh spinach (and maybe black olives), and add a sprinkle of fennel seed.
Also, you can serve this with eggplant or mushroom or spinach -- layer some pasta and spinach and cheese with this sauce, for example, or use broiled or grilled slices of eggplant (on top of the pasta and under the sauce) or take a big herkin' portobello mushroom and (barely) cook it with oil and garlic, then slice it up on top of pasta and ladle this sauce over it --- yow!
This recipe is VERY close to how I've made it for years. Back when I was married and would make a spaghetti sauce like this (and simmer it all day) my husband would make a sauce sandwich. LOL. He'd just slop the sauce over a piece of bread and inhale it.
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