What I Made for Dinner: February 11, 2009

Pasta and meatballs with tomato sauce, salad of mixed greens, artichoke hearts, and olive-sundried tomato vinaigrette.

My parents and sister and niece and nephew went back East for a funeral, and I am thinking about them. The sentiment translates into wanting to eat our family-recipe tomato sauce.

Downside to the family tomato sauce: It takes four hours to make it from scratch.

Upside to the family tomato sauce: If you are making one batch, it is literally just as easy to make two batches, and then freeze one!

Nowadays, whenever I make sauce, which is definitely a weekend project, I make double. So I had a frozen bowl of sauce with meatballs and Italian sausage already in it waiting for me in the freezer. I actually think it's better after it's defrosted and reheated than it is on day one. Defrosting and reheating takes about thirty minutes.

Amy blogged about our family recipe, http://amyeats.blogspot.com/, including a video on how to make it. I am of two minds about that. On the one hand, it's really no big secret. We have a big, spread-out family, and everyone knows how to make the sauce. On the other hand--well, maybe I am not as good at sharing as my sister is.