Ripped from the pages of time.

There are stories of a tomato sauce recipe that has been passed down for eight generations. Kings would have this at their weddings, with the tomatoes carted in by horse all the way from Reggio Calabria where men would go on long treks through the wilderness to gather wild Roma tomatoes by moonlight.

Ingredients

  • onion
  • tomatoes
  • garlic
  • parsley
  • beef ribs
  • pork ribs

Method

Have all the ingredients carted to your kitchen, preferably by horse or Volkswagen, and when the package arrives, seek first the onion and chop it into tiny bits. Go ahead and toss the onions into a large stock pot on your stovetop.

If you want a lot of red meat sauce, then chop a lot of tomatoes, but before you put them into the stock pot you need to roast them until they are slightly charred but not burnt. If you have the patience to roast enough tomatoes to fill up your stock pot, you will be rewarded later with compliments of your mastery in the kitchen, but you may opt to use canned tomato sauce if you do not need this affirmation.

Heat the onions first so they are softened but not sautéed. We do this for flavor, not texture, and it might not be necessary but it’s fun and smells great. It’s also a wonderful way to signal to everyone that you were serious when you said you were going to make five quarts of ancient sauce, but mainly it ensures that the sweetness of the onions gets released.

When the onions are starting to brown, add lots of diced garlic and the tomatoes you roasted. You may choose to lightly puree it all with an immersion blender, or you may leave it chunky.

I used to dismiss red meat sauce as bogus because I never saw any meat in it, but the brilliance of this process is how the meat flavors get infused into the sauce. You want to use a two-to-one ratio of beef back ribs to pork back ribs. Leave the bones in and don’t bother with the membrane, but still check for any small bone fragments to trim off before lightly browning them in and tossing them into the stock pot.

Add a bunch of freshly chopped parsley, a little Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, then let it simmer on low for a few hours to a couple of days.

The meat will fall off the bones long before you’ll call this done, but when you know it’s ready just use a strainer spoon to remove the meat and bones from the sauce. You can eat the meat if you like, or feed it to your dog, but it’s no longer an integral part of making this recipe since it’s already spent all its essence.

I personally like to continue letting it simmer for a while, there are no rules in this quick six-hour recipe. You can simply pour this over your favorite type of pasta or use it in a lasagna.