Recipe was shared from Italian acquaintances visiting from Italy several decades ago. It's a richly flavored family recipe estimated to the middle 1800's. I've been cooking it for decades. This will make a lot of sauce, and will freeze and reheat wonderfully. You'll need to thin it after it's thawed as it thickens up while frozen. Besides some tomato sauce to thin it with, all you need is the pasta! When we cooked this, we typically had around 10 quarts in the freezer. That's a real blessing when home from work and too tired to cook.

The secret is low temp cooking for a few hours. It cannot be rushed. Once the tomato ingredients are added to the pot, rushing this, or using high temps will turn the sauce acidic, and risks scorching it to the bottom of the pot. It's best to begin cooking the meats and most of the veggies first, then once those are cooked down, add the tomato ingredients. Absolutely nothing sold in a can or jar compares.

The sauce is a complete meal, and will be much thicker than when first made.

After hours of slow simmering, the only whole veggies will be the olives, mushrooms and the broccoli, (which is added near the end of cooking), the rest of the veggies cook to a puree. Because of the veggie puree, the sauce will be thick, and hang onto pasta beautifully. The flavors intensify by the next day or two.

Ingredients can be reduced, omitted or increased to fit your needs, preferences or availability of ingredients.

Some listed ingredients are substituted or adapted to the US equivalents. If possible, use ingredients available in Italy.

Ingredients:

1/4 pound Ground Chuck or Ground Beef

2 to 3 Links Sweet or Hot Italian Sausage pinched out of the links in small dollops

1/4 pound Ground Veal and/or 1/4 lb Ground Pork (not sausage)

1/4 pound cubed Link Pepperoni (sub slices if links aren't available)

2 or 3 small Cipollini Onions, fine diced (or other sweet onion)

1 cup Whole White Mushrooms, cut in halves

1 cup Portabella Mushrooms, chopped or halved

1/2 cup Ripe Italian or Greek Olives, cut in halves, or Black Olives (not vinegar-pickled)

1/2 cup diced ripe Sweet Italian Roaster Peppers (or red bell peppers)

1/2 cup diced unripe Sweet Italian Roaster Peppers (or green bell peppers)

1/4 cup diced fresh Parsley

1 cup (or less) peeled, diced Fresh San Marzano tomatoes, Roma or Paste Tomatoes

1/2 to 1 cup small fresh Broccoli Florets (added at the end)

1 cup peeled, fine-diced Eggplant (Lunga Violetta or Baby Eggplant if available)

1/2 cup fine-diced Cucuzzi Squash (or Armenian)

1 fine-diced Zucchini Squash

2 to 3 (28oz) cans Tomato Puree (Cento brand)

1 small can or tube quality Tomato Paste (Cento)

1 (28oz) can Crushed Tomatoes (Cento)

Broth or water as needed to thin sauce while cooking

Use Fresh Herbs and Spices to taste, or use dried: Salt; Black Pepper; Basil; Oregano; Fennel Seed.

1/2 to 1 cup Red Cooking Wine (I forget what they used, most likely a Marsala)

2 to 4 Garlic Cloves, minced, amount to preferences

Fresh Italian Mozzarella (pinch dollops into sauce at serving time)

Parmigiano Reggiano, or Parmesan-Romano Cheese to taste

Olive oil and chopped parsley to toss pasta in

Brown the Italian sausage dollops and all ground meats and onions together, (NOT the pepperoni). Drain browned meats in a colander, return meats and onions to pot.

Add all veggies to pot (not the tomatoes and broccoli), and lightly simmer with the meats for about 10 minutes, then add all herbs, spices and salt, add broth or water to cover all of the ingredients, stir.

Bring to a boil, stir, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer on low until the veggies have begun to dissolve. Add water or broth as needed to keep ingredients just covered, stir often to prevent scorching.

Once veggies have reduced to a puree, add all tomato ingredients to a large bowl, stir well to dissolve paste into the rest, leave no tomato paste lumps, pour into the pot of meats and veggies and stir until well combined. Increase heat until sauce is steaming well, then reduce heat and simmer slowly, stirring about every 10 to 15 minutes, cook covered for about 40 more minutes.

Add pepperoni cubes, and fresh broccoli florets to sauce, stir slightly. Once broccoli has turned an intense green color, stir into the sauce very well. Avoid cooking the broccoli to mush! Only till bright green.

Right before serving, add pinches of mozzarella and the other cheeses to the sauce, stir just enough to combine.

Adding the mozzarella this way gives the sauce small, melty mozzarella bombs to enjoy a bite at a time! Don't heat and stir the cheese until it's dissolved into the sauce, if you can avoid that. It's almost ready to serve! Remove from heat and cover while preparing the pasta. Remember to taste for salt.

An option for the use of garlic: the garlic can be left out of the sauce, and instead, cut a clove in half, then rub the cut side on the insides of the serving bowls or plates. Then place cooked pasta in bowl or plate, top pasta with cheese, then ladle sauce over that. The garlic flavor will be there and subtle, but not harsh and pungent. Not as likely to have garlic breath that way.

Cook the pasta to Al Dente (or to preference), drain in a collander and toss with olive oil and parsley, place on platter or in a large serving bowl, and serve.

A nice, crusty Italian bread, or garlic bread goes with this perfectly.

I hope this brings smiles and happy, tummies to your family as it has to mine for many years to come. Enjoy!

Of course, in my young, hurried youth, I tried cooking this sauce TOO quickly, and ended up with an acidic bellyache. Best to simply do what those gracious, kind Italian folks said all those years ago: cook this low and slow to avoid turning it acidic.