How It's Made

In the premier episode of “How It’s Made”, I outline the process for making our secret Scazafavo family spaghetti sauce, passed down through the generations.

This spaghetti sauce is the real deal – from scratch – and is better than any other sauce I’ve had (if I do say so myself) either from a market or in a restaurant.

For this, and all future, “How It’s Made” entries I will NOT be divulging the recipe, which is a closely guarded secret, but rather demonstrating the adventure of making it, techniques used, and tips and tricks for trying it yourself. It’s up to the reader to determine what ratios and specific ingredients and brands to use to try to replicate the results.

SHOPPING

Searching out the right Scazafavo spaghetti sauce ingredients to make a batch is part of the adventure. Typically I’m a stickler for only primo ingredients, especially the base of tomato in its various forms, but sometimes I sacrifice a little bit of premium quality for ease of acquisition.

A good high-end grocer like Whole Foods or Central Market (in Seattle) will usually have everything you need for a primo sauce.

Fresh is always better, and if it  happens to be summer and I wasn’t lazy that year all the herbs and spices, and most of the tomatoes, come fresh out of the garden. This is a winter batch, so I went all store-bought.

PREP PHASE

A good batch of sauce with meatballs is nearly a whole day experience. It’s one of my favorite Sunday activities and only comes around a few times a year, so I usually plan to dedicate the whole day to the ceremony.

I start out in the morning by clearing out the kitchen of all non-essentials and making sure all the equipment is clean – big pot, check. Mixer with meat grinder attachment, check. Cuisinart, check. Freezer containers, check. Various mixing and prep bowls, check.

The fresh herbs, veggies, and spices from garlic to parsley is thoroughly washed, and painstakingly segmented accordingly. Parsley usually takes the longest when using fresh parsley to separate all the stems.

Garlic, usually 5-6 whole bulbs for a batch with meatballs, takes a while to peel and separate also. I typically use dried herbs and spices for the rest unless I happen to have some in the garden – basil, oregano, bay leaf.

For the meatballs, I make 3-meat meatballs – ground beef, pork, and veal or venison (when I can get some). Although quality hamburger is usually readily available, it’s normally easier (and cheaper) to grind my own pork and veal rather than paying a premium for ground – hence the need for the meat grinder.

Once all the herbs and spices are prepped, the meat is trimmed and cut ready for grinding, and I have my stack of tomatoes or canned products it’s time to get busy…

GET IN THE POT

Starting with come cubed beef as stew-meat, garlic, onions, some olive oil, and about a quarter of the herbs and spices I cook the beef in the big pot until it’s medium-rare.

Next, add in all the tomato products and/or fresh pureed tomatoes. My target batch is normally between 4-5 gallons in volume total, everything in the pot included (meatballs). This requires about 14-15 large sized cans of tomatoes of various types. NO PRE SEASONING! Rookie mistake I’ve made at least once in my life.

Once all the cans are open and in, it’s time for the rest of the spices and all the veggies.

MEATBALL MODE

This is the fun part. This batch I made way more meatballs than normal. Nearly twice what I typically make. There’s nothing worse than getting down to apportioning the last few containers of sauce headed for the freezer and realizing you ran out of meatballs. So this time I made 90 Buffalo snow-ball sized meatballs. (Buffalo Snow Ball Size = the volume of my two cupped hands clasped together, or in other words, 3 times bigger than my wife likes them.)

Once I have them all spaced out on an aluminum foil lined cookie sheets, it’s into the oven. 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Take them out and dump them into the pot. I like to include all the grease from the meatballs as well – extra flavor! This batch of 90 is far too big for that so I put about 60 in, and saved 30 in a separate freezer bag for use for other things.

BREW

Once all the ingredients are in including the meatballs, it’s time for a few hours just to simmer. Total cooking time from cubed beef to ready to eat is about 5 hours, but it’s always best after a few hours to rest to cool off. It’s easier to work with to portion up into freezer containers then, and has had enough time to brew all the flavors together to put over pasta.

I typically put into 42oz containers, which is enough for two dinners and two lunches, or 3 big plates of pasta for dinner.

PREGO!

So there you have it - the best of the process, without giving away too much of the secret. Honestly I’ve never followed a written recipe for this except for the first few times making it. Each time it’s a little different, but always good.