Reviewed: May 19, 2011

This is the absolute best recipe I have found, ever! My husband and I are not drinkers but we had leftover merlot from company and I made this recipe. My husband does not like spaghetti because of his past but he gave me two thumbs up and requested I make it again. Not something he does. I put the sauce in the crockpot for 4 hours on high and added cooked macaroni noodles right before serving to make more of a goulash. I did add only half of the merlot recommended because I knew it would be strong of a flavor for non-drinkers.

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Reviewer:

daniellesMuse

Reviewed: Mar. 20, 2011

Very good but I used less wine, more garlic, Italian seasoning, anise, a bit of water, NEVER use green peppers in spaghetti sauce (definitely not Italian style) I took the casing off hot Italian sausage then crumbled it into the sauce so the flavor penetrates as it cooks - YUM!

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Reviewer:

Winnie

Reviewed: Aug. 18, 2010

After reading the reviews I am wondering if people realize just how much their selections of ingredients affects their recipe. If you use Del Monte whole tomatoes and then use another brand later you get a different sauce. And the suasage....wow, talk about variation. Half the fun of cooking a great meal is searching your area for the best sausage that YOU like. Ask around, ask grandma which butcher knows how to make sausage, which brand she likes. Isernios out of the package is pretty lean as sausage goes. The stuff you buy in the meat counter as the grocery store is silly. Look for a independent meat market where the butcher make his own. Or better yet, get some nice lean Pork Butt, grind it up and get a good recipe here on the web....its silly simple. You don't need perfectly good pork wrapped in a casing to call it sausage. Where did that casing come from? Is it natural? It is adding to the flavor of the sauce? And the wine. Do some homework and try several kinds of wine. Find one that suits you, you're eating it. Lastly, when making your sauces and trying them out, be sure to write down the little things that make one sauce different from the other. Make sure the recipe as the brand of ingredient, time of year purchased or whatever you will need to make that sauce for company. If you don't take notes you will not likely get the same exact ingredients next time and when company comes and you are expecting a certain taste....well you get the point.

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Reviewer:

kcaravelli

Cooking Level: Professional

Home Town: Seattle, Washington, USA

Reviewed: Jun. 11, 2010

Although fast and easy to prepare, I believe it would have been more like a restaurant style if you used whole sausage links and didn't slice them in. Otherwise it was great.

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Reviewer:

WTramontana

Supporting Member (Click to learn more about Supporting Membership)

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Tampa, Florida, USA

Living In: Thousand Oaks, California, USA

Reviewed: Aug. 2, 2009

Outstanding! We try to stick with the recipe as written whenever possible, but with ingredients on hand, we made a minor adjustment or three. We had a pound of Italian sausage (I guess you'd call it "sweet"), so we browned (in cast iron skillet) and drained it well. Then, we added 2 T olive oil before adding the onions and 8 cloves garlic. When all this was browned, we added the Merlot wine to help loosen all the good stuff carmelized in the pan, then combined everything in a separate pot to simmer. We don't like the flavor of higher acid foods like tomatoes when cooked in cast iron.

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Reviewer:

richinsodak

Reviewed: Jan. 30, 2009

I added about a tablespoon of sugar, maybe a bit less than a tablespoon, because I found it lacked flavour and was too zesty, probably due to the wide variety of italian sausage availiable on the martket, and this just made it superb. It definitely has a special taste, and I would be skeptic about serving it to guests because it sure isn't your ypical sauce, but I will make this again for myself.

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Reviewer:

kate

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Reviewed: Jan. 8, 2009

Not sure why this got "best" reviews. I followed this recipe to a "T". I splurged on $8.00 per Jar "heirloom" tomatoes from Italy and did the "exact" recipe. My sauce separated when I served it, watery on bottom, chunky on top (simmered in Crock Pot all day). Also was very "sweet" which I like but this was a total disappointment. Sorry! Good Italian Cook in CO

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Reviewer:

goodcook

Reviewed: Nov. 1, 2008

I loved this sauce, I did add a bellpepper, other than that kept it the same, Second time I made it, I made a double batch and froze half, I made stuffed shells and poured this sauce over it, and it was the bomb! Thanks for a great recipe!!

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Reviewer:

Jana

Reviewed: Jul. 30, 2007

This was a good sauce, I will use a little less merlot next time though, it was quite overwhelming.

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Reviewer:

Erin

Cooking Level: Expert

Living In: Grand Haven, Michigan, USA

Reviewed: Feb. 5, 2007

This was a starter for me. I changed it around quite a bit from the original. I went to the local pizza place and borrowed some of their sausage topping. I omitted the wine for lack of having it on hand. I used scallions and cilantro. And 4 garlic cloves (I love garlic).Threw it all together in a flash. It was way better than the jar variety.

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