This recipe was awesomely good!! I just added a pound of ground beef to it! Loved it and plan on using it next time I make spaghetti!

This recipe for the sauce is excellent. when I was a child my mother used to clean house for Italians and they taught my mother how to make a real spaghetti sauce. But after my mother passed, I was using Ragu which was very sweet, then I went to Prego which was alright. But I always wanted to make homemade, well today I brought all the ingredients and I made it, I let it cook for about 5 hrs. My meatballs are so tender. As a black women, I'm glad I dont have to buy the stuff in the jar no more. I even printed this recipe so I will have a copy. Thank You New Haven, Ct.

I'm Spanish and my boyfriends Italian so he's used to having traditional Italian meals, and I'm definitely not used to making them, so I want to make this for him but it doesn't say how large the cans are supposed to be, and I wanted to add sausage to it. How large should I buy the cans of crushed tomatoes and tomato puree, and when would I add sausage in?

Can't miss with this one!

This is a fantastic recipe. Easy and incredibly tasty. I made a couple of additions. I added two bay leaves, 1/2 pound ground hamburger, 1/2 pound mild Italian sausage and thinly sliced fresh mushrooms. Other than that, I used the recipe exactly as as written. Use fresh ingredients, it makes a big difference. Made enough for 4 meals for me and my wife. It is now a regular meal on our calendar.

Do you brown the hamburger and sausage prior to adding it to this sauce which great, or just add it raw after the sauce has cooked for several hours ?

Brown all meat.

LOVE LOVE this recipe. I make a large batch of sauce in the summer with fresh tomato's (different recipe). Well we ate all that sauce up already. I have been looking for a quick recipe that doesn't involve peeling all those tomato's. Well this one is great. I tweaked this recipe a little to my other recipe. I added green pepper and celery with the onions. I also added a few bay leafs while it cooks then take them out before serving. Also added hamburger and mushroom's later. This is good enough to can! MMMMMMMMMM Good!!!

This sauce was very good just a little garlicy added a pinch of baking soda and was perfect served with meatballs.

This recipe is GREAT (I put my 2nd attempt on the stove and it's started its 6 hr journey just now)! The first time I made it, I may have gone a little nuts on the onions/onion powder, garlic/garlic powder, so I added sugar to taste and it came out very well, if i say so myself! Nice Recipe!

Simple recipe. I used less garlic, added some brown sugar and sausage to the recipe. You can use water, tomato sauce, and tomato paste to control the thickness to whatever suits you.

if you have them available, substitute fresh tomatoes from the garden to make up for the 2 cans crushed and 2 cans puree.

I made this just a little differently. Instead of using olive oil to sweat the onions, I rendered 3 strips of bacon. Not nearly as healthy but very flavorful.

Very very good. I really enjoyed it but I did add a little more fresh garlic and I added some sugar. I've always heard that's what makes it good and I did notice a difference.

Easy and delicious! Makes enough to freeze and use later. I have shared this recipe with friends and they all love it too!

Stephanie (or anyone who has made this), could you give specifics for the size cans of the first 3 ingredients? I am thinking that it's the big cans, approx 29 ounces of the crushed tomato and puree, then the tiny can of paste. Thanks so much!!

This recipe is AMAZING!! I did listen to the other commenters and did a couple additions to the sauce. Since it didn't specify size, I used the bigger cans of crushed tomatoes (Hunts) and tomato puree/sauce (Meijer Organics) and I used a 14/15oz can of tomato Paste (Hunts) I also added 1 green pepper chopped, about 3 celery stalks chopped and about 9-10 cloves of garlic while the onions were sauteing in an olive oil/Merlot wine mix. I did use fresh parsley and a LOT of fresh basil. More than 2 tbsp. for sure on the basil. And I added 2 bay leaves (which you take out when done) and fresh Romano cheese. I did have to add a lot of sugar to cut down on the acidity and then at the end of the cooking time (which I cooked in my crockpot all day) I used my immersion blender to blend it all. I'm not a chunky sauce fan. I had RAVE reviews from my guests...my cousin constantly wants to know when I'm making the "Italian pasta sauce" haha. This also makes a HUGE batch. If I didn't have so many guests I would have had a lot to freeze which I plan on doing with the batch I'm making tomorrow!! Thanks Stephanie Lusi and all the other commenters for the great recipe and additional ideas!!

The only thing I could say should be improved about this recipe is listing the volume of the tomatoes. The only cans I could find in my store were 28 oz for both the puree and the crushed tomatoes. I suspect the recipe was looking for 16 oz cans b/c the spices were too mild given this volume of sauce. I had to tweak the other ingredients to get the right flavor.

It did not specify the size of can, I went and bought the 28oz. I figured I might as well make a large amount. Added browned beef towards last hour of cooking and it came out great. It's my families favorite. I make enough to freeze and use for later.

This sauce is very good. I agree with several posts that it would have been helpful and LOGICAL to put in the size of cans. I used 2 (28 oz. Each) cans of crushed tomatoes, 1 (28 oz.) can of purée and 1 (12 oz.) can of paste. I added browned hamburger to the sauce and some sugar to cut the acidity and simmered 6 hours.

Annette, thanks for the can sizes... Here is a tip for you, next time use Italian sausage instead of hamburger, I recommend half mild half hot, since you cant or I cant ever find medium spicy, do everything else the same as you did before, huge improvement IMHO.

Thanks for the tip! I bet it will give more taste!