Denver Sauce

This is "the sauce" recipe.

I know there is a lot of emotion about sauce.  This recipe actually came to me from a fellow I dated ,maybe twice, whose parents owned a fairly well known Italian restaurant in North Denver.   Years later, my hairdresser, who was a very long time Denver person,  told me her sauce recipe, and it was THE EXACT SAME.

So I will call it Denver sauce.

Like all good things, start with sauteing some onion and garlic.  Now I have heard that using butter is more authentic, but I usually just use olive oil.

Now, I usually do everything in the crock pot, unlike this picture here, but you can do whatever you want--if you are making it in the crock pot, throw your onions and garlic in there, and a big old country rib, pork, and a few handfuls of pepperoni or salami or a combination of the two.  Then, add a big can or two, or a big can and a little can, whatever fits,  of crushed tomatoes. Some like pureed, but I like the crushed, and a small can of tomato paste, and maybe a can of diced, depending on my mood.  Then add a layer, as in cover the top layer of your tomatoes, with Parmesan cheese, or a mix of Parm, Romano, Asiago, (none if doing Paleo) garlic salt, parsley (I know it seems weird, but it does make a difference in flavor), layer of basil, and a  bigpinch of oregano, and maybe some black or white pepper, stir and let it cook all day.

Red wine, about a glass, after you drink a good glug glug glug glug of it.

Sugar in the sauce--this does make the sauce taste better and less acidic. You can use a jar of baby food, carrots, or you can add a few baby carrots and fish them out or not, or even julienned carrots.  (My father has seen the carrot piece before and bleated, "There is a piece of cheddar cheese in my sauce" which is odd, since normally cheese is  NOT A PROBLEM and even more oddly, I have seen this man add cheddar to spaghetti, and even lasagna, which he mispronounces as LASKANA, for some reason, and says he hates it, because it's a casserole...I digress)

Meat and mushrooms--I like to make meatballs and bake them in the oven, just very simple, meat, egg, bread crumbs (get the fancy Italian ones) or oatmeal instead of bread crumbs (really), salt and pepper and maybe a tiny bit of fennel.

You can also use Italian sausage (also better baked, plus skinned) or just ground beef, that you can brown and add in at any time, even in the first step with the onions and garlic.

Normally though, I add the meat about half way through.  If you are going to be gone for the day, then add it all in at once, obviously.

Sauteed mushrooms, last 30 minutes or so.  You can also add in sauteed zucchini, but I will warn you, most men, and lots of children, will immediately be repulsed by this addition.

Serve over any kind of pasta, zoodles, gnoccis or use in LASKANA, manicotti, stuffed shells, mix  it with with Alfredo, whatever you like to do