In MURDER IS BINDING, Angelica makes homemade meat sauce. Well, there's always a little bit of me (okay, sometimes a LOT of me) in my books, and there's always a story behind every favorite recipe.
When I was growing up, my mother made sauce from scratch. So, the first time I invited my boyfriend over and made him a home cooked meal, I decided to make my sauce from scratch, too. We always had spareribs, meatballs, and sausage in the sauce we ate growing up. I never cared for the pasta--just the sauce (and LOTS of Italian bread plastered with butter).
I decided to impress this boyfriend (now known as Mr. L) by making homemade lasagna WITH my mother's homemade sauce. I spent the ENTIRE DAY in the kitchen. The house smelled HEAVENLY. (Formerly) Mr. S showed up, and when I brought out this GIGANTIC lasagna, he ate ONE TINY PIECE. I offered to send a big chunk of it home with him (hey, he had three teenagers at home) and he said, "No, thank you."
Let me tell you, Mr. S lost a helluva lot of points that night. In retrospect, he says he was a fool to turn down the leftovers, but his excuse was he didn't want to look grabby. My mother, father, and I ate that lasagna for a week. (Damn fine it was, too.)
Anyway, long story short(er), the recipe this week is my mom's homemade sauce. You're going to love it.
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