A Unique Italian Meat Sauce for Pasta

My Sicilian grandfather, Ignazio Cangialosi, was an excellent cook. Although he made his living working in a factory foundry, he sidelined by cooking for Italian weddings in my hometown of Rockford, Illinois. For a short time he even served as head chef in my Uncle Paul’s restaurant. One of his specialities was a unique Italian meat sauce for pasta, the likes of which I’ve never tasted anywhere else, not even in Sicily. Whether this was a secret family recipe I never knew. I falsely assumed it was common in the Palermo region from which he immigrated to America, but in the many times I’ve visited that region I have never encountered this sauce.

There is nothing exotic about the recipe. It’s simply cooked in a different way than the more common method of beginning with ground meat. The end result is a richer, silkier sauce that offers a very different taste experience. Because the recipe was passed down to me from my mother and I am the only remaining member of my immediate family, I wished to share it with others. Traditionally it required a meat grinder, but I’ve found a food processor a good modern substitute.

Most chefs sauté the garlic with the onions, a procedure I’ve never understood because inevitably the garlic tends to develop an unpleasant burnt taste by the time the onions are golden. Therefore, I add the garlic to the hot oil only in the last two minutes, just before I add the tomatoes. I’ve attached the recipe as a PDF so that you can print it out.

Click Here to Download and Print Recipe