Grandma Leslie and Her Kitchen Helper Cook up Spaghetti

When he was growing up, Hank’s favorite meal was spaghetti with meatballs.  Back then, he and I would go to a local farmer every fall and get a bushel of tomatoes.  Hank’s job was to load two dozen Mason jars into the dishwasher to wash and dry them, and meanwhile wash all of the lids and rings by hand. At the same time, I would blanch, peel and boil the tomatoes down into a sauce.  Of course we didn’t save all of the 24 jars for ourselves–most went to friends and family.  This process took all day and created about a years’s worth of pots and pans but we had fun. Here is my Marinara recipe, reduced to accommodate  a 32 ounce  batch. For the meatballs and pasta, you might like this recipe, which would go nicely with my sauce. https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/classic-beef-meatballs-369151

–Grandma Leslie

Marinara Sauce

12 c. olive oil
4 c. chopped onion
2 small carrots 
4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
3 c. pureed tomatoes (w/o seeds)   
6 oz. heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
1 stick of butter
2T. dried oregano
2 t. dried basil
1T flour    

Cook onion, carrots and garlic.  If not canned, push tomatoes through a sieve to remove seeds. Add flour and heavy cream to vegetable mixture, stirring until smooth and moderately thick.  Add tomatoes to sauce.  Simmer 15 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients.  Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Pour over meatballs and serve with pasta.