The one good thing about Super Bowl Sunday

...was my sauce.

It was freakin' good.

And because I took the time to document it today's entry is about the making of.

You need fresh tomatoes; plum and the big ones (what are those called?):



Yes. I bought 5 boxes of lasagna noodles, only because you're usually guaranteed to lose some either from an impatient grocer tossing it in a bag (and cracking them) or if some break apart while boiling.

You need fresh garlic:



A pain to peel and chop for sure, but fresh is best, and our kitchen smelled magical for about four days.

You need fresh herbs; I like oregano, basil, parsley and rosemary (for the meatballs):



For the sauce base I use Hunts tomato sauce and tomato paste. Dump one #10 size can of the bare sauce into a pan. Add your chopped herbs and tomatoes. I also put in roughly 15 small packets of Splenda to kill the tomato acid.

Pause for a sip of your margarita:



Once the onions and garlic are chopped dump them into a frying pan:



Once they're sauteed in a generous amount of olive oil toss them into the sauce. Add a nice dollop of red wine, some salt and pepper, put the lid on and let it simmer for a few hours until it looks like this:



I prepared one batch of sauce on Thursday night. On Sunday morning I started the second and also put together the ricotta cheese for the lasagna (ricotta cheese, grated parmesan, mozzarella, fresh garlic, fresh basil, fresh parsley, eggs), and the ingredients for the meatballs (ground beef, fresh rosemary, fresh oregano, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, grated parmesan, parsley, eggs).

Junebug was in charge of boiling and laying out the lasagna noodles while I rolled the meatballs and prepared the meat sauce for the lasagnas. Here's a shot of 50 meatballs being quickly fried before landing in the sauce where they would sit and cook for about four hours (notice the margarita has now been swapped for a Corona):



After the meatballs were nestled in the pots with the lids closed Junebug and I set up an assembly line and put together four lasagnas (three meat, one cheese). Sauce goes on the bottom of the pan, then a layer of noodles, meat sauce, ricotta cheese, shredded mozzarella, grated parmesan, noodles, sauce etc.

Here are the four lasagnas in the fridge, waiting to be popped in the oven just before the first quarter ended:

The food came out to be devoured during halftime, and any drunk feeling you had was replaced by food coma. After everyone ate we pretty much all slumped around with full happy bellies.

Go me.