I love my food and have quite eclectic tastes. I like Indian, Chinese, Spanish and Mexican cuisine. However, my favorite is Italian cooking. Italian restaurants are the best. They have the friendliest waiters and the best atmosphere. As well as eating out, I like to experiment with Italian cooking myself, with varying degrees of success!

I imagine that the everyday food of the Italians and the restaurant dishes we are all familiar with are somewhat different. I’d like to go to Tuscany and be invited into the home of an ordinary family. I bet the meals would be incredible. I think Peasant cooking is the term. That’s not an insult, it just means cooking with fresh ingredients and blending them well. No need for fancy sauces. Sometimes, a hunk of freshly baked bread, a slice of Gorgonzola cheese and a good wine can be the finest meal in the world.

There are specialist cooking vacations available, where you can go somewhere lovely and be taught how to cook by an expert. I’d love to do an Italian cooking one and come home able to make the perfect spaghetti sauce. Every Italian family is supposed to have a secret recipe for the sauce and pass it on to the next generation or take it to their grave.

Perhaps I am romanticising Italian coking a little. I know that the frantic lifestyle of people, especially in cities, is having an effect on the cooking traditions of different countries. It’s reported that the younger generation of French women, who have careers, don’t have the same interest in cooking. I hope that this doesn’t affect Italian cooking too badly, and they don’t succumb to microwaved ready meals like the rest of us.

Many people think that Italian food amounts to pizza and pasta. Whilst these are popular, there is so much more variety to Italian cooking than that and regional differences add to the enjoyment. Italians, I was surprised to learn, eat pasta as a starter and not as a main course. You don’t need a lot of elaborate tools to cook Italian, but a good cheese grater is a boon as is a pasta making machine if you intend to have delicious home made. When you’re cooking pasta or rice, aim for al dente, there’s nothing worse than soggy lumps.

I like the little antipasti starters. The ingredients are often preserved meats such as salami or prosciutto and seafood like mussels and prawns. Throw in some figs and melons and it’s delicious. Italian cooking contains many soup recipes and they are often thick and nutritious. Leftovers can be used, even pasta. Stews are also very popular and my favorite main course is Roman Beef Stew, made with beef and bacon cooked in red wine.

I have a herb garden and I like to grow the herbs that are used regularly in Italian cooking, namely oregano, rosemary, basil and marjoram. I make my own salad dressings and I buy Italian bread whenever I can. All I need then is some sunshine and I can pretend I’m in an Italian courtyard.

If you come from a large Italian family, or have ever had the pleasure of being a guest at one of their family gatherings, you know that one of the most important topics in the kitchen might be different spaghetti sauce recipes. You don’t have to be Italian to enjoy a good sauce, and many moms have their own tried and true spaghetti sauce recipes they turn to time and time again when making Italian foods for their families. 

Spaghetti sauce recipes vary throughout the United States, and throughout the world. Every restaurant and every home seems to have a favorite recipe, and sometimes these recipes are highly guarded secrets.  The great thing about spaghetti sauce recipes is that some are easy and simple, and others are complicated.  You can make one to suit your mood.  If you aren’t much of a cook, your favorite sauce recipe might be simply opening a jar of Prego, and that’s all right too.

If you are tired of the same old spaghetti sauce recipes, you can find hundreds from which to choose. There are so many online that it boggles the mind, and you may not know which ones to try. If you are up for a culinary challenge, you might want to visit a chef site, and get a recipe that has a lot of prep and cook time. If you are a bit rushed, there is nothing wrong with finding a fast recipe that takes a few shortcuts. 

What type of spaghetti sauce recipes you may like will depend on your taste. Some sauces are thick and smooth, while others are chunky and spicy. Personally, I can’t stand chunks of tomato in my sauce, thanks to a childhood trauma, and I won’t eat a sauce that has chunks. The less complicated the spaghetti sauce recipe is, the more I like it. On the other hand, if you love chucks of veggies in your sauce, you want to look for a recipe that calls for a lot of slicing and dicing of fresh veggies and spices.

If you remember your mothers home cooking fondly, go ahead and ask her for her favorite spaghetti sauce recipes, and have a go at recreating them. You may even want to add your own special touches to make the sauce your own. A good sauce is one that you can easily make, tastes great, and pleases your whole family. If that means opening a jar, then so be it. No one can complain if they don’t know, right?