It appears that I’m going to be forever banned from posting my recipe site on Facebook… Yeah… it says they’re ‘reviewing my content’ but… I’m not hopeful. One message says I’ve spammed. I guess three or four recipe posts a week is an awful lot… I mean, it’s not quite like Russian bot postings or phony accounts trying to undermine our entire political process…

Oh. Wait. Those are happening as I type this… But that doesn’t seem to violate their terms of service.

When I try to share a post from my blog I get a message that states I can’t post because people have reported the recipe site as being abusive.

Abusive.

I guess advocating for healthy food is pretty abusive. In a kafkaesque sort of way… Sorta… Abusive spammer.

That’s me.

The only thing that pisses me off about it is I have no recourse. There is no one to call, no one to email, no one to speak with or contact in any way, shape, or form. They control it all. The ban extends to Instagram, too.

There, it states: “It looks like your profile contains a link that is not allowed. We restrict certain content and actions to protect our community. Tell us if you think we made a mistake.” I have pressed the “report” button a bazillion times to no avail.

An abusive spammer their “community” needs protecting from. Yeah, that pretty much describes me.

Oh, well…

In the meantime, the recipe site is alive and well – just not accessible through Zuckerberg Enterprises. I’ll survive.

We’re still cooking up a storm, and just made another huge batch of pasta sauce. It will definitely get us through until the next crop of tomatoes.

16 quarts of sauce. That’s a lot, even for us. It’s Victor’s basic recipe… He used 4 #10 cans of San Marzano tomatoes and a couple pounds of fresh San Marzano tomatoes from the garden.

Victor’s Pasta Sauce

  • 2 – 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
  • 1 – Sm can tomato paste
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic (or to taste if you like more) chopped fine
  • Olive oil
  • Dried Italian seasonings
  • Hot red pepper flakes (a tsp or more or less to taste)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Red wine (always cook with a decent wine, never “cooking” wine) about a cup or cup and a half
  • Meat – such as Italian sausage or some nice beef or pork ribs or pork chops

Ok…I ALWAYS make my sauce with meat, so start with a deep, heavy pot and add about 3-4 TBS of olive oil. On high heat, once the oil is hot, start frying the sausage or pork, Let the meat get good and caramelized although you don’t have to cook it all the way through because you’ll add it back to the sauce to finish. Once the meat is browned take it out of the pot, put it on a plate and set aside.

Lower the heat to medium and sauté the tomato paste for a couple of minutes until it begins to “melt”. Add the chopped garlic and sauté with the tomato paste for just a minute (no longer or it will burn). Then add about a cup of the red wine and deglaze the pan with it, scrapping up all the good bits that stuck to the bottom when cooking the meat.

When the wine reduces by about ½ start adding the canned tomatoes.  Add one can of hot water for every can of tomatoes you use.

Now start adding the dried Italian seasonings.  I eyeball it but I would guess a good 2 TBS is fine.  Add about another ½ cup of red wine, with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir everything into the sauce. It will be very thin at this point.

Add back the cooked meat. Now this is important….at the bottom of the plate you let the meat rest on will be some of the oil and juices that seeped out. Pour that back into the pot. It has a lot of flavor in it.

Bring the sauce back to a boil then turn the heat down low and let it simmer for at least 1 and a half hours, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes to keep it from burning. It should reduce by about a third or a little less and get thicker. The meat will absorb the sauce and get very tender.

When I make meatballs, I don’t fry them, I bake them on a sheet pan. When I do, I add them to the simmering sauce when they’re done so they also absorb the flavor.

I usually make the sauce early in the day and after it’s done, just let it sit on the stove until dinner then I re-heat it. This should make enough sauce for a couple of dinners or good sized lasagna.

Sauce is down in the basement along with jars of plain sauce, tomato paste, and a couple dozen quarts of soup.

We’re ready for winter – and hell freezing over if I ever get reinstated.