I don’t think there IS a recipe - they did it for so many generations that they grew up learning it by a sort of osmosis.
When my FIL was alive, he would plant hundreds of tomato plants; and in August the entire clan would get together to ‘make sauce’. I think they canned 500 quarts in their peak year.
For ‘Christmas Sauce’, they use sweet Italian sausage, beef chunks, and pepperoni. Everything is ‘eyeballed’ - and husband says that if you don’t have the ‘Family Tomato Sauce’, it’s useless to even try :-)
They had the spaghetti and sauce at the noon Christmas meal; and in the evening they had home-made vegetable soup and hoagies.
On Christmas Eve: Pizza.
(This is all sort of wonderful for me - for at least a few days, we’ll be off the ‘Low Carb’ mania :-)
But I will watch on Christmas Eve, when he starts the sauce process, and be sure to relay any secrets!
Thanks, friend! :)