My house burned down in the wild fires last October. All of my reciepes are gone!! One I can't remeber is a recipe for spaghetti and meatballs. It was from the Women's Day Collectors Recipes. The pull out section that the magazine had for awhile. The recipe was from the late 70's or very early 80's I think! The meatballs had lemon zest in them and the sauce had three cans of tomato paste and a can of tomatoes.

I hope someone can help.

Thank you
Myrna, Witch Creek CA

Mybliss

I give up. Where in the world is Witch Creek? I was never a subscriber to Woman's Day, so I can be of no direct help. Sorry to hear you lost your home, and possesions. I've known a lot of people who have, and know how devestating the loss can be. May be time to move on, with a new recipe. There are a lot of great ones out there.

Zip 92065 - Ramona (Southern California, down San Diego way).

Myrna, sorry to hear of your loss. When you're on the bottom, the only way you can go is up!

Living in Oceanside, I certainly remember the Witch Creek fire last October, and I am really sorry to hear about your home. I am also going to be of no help on that recipe. Have you tried finding a library with Women's Day archives?

Chris

Witchcreek is between Ramona and Julian.

I can proably recreate the recipe, I think. It is my Mother's favorite.

I have tried looking every where for this recipe!

Myrna

Have you tried writting the Los Angeles Times food section? There is a column called SOS that may be able to help.

would it be "suzett's meatballs" form WOMAN'S DAY famous french cooking. if so I have the meat ball recipe but not the sauce unless it is on a different page. I would need some information on the sauce(what's in it as you can remember)

This book is out of print. but may be found on e bay?

This is from Sophie. She cannot post at the moment.

Mybliss, I’m so sorry about your house burning down. Words can’t express

how that must feel, and I would be almost as devastated losing my recipes

as losing my photographs and official documents.



This is not the recipe you requested, but it is without a doubt the most delicious spaghetti and meatballs

I have ever tasted, and I’ve tasted a few, some from some great Italian cooks. It’s a bit labor intensive

but well worth the effort in my opinion.



I hope you get a chance to try this until the one you lost comes along; you might

choose like I did to make this your favorite. If not, that’s o.k., too.

“sophieâ€

I also read David Rosengarten. He was looking for a taste that he was missing in a lot of varationas of this recipe. It turns out that it was eggplant. So now what he does is peel and chop up an eggplant and add it to the sauce. It cooks down and dissolves in the sauce. Sorry I don't know how much eggplant he used. I'll look and see if I still have that article.

Leni, that sounds like some good sauce. My guess is the 1st ingredient "3/4 c minced garlic" is 3/4 clove? I make an Eggplant and mushroom sauce that is really pretty good (being totally modest), but it is more about the mushroom flavor and has just a small amount of tomato. I can see how the eggplant goes with the pasta though. Chris

It may be that I have called for too much garlic; it has been awhile since I fixed this recipe. I do remember David Rosengarten talking about the flavor of garlic being lost in long cooking and that he sometimes uses large quantities, so I'm not at all sure whether or not this is right or wrong.
But, I've sent an email his way. If I get a reply I'll post it.

Sure would not like anyone using 3/4 c garlic when 3/4 t is what is called for. I appreciate your mentioning it. So will anyone else who wants to try this recipe.

You'd think I'd remember if I'd ever prepared 3/4 c garlic, unless I bought a jar already processed.

Found it online. 3/4 cup is correct - believe it or not. As much as I love garlic, this seemed like a ridiculous amount. But, I've got to try it now. These warm summer evenings seem like the perfect weather for a late night supper of garlicky spaghetti and meatballs.

I copy/pasted the relevant section below:

"Longer-Cooked, Very Garlicky Marinara Sauce

If you cook marinara sauce a little longer, you lose the bright tomato taste. But if you make up for that by adding a megadose of garlic... the results are delicious!|
The following is a version of the sauce developed at Trio's Ravioli Shoppe in Boston.
Yield: About 9 cups

Ingredients
3/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup finely minced garlic
2 (28-ounce) cans tomatoes in tomato puree
6 cups water
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Directions
Place the olive oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and sauté, stirring occasionally, until it's lightly golden.

Add the contents of the tomato cans, juice and all, squeezing the tomatoes with your hands to break them up as you drop them into the pot. Add the water, basil, parsley, sugar, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes. Serve immediately, or freeze for future use."

Made the sauce with the 3/4 cup sliced, not minced, garlic which was probably slightly less than the recipe called for. Still over 2 garlic bulbs were needed. I liked it. In fact it is very much like the marinara from our favorite little Italian place. I added the salt, pepper, and sugar to my taste, which was a little more salt and sugar than called for, and half the pepper.

By the way, the Progresso tomatoes I used would not form a sauce after 45 minutes. I ended up adding a box of Pomi strained tomatoes and cooking an extra half hour to get the sauce to come together. But in the end it was worth it. I could have dipped some bread in the air, that's how good the house smelled from this sauce.

Chris

Thanks, Chris. I didn't receive a reply to my email from David Rosengarten, so am glad for this info.

Sophie,

Thanks for the tip off on that sauce. I am always on the look out for a good red sauce like that. Made spaghetti with meatballs one day, then manicotti using Rao's way with the rest. That sauce was excellent.

Thanks again, Chris