Mangia!

whenever the weather turns cold, we always wish to have something warm and good-smelling simmering on the stove. jeremy and i both come from italian families, so last week when the temperature dipped and we pulled out our sweaters, we also decided to pull out my great-grandmother's recipe for spaghetti sauce. her name was Zelmira Mencarini Della Maggiora and you can't get much more italian than that.

it took two stores to find the dried porcini mushrooms necessary for the slow-simmered recipe. i can't disclose the entire list of ingredients because then it wouldn't be a secret family recipe, but aside from the dried mushrooms, the juice of a lemon + its rind and a healthy pinch of allspice also went into the pot, along with handfuls of fresh herbs and a glass of dry red wine.



this is not your typical spaghetti sauce, at least not by american standards, and as jeremy and i twirled bites around our fork we relived a favorite meal from our trip to Florence. a little italian nonna (grandmother) surely stood behind the stove in that kitchen too.

jeremy's dad makes a similar-tasting sauce with a few variations from my family's recipe, but equally as authentic & delicious. i am hoping eli will grow up with an awareness of his italian heritage, and a memory of eating many family recipe spaghetti dinners, always prepared from scratch.