> > > Diced onions
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> Don't forget how you do the onions! Try pre-cooking them first until they get to the yummy caramelized stage. I do this for the same reason that Mrs. Grishny uses the carrots, as a way of enhancing natural sweetness. Adding sun-dried tomatoes also gives a good boost of flavour. Using fresh herbs as well as the dried ones is good too, but to round things out I still add dry oregano and sweet basil (the de rigueur must-have ingredients of Italian cooking), as well as dried onion and garlic powder.

I do try to do the pre-cooking with the onions whenever I have time, for the same reasons you have described. They ARE much better that way.

> We find the "real trick" to making great spaghetti sauce is slow cooking. At least 3 hours of simmering on low to mingle flavours and reduce liquid content. That part can't be skipped, or faked in a pressure cooker, and it makes a HUGE difference. (I think, though, that for slow cooking it might be a bad idea to include broccoli.)

Wow. That is EXACTLY what I do too... I have never found it to be bad to do the broccoli this way, but I always add the broccoli last, so that may have something to do with it. You mention reducing the liquid content-- I find that I get my liquids pooled at the top of the sauce rather than completely eliminated, and I usually end up trying to scoop the liquid out with a ladle. Do you have the same experience, or does your liquid evaporate off?

> > My wife never uses store-bought pasghetti sauce. She makes her own, and although she doesn't use shredded carrots, she always throws in either a few peeled whole carrots, or a bunch of those little pre-whittled baby carrots that you can buy in the store. She uses the carrots to sweeten the sauce, as an alternative to sugar.

I never use the store-bought pre-spiced stuff (unless I'm in a real hurry) but I do buy the cans of tomato paste to use as a base. I usually use two large cans of paste, but I sometimes substitute a can of strained diced tomatoes to make a chunkier sauce. Either way, of course, I spice it to my personal tastes. I may have to try the peeled carrots idea-- I often have them in the house as a healthy snack anyway, so when I actually have time to make spo, I should toss them in.

> > Gri"tripe sounds like a spice"shny
>
> Wolf "whoops, can't think of any spices that sound similar to tripe" spirit

Don "Tripe Spice? Was she the mysterious sixth Spice Girl?" Monkey