Grammy's Spaghetti Sauce

My whole life, there has only been one spaghetti sauce that I've craved—my grandmother's. She's from Idaho, so this has got a western American twist to it, but don't turn your nose up just yet, even though this varies sharply from the classic Italian tradition.

I remember being about four years old and puzzling over why no one else's spaghetti tasted as good as Grammy's. When I was about ten, I spent a week at her house in the hopes of unlocking the secret. I thought that if I could learn this recipe, I'd be set for life. It looked too complicated for me, so I just gave up.

Today I tried again, and I unlocked the incredible, mellow blend of this bolognese. Here's what you need:

6 medium carrots
1 onion
1lb ground beef or Italian sausage
3 cans tomato sauce
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp celery salt
1.5 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda

Skin the carrots and cut them into 2 inch slices no more than 1/2 inch thick. Dice onion. Boil the vegetables for about an hour. Drain, then mash, then drain them again. Brown beef with salt, pepper, and garlic. Add to vegetables. Add tomato sauce, spices and herb. Here is the secret: up to this point, all the flavors will be there, but it will taste far too bitter and will have too much of that canned taste. Add a bit of baking soda and that flavor goes away!

If there is one recipe that epitomizes my grandmother, it is this one. The idea to use baking soda to mellow out the sauce is brilliant. What you're actually doing is adding a base to a rather acidic mixture. The resulting chemical reaction neutralizes the acid and allows the flavors to blend, rather than compete. That kind of precision in thinking and a determination to get it all to work is the very portrait of my grandma.