Our first collection of recipes had to be Red Sauce. We both love the spirit of American Italian food that came from the celebration of access to ingredients that used to be expensive and hard to come by that were available in affordable abundance, and the natural instinct that came in sharing that surplus. The Red Sauce Joint style of hospitality of always making room at the table for one more because there was plenty to go around is our approach to hosting. It’s food for celebration, it’s food for every day, and it’s food that came from every day being its own celebration.

These dishes are our favorite to make for holidays, when friends are coming over for a fun night together, when we have a date night at home, or when we snuggle into the couch together and put our feet up with oversized bowls of pasta and sweatshirts we don’t care about because we’re definitely going to spill. Red Sauce recipes were some of the first dishes we seriously workshopped together and honed our recipe writing skills on. Red Sauce nights were extremely bright spots in very dark times for us, and we add to the reasons why we love these meals every time we invite someone new to join us for one.

Every family has their version, and that’s part of why we love this food, too. There’s no right or wrong way to make any of it. For this collection, we’re showing you how our family does it. Try it our way, or take a few bits and pieces of what we do and add it to yours. Make a little bit for a weeknight dinner, or prep the full spread and invite everyone over to share all afternoon long. 

Enjoy!