A tradition that is upheld in my family is Sunday sauce. This is a time in which all of my family members set aside their busy schedules, as well as their phones, to talk with one another about their week, recount old memories and create new ones. This tradition originated in Calabria, Italy with my great-grandmother and her extended family. Early Sunday morning, she would start to make the sauce from scratch, preforming the tedious process of removing the seeds from tomatoes and peeling them. While I have never tried to actually make sauce from fresh tomatoes, my mom and grandma have groomed me to make the sauce just as my great-grandmother did.

Although some substitutions have been made to the recipe, including the replacement of fresh garden tomatoes with canned crushed tomatoes and fresh herbs with dried ones, Sunday sauce remains quite familiar. To keep with the tradition of Sunday sauce, I let the meatballs and sausage soak in the sauce to give it the same robust flavor as my great-grandmother did. The tradition of this dish continues to keep the memory of my great-grandmother alive.