Spaghetti Sauce with Eggs

Growing up, my sister and I always thought my Grandma made the BEST spaghetti sauce. I think this hurt my mom's feeling's a little since she thought her sauce was better than her mom's. It was an incredibly simple recipe—a seasoning packet, tomato paste, feta cheese, wine, anise seeds, and eggs. WHAT? Anise seed... and eggs?? Most people aren't sure which is more weird.

Over the years, my mom would get a kick out of telling people about how she hardboiled eggs in her sauce. Most people would naturally turn their noses up which forced my mom to prove them wrong by cooking up a batch of sauce & eggs just so they could taste it. And I can say that 100% of the people who tried the eggs LOVED them. Every time my mom cooked eggs, she would reserve a few for my band teacher & janitor! They were giddy when we came to school with a food container for them.

In college, I remember telling my husband about how awesome the sauce was. We paid a visit to my Grandma so I could get her recipe. She was one of those cooks who didn't measure ingredients, which made it hard for me to jot down the recipe as I watched her cook. She used the same cookware for over 50 years, so she would judge ingredients based on the markings in the pot!

Over the years I tweaked her recipe, so it's more complicated than how she used to make it. And I'm not sure how well it matches in the taste department either since the last time I had her sauce was over 18 years ago. I want to think it's better, but I also still want her sauce to be the best out of nostalgia.

The recipe can be made without the eggs. If I don't have an hour to cook the sauce, I'll usually just omit them. But I'd rather not eat spaghetti without eggs if it can be avoided. I usually crush the garlic in a press because I love how it smells. I'll add a whole bulb sometimes. My father-in-law would say you can never have TOO much garlic. Grandma used red wine in her sauce, but I use sparkling white wine...the cheapest I can find. It's the wine on the bottom shelf all the way at the end of the aisle. We're talking a few dollars a bottle. I don't drink, but I imagine this stuff is pretty bad as a beverage. We dubbed it hobo juice in our house.

I'm not sure if this was just a family recipe or if it's an Italian thing... we've never heard of anyone else cooking sauce with eggs. My recipe card is below. If you try the recipe & like it, I'd love to hear from you! And if you're family ever made eggs in sauce growing up, I'd love to hear about that too. Just post in the comments below.

ooohh... fresh eggs from my sister's hens!

Father-in-law would think this isn't enough garlic,
but you can add as much as you want.