I have a recipe that is similar to Marcella’s, it’s from Jeff Smith, aka The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian, the recipe is called Fresh Tomato Sauce Sicilian. I used to follow the recipe to the letter and could never make it perfect every time. One day a friend brought over Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan and things changed in my kitchen for the better. Although the Frug’s’ recipe is still a great one, it wasn’t until I read Marcella’s’ “where flavour starts” and the following battuto, soffritto and insaporire that I began to understand the importance in the “basics” of Italian cooking. Now I apply Marcella’s techniques and have consistent results every time. I use fresh herbs from my garden and use only the best canned Italian plum tomatoes for best results. The Italian canned tomatoes are sweet and yield a very rich and thick sauce. Read the label for exact origin of the tomatoes and steer away from enhanced (i.e.) added salt, sodium, calcium, citrus, or herbed content, always go with one ingredient, plum tomatoes from Italy. Fresh tomatoes can be a challenge because they are not always sweet and tasty when cooked so canned works best. When I stopped using fresh tomatoes, in tandem with Marcellas' techniques my sauces came out perfect every time.
As for the butter, well, you can leave it out but the sauce will not be as sweet and rich in flavour. The Sicilian Sauce I spoke of earlier calls for 6 Tbs of butter. I’d be happy to share my version of the ‘Frug’s ‘ Tomato Sauce Sicilian as it is very similar to Marcella’s but has a few more ingredients, but still simple and very tasty.

This sounds great. What kind of meat would you suggest... I did a beef brisket with potatoes,carrots,bay leaf,pepper corns and cabbage,covered with water and s cooked for 8 hrs.It was the best brisket I've ever cooked.Very Irish.I'll try your "cholent" next time,meanwhile please tell me more about this recipe.Thanks.

Thanks for the info...I followed your suggestion and the beans are slow cooking as I write.

[This thread was moved from the Western Canada Board --The Chowhound Team]

I recently purchased an electric slow cooker (crock pot).I would like to do a baked bean thing in the crock however I'm not sure if I should just bung everything into the crock,dried beans and all and slow cook for 8 or 10 hrs or should I precook the beans first and then bung it all in? The manual says sugar and acid have a hardening effect on the beans.I read an epicurious.com reader review on BBs which says throw it all in, no presoak or cooking the beans.
Any suggestions or tips?

Your friend must be making pet food. After 4 + hrs of simmer the full flavours of the chicken stock start to depleat.
I make 2 types of stock.One is a brown stock which I start with browning the chicken parts on the BBQ until they are golden brown (low heat works well 250 deg. for about an hr)Then I add the gb chicken to my stock pot along with the carrots etc and simmer for 2 hours +/-. If I have time I will remove all the solid contents and continue to simmer the stock for another hour or so. this will reduce the stock slightly and intensify the flavours. Second is a light stock,done with-out browning the chicken. I will simmer the stock for about 2 hrs +/-. Hope this is useful