I spent years perfecting my homemade tomato sauce recipe using the “little bit of this, little bit of that” technique. To this day, I don’t know that I could write an actual recipe for it since it was a tad different each time. What was consistent with my sauce was the incessant tasting, tweaking, and babysitting it required. Despite how involved it was, it was always better than the jarred stuff.
All of those years spent honing my sauce now seem futile: I have found a new favorite that requires far fewer ingredients, zero babysitting time, and even more flavor than the sauce that I lovingly toiled over.