Nothing smells as good as a pot of sauce simmering away on the stove on a Sunday afternoon. Meatballs and sausage are the main characters but you can add any kind of meat you like, pork ribs, beef, pepperoni or my favorite braciole. Every Italian woman think her sauce and meatballs are the best so I'm not gonna give you my specific recipe just the procedure. Ingredients you must have to make a good sauce:
canned whole tomatoes in juice (not puree)
ground beef, pork and veal
italian sausage
ciabatta bread
red wine
eggs, grated cheese, garlic, onion, parsley, basil, oregano, a carrot, salt and pepper.
First step mix, roll and fry the meatballs in olive oil. I cook the entire sauce in one pot, I think this is first most important step because all those brown bits on the bottom of the pan are full of flavor.
After you fry the rest of the meat drain off all but 1/4 cup of the oil add the onion and saute until soft. Now the second most important step deglaze the pot with 1/2 cup of red wine and reduce until it looks like a syrup. Now add the tomatoes. I add mine right into the pot and puree them with an immersion blender. Season the tomato puree with basil, oregano, salt and pepper return fried meat to the pot. Toss in a whole peeled carrot, this is for sweetness most people use sugar but I think the carrot makes a sweeter sauce.
*the longer you simmer the thicker and tastier your sauce will be, I slowly simmer at least 4-5 hours stir often but gently you don't want to break the meatballs
**we NEVER call it gravy!!
No comments:
Post a Comment