Wanted: Real deal tomato sauce recipe

[Penn]

Your greatgrandmothers is prefered. No can products except tomato paste or puree.

[Roguish Lawyer]

Originally Posted by Penn

Your greatgrandmothers is prefered.

Or your Uncle Vito's . . .

[Gypsy]

This is a base recipie, I apologize but I never measure...it is all "to taste".

Ingredients are preferably fresh...but I generally use canned tomatoes. Gram was born in Sicily...this is how she taught me. She also would put pork, Italian sausage and/or neck bones in the gravy (that's what we call it) as well. (brown the meat seperately)

Diced tomatoes or tomato sauce if you prefer (3-4 large cans, 14 oz size?)
tomato paste (3 small cans)
garlic (lots!)
ground pepper
oregano
parsley
salt
red wine


In a large pot lightly sautee crushed (or chopped) garlic in olive oil. Add tomatoes and paste. Add 3 cans of water (the paste size cans) and 1 can of red wine (paste size can). Add all spices/flavorings and simmer on low for 4-5 hours, stirring and tasting occasionally to "fine tune" your sauce. About 2 hours into cooking the sauce, add the meat(s) if desired. In the final hour I generally sprinkle in a bit of grated Romano cheese.

[JMI]

Grandma’s Sauce:

2 cans of puree and 2 cans of tomatoes and small can of paste, and 2 cans of water in a large pot, low simmering,

Chop up some garlic and onion and sauté in a pan with evoo. Pour into simmering sauce.

2-3 packages of neck bones, brown (don’t cook) and put into sauce.
Package of hot (or sweet) Italian sausage, same thing.

Meat balls: In a bowl mix half 1/3 sausage, 1/3 veal, 1/3 ground beef. Add chopped onions, chopped garlic, Italian bread crumbs, 1 egg and salt and pepper. Make the balls, brown them, and put into sauce. Typically I will not put the balls into the sauce until the last hour or so because I do not want them to fall apart because they’re over cooked.

So basically I cook the neck bones and sausage in the sauce for 4 hours, skimming off the evvo that has accumulated on the top. I do not stir the sauce too much because it is 1) simmering and not burning, and 2) I do not want all that evoo mixing in the sauce and making it oily and causing heartburn.

I also add 1 sliced and quartered carrot to decrease acidity. Can also add little sugar as well.


The neck bones are my favorite part because they add tons of flavor to the sauce (pork) and they are delicious.

And that is Grandma’s sauce

[Gypsy]

Originally Posted by JMI

Typically I will not put the balls into the sauce until the last hour or so because I do not want them to fall apart because they’re over cooked.

Not to mention they suck up the sauce. I make my meatballs the same way, but fry them in oil so they get crispy outside. Not overdone...just crispy.

[JMI]

Originally Posted by Gypsy

Not to mention they suck up the sauce. I make my meatballs the same way, but fry them in oil so they get crispy outside. Not overdone...just crispy.

Exactly. I get them brown and so they form a "crust." Everything I fry - sausage, neck bones, meatballs, etc... is done in the evoo.

Skimming the evoo off the top instead of stirring it into the sauce reduces the acidity I do not prefer. But the evoo got into the sauce from the frying process.

[vsvo]

One clove of garlic
Half a can of tomato paste (6oz. size)
One 28oz. can of crushed tomatoes
3 roma tomatoes
Dried basil
Dried oregano
Extra virgin olive oil
Sugar
Salt and pepper
Cayenne pepper

This is how I make sauce, and it's nowhere near being the real deal. But it’s simple and easy, and I think it’s much better than tomato sauce out of a jar.

Coarsely chop a whole clove of garlic. In a low stock pan (I use a 6 quart pan), add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan, plus a little more. Heat the pan, and add the chopped garlic when the oil gets warm. Sauté the garlic until the edges begin to brown. Reduce heat if the garlic browns too fast and begins to burn. Add half a can of tomato paste, and sauté until the paste is distributed. Sprinkle some dried basil and oregano. Add in one whole 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes. I’ve tried all the brands available at the local grocery store, and settled on Contadina, since that’s what Costco carries. I buy the plain version, not the one with herbs added. Fill the empty 28 oz. can with water, stir to get all the remaining sauce, and add the can of water to the pot.

Coarsely chop three roma tomatoes into large chunks and add to the pot. Add about a teaspoon of sugar, crack some black pepper, and also add a little salt. I don’t salt to taste until the sauce reduces to the thickness I want. At this point, I will also add a couple shots of cayenne pepper, but will skip that if I’m making it for the kids. If my wife is watching, I’ll also hand shred a couple of basil leaves and throw it in the pot. I also add a couple shots of MSG (e.g., Accent). You can definitely (should?) skip this, but my mom taught me how to cook, and she used it, so it’s a hard habit to break.

Stir the pot and reduce heat to a slow/medium simmer. If the sauce bubbles too fast and tomato sauce starts to splatter everywhere, the heat is too high. I simmer until the sauce reduces to the thickness I want, stirring frequently. Then add salt to taste.

To serve, boil spaghetti until it’s al dente, then drain and dry. Before serving, sauté the spaghetti in a nonstick pan with some butter. Plate the spaghetti and spoon sauce over it. Crack some black pepper, and grate some cheese if you like, then serve.

I also use this base sauce to make meat sauce. In another stock pan (I use another 6 quart stock pan as well), sauté some ground meat in olive oil. I usually use one pound of ground beef, or pork. I’ve also used one pound of ground turkey, which tastes good as well. Before I cook the meat, I season it with a little salt, pepper, garlic powder, and MSG. Chop half a clove of garlic and add to the oil before adding the meat. Cook the meat until browned. This means waiting until the liquid that is released has boiled off, and the meat is sizzling in the oil left in the pan. As the meat cooks, break it up into smaller chunks.

Once the meat is browned, pour the pot of tomato sauce into the meat pot, reduce heat, and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring often. Spoon over ziti and serve. When I make it for the kids, I add the ziti or elbow macaroni right into the meat sauce pot, and mix thoroughly, to make beef-a-roni (or pork-a-roni).

[JMI]

I was wondering if anyone else takes a spoonful or three of sauce and pours it over the cooked and drained pasta? My grandmothers and my mother always did this because they always made a ton of pasta, and this way it never stuck together when you went back for seconds or leftovers.

Just a thought......

[magician]

Got to emphasize that the pork neck bones are the "secret" to amazing tomato sauce. They really thicken up the sauce, and they really give the flavor a strong kick.

My former mother-in-law used to lightly brown them in oil in a separate pan before adding them to simmering sauce and letting them cook. She let them cook for a good long while. At least two hours. Often longer. You do need to keep an eye on your sauce, and your heat. Do not burn it!

When serving, put the pork neck bones in a separate serving bowl, with a little sauce on them. (The bones that you use should be big, and when you pull them out of the sauce, they should be nice and juicy). I used to always hit those pork bones first, eating them before the pasta and sauce.

Good times.

[Penn]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to post the families tomato recipes for sauce/gravy.
There’s always been a debate as to whether it’s called tomato sauce or gravy. It’s like the argument with pizza; everyone knows the only place to get real deal pizza is in the NY tri-state region (NY, NJ, PA), same goes for sauce. If you’re not from there or your family did not migrate from that region, it’s just a bastardized facsimile. So that after the first generation the recipes are not passed along correctly.
My memory of south Philly and Manyunk has Mrs.Spino, from Ischia, a island in the Bay of Naples, roasting the bones and making the sauce right in the pot with the bones, she also did her meatballs or sausage separately and then placed them in the sauce. Thyme, oregano, parsley, garlic, red wine. I’m almost sure she used pork rib bones. Long and slow cooking. Not sure about the EVOO, but I think they used bacon fat, fat saved from cooking bacon that was stored in a can. Depression era mind sets, they saved and used everything. As a kid, I remember straighten out nails to conserve. .
I use a verison of her gnoochi recipe. I mention her because everyone respected her food, it was not unusual for that house to have the whole neighborhood in the kitchen. She’s 93 now and still cooks!!!!

[skydoc60A5G]

Some Italian friends of mine tell me that Campisi's in Dallas makes the real deal gravy...and they let the meat balls simmer on the bottom of the pot from morning until night ...before serving.....been doing it since 1946.: D

[Gypsy]

Originally Posted by JMI

I was wondering if anyone else takes a spoonful or three of sauce and pours it over the cooked and drained pasta? My grandmothers and my mother always did this because they always made a ton of pasta, and this way it never stuck together when you went back for seconds or leftovers.

Just a thought......

Yep.

[Sdiver]

Originally Posted by PENN

It’s like the argument with pizza; everyone knows the only place to get real deal pizza is in the NY tri-state region (NY, NJ, PA),

I beg to differ Sir.

EVERYONE knows that, CHICAGO style pizza, is the real deal pizza.

No, that which you out there call pizza, is nothing more than cardboard with a few packets of Heinz 57 catsup squirted on it, then covered in....????

But that's another thread all together. These sauce recipes are awesome.

[Penn]

With all due respect and as a professional, (regional bais aside) I was based in your AO with the 12th. I had many, too many really, locals d r a g me from one ill conceived chitown style pizza place to another. It was basically bread with whatever you wanted to put on it, baked, sliced and unattractive, covered with second quality tomato sauce mounds of cheese.

[JolieAmie]

Originally Posted by Sdiver

I beg to differ Sir.

EVERYONE knows that, CHICAGO style pizza, is the real deal pizza.

Ditto

In conjunction with the sauce topic, out of what meat do you make your meatballs? I recently found a recipe that included lean ground turkey and beef. I usually stick to beef and pork and have not tried this recipe for fear of sacrificing the fatty "yumminess." Has anyone out their had success with a recipe of this kind?