Saturday, February 19, 2011

The one you've been waiting for- Sauce and Meatballs





Sauce - 4 large cans of crushed tomatoes with basil (try to get Progresso),Only open 3 cans to start. I usually run each can through the blender one can at a time. I don’t like large chunks in the sauce.
1 can tomato paste (try to get Contadina),
Olive Oil (enough to coat the bottom of a large pot)
1 piece of pork (the meat dept usually has a small piece of pork in a package and it’s for sauce-or get a thick pork chop)
2 sausage links from meatball recipe package
1 medium size sweet onion (Vadilla or it will say sweet onion) sliced thin
1 large container of sweet basil or 2 small packages chopped

In a large pot cover bottom with a thin layer of olive oil. Over medium heat, sauté the onion with the piece of pork and the 2 sausage links just till lightly browned. Add 3 cans of tomatoes (rinse cans with a little water about ¼ of the can and add that water to your pot) and bring to a slow boil. Start to make meatballs (recipe below) and carefully drop meatballs into sauce. When all the meatballs are in stir slowly from the bottom of the pot and be careful not to break up the meatballs. You may have to raise the heat for awhile to get it to bubble. (If the pot looks like it needs more sauce add the 4th can in) Bring to a slow boil again and partly cover the pot. Watch the pot so it doesn’t boil too hard or you will burn the sauce on the bottom of the pot. Always stir from the bottom of the pot and bring that sauce to the top. Let simmer slowly for at least 2 hours. At this point you can add the basil. If sauce looks too watery you can add the can of tomato paste. Let simmer again with the lid off for awhile.
To make Bolognese sauce – instead of making meatballs use that same recipe and brown that mixture in a fry pan. Drain the fat off and make the same sauce without the meat. Add browned meat to your sauce and later before ready to serve add about ½ pint of half and half cream slowly until it turns a little pink. You can get cavetelli for this.



Meatballs – 1 large package ground beef (90%),
1 pkg of sweet sausage (usually a package of 8 links),
Fresh garlic,
Fresh onion, regular
Fresh parsley,
Bread crumbs,
Grated locatelli cheese
1 large egg.

In a large bowl take ground beef and 6 of the 8 sausage links and take the meat out of the casing. Add sausage meat to ground beef. Add crushed cloves of garlic (5-6 or more depending on the size), 1 small onion through the mini chop, fresh parsley chopped (enough that filled the mini chop with fresh leaves) 2 hands of breadcrumbs, 5 table spoons of grated cheese and 1 large egg.
Mix well together; it shouldn’t be too wet to the touch it should feel pastey. If it is, slowly add more bread crumbs and cheese a table spoon at a time. Put aside for now.

The meatball recipe is the same for the meat for Lasagna too.

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