Apron wearing, wine drinking, sauce making kinda night...
Sometimes my boys help me make the sauce, but tonight I was solo with my 90's Destiny's Child Pandora station. Which I then had to change to Frank Sinatra, because, well, duh!!!
There is a debate in my family about who makes the better gravy and what EXACT technique used creates the better gravy, even though I think we ALL use the SAME ingredients...haha
This recipe is my grandmother's who is not Italian, but learned from her Italian sister-in-law, she had to make sure to get it right for Grandpa. This was taught to me at 10, which I was just in charge of chopping the fresh basil and garlic. This is KEY. FRESH basil and garlic. According to my mom, the more basil the better, according to my aunt, the more garlic the better. Catch my drift?!?
Anyways, actually my first responsibility was at 4 years old, was to stir the sauce. Do not let the sauce burn (stick to the bottom of the pot). You have to stir the sauce often, the longer the sauce simmers the better. That's A LOT of stirring...
Here are the ingredients:
First cut Italian sausage, sweet, spicy or both. And bake.
Once that's done, gently blot with paper towels and set aside. Don't blot too much, we discovered the more grease the better :)
While the sausage is baking, finely chop an entire container of fresh basil and open cans
In order:
Cover the bottom of the pot with olive oil
Finely Chop 2-3 cloves of fresh garlic and add to olive oil.
Finely Chop a shallot and add. Once they bubble add:
2 cans of SAN MARZANO whole plum tomatoes and smash with a potato smasher
Add 2 cans of crushed tomatoes
2 cans of Contadina tomato paste. Once emptied, fill cans with water and pour in
Stir
Add enough oregano to cover top of pot, add salt (to taste?!?)
Add 2 bay leaves broken in half
Add basil
Stir
Add sausage
Set to simmer for at least 2 hours...STIRRING OFTEN.
You can serve it, or you can wait a day and let the flavors marinate, the house smells amazing, and it's total torture but well worth the wait.
SO this sauce feeds a lot. For example, I hosted dinner and served 7 adults and 1 kid. With left over sauce.
Next, my hubby wants to add some half and half, sun dried tomatoes and mushrooms to go on pasta with chicken. Or shrimp...
Pictures of that to come.
Or, it can go on homemade pizza, or make a sausage sandwich, or freeze. It should be eaten within a few days if you chose to not freeze it :)
Mangia Mangia
