Sunday sauce (Photo credit: letouj)
This past weekend, I decided to make Sunday Sauce. It is so tasty, so delicious and even though it takes a long time to cook down, it is well worth it. Pick an afternoon you’ll be home and soon your home will be filled with the aroma of simmering tomato sauce. I thought I could make it in my crockpot BUT my crockpot was not big enough. Using a crockpot would make the whole process easier since you could just let it simmer away for hours.
I started with a large stockpot but then thought, “Oh why not use the crock pot?” I filled the crock pot and still had a lot of sauce in the braising pan so now I had to make a decision; I took half of the meat out of the crock pot and put it in the braising pan and cooked the sauce in both. I tell you all this so you won’t make the same mistakes I made which made a fairly simple recipe into a complicated process. Mangia!
SUNDAY SAUCE
(but you can call it Gravy!)
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1.5 lb of boneless country spare ribs ( I used bone-in)
6 links of Hot Italian Pork Sausage (I used Hot Poultry Sausage)
2 cups (16 oz) chopped onions
8 TBSP of minced garlic (from jar) OR 20 cloves minced
2 cans of tomato paste
4 cups of water
6 cans of coarsely ground Italian tomatoes
4 TBSP dried basil (I used 2TBSP and basil from my yard)
16 meatballs (cooked)
Salt and Pepper to taste
You’ll need a large braising pan and a 16 Qt stockpot
Heat olive oil in large braising pan on MEDIUM HIGH; add ribs and sausage. Cook, turning 2-5 min, until meats are browned on all sides. Transfer meats to stockpot.
Reduce heat to LOW. Add onions and garlic to braising pan; cook, stirring, 10 minutes, until veggies are translucent.
Raise heat to MEDIUM; add tomato paste. Cook, stirring, 3-4 minutes, until paste just begins to brown. Add water, stirring to loosen browned bits on bottom of pan. Bring to simmer.
Transfer tomato paste/water mixture to stockpot. Stir in canned tomatoes and basil. Bring to simmer on MEDIUM. Reduce heat to LOW. Cook, stirring occasionally, 5 hours. Add cooked meatballs. Cook, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.
Carefully transfer meats to serving platter; cut meats into manageable pieces. Transfer sauce to serving bowl.
Recipe from Wegman’s MENU magazine
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