Some Italian Americans refer to tomato sauce as
gravy. I don't know why some do, and some don't, maybe it's a loose translation from Italian, but in my family we always called it gravy. Now that I am older I call it sauce. Out of the Northeast states much fewer people know what gravy refers to so, I just dropped it. Gravy is a comforting word that conjures up wafts of yummy cooking smells all through my house early on Sunday mornings. But sauce is what the rest of the world can relate to.
I do not use tomato paste in my gravy, although my grandmother did. I didn't know I could omit this until I was an adult and read other recipes that omitted it. I now feel that the addition of tomato paste makes the gravy just a bit bitter which is why my grandmother probably added a tiny amount of sugar to her sauce. I prefer to thicken my sauce through reduction. {see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduction_(cooking)}
Choose your brand of tomatoes carefully. Some brands are naturally riper and sweeter and have less salt in them. Whole canned tomatoes are the best because they only have ripe plum tomatoes in them. The crushed orthe pureed canned products can hide much less than perfect tomatoes in the mix and so the taste is not as sweet. If you use crushed or pureed tomatoes then you may want to add the optional sugar.
I do not always have old dry bread on hand. You can substitute Bread sticks, rusks or crostini.A good tool to have in any kitchen is a few ice-cream scoops in different seizes. Using a scoop ensures that all the meatballs will be the same size. They will cook more uniformly this way.
In my opinion there is only one way to eat ground beef under any circumstances. If you really care about what you eat, what's in
it and how it tastes, then you will do this one simple thing. Pick a whole piece of boneless chuck or bottom round and have the butcher grind it right there in front of you. The majority of supermarkets will do this for you but only if you ask. For most recipes grinding once is enough. Make sure you tell the butcher to “grind the meat only once” or they will automatically put the meat through the grinder twice. You will be rewarded with a more juicy, meaty tasting result and the added bonus of knowing there are no odd by-products in your meat! This little trick will also greatly improve the taste of homemade hamburgers.
Gravy
3 cans of whole plum tomatoes (see note: whole tomatoes versus crushed or pureed)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
1 large onion - diced
½ large red pepper - diced
salt pepper to taste ( canned tomatoes already have a lot of salt so be careful)
4 large fresh Basel leaves
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
- If using whole tomatoes push them through a sieve and set them aside.
- In a large sauce pan heat the oil on low and stir in the garlic. Cook for 2 minutes and then add onion and pepper. Continue to cook and stir on low heat for 3 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes to the pot and stir. Let cook on low heat about 2 hours or until it reaches your desired consistency. Stir
occasionally. - If you are adding meatballs, add them to the sauce after you have cooked the sauce for 1 hour. Then continue to cook until sauce reaches desired consistency.
Meatballs
½ cup water
1 ½ cups day old dry bread broken into pieces (see note)
5 lbs of fresh ground chuck (see note)
2 cloves of garlic grated (or finely chopped)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you have a convection option on your oven use that setting.
- In a large bowl mix the water with the bread and let sit for 5 minutes or until the bread absorbs all the liquid.
- Add all the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and mix just until all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- With a spoon or an ice-cream scoop measure out the meat mixture and roll between your hands to form a ball. Place meatballs in a baking pan (they can be touching) and bake for 30 minutes.
- Add hot meatballs to the pot of hot gravy. Adding the pan dripping is optional, I feel it makes the sauce heavy and just a little
greasy. Cook the meatballs in the sauce for another 30 to 60 minutes on a very low heat stirring occasionally.