A GREAT Calabrian Meat Sauce. Top Secret/Crypto clearance Chef's only..
Well Sir...my good buddy Sig over at Signal 94 has just been a braggin up a storm bout his wife's real, original, old Italian Calabrian Meat Sauce...so's I asked him to get it fer me....
He then told me that his wife guards this recipe' like a secret cause its been handed down through her family women folk fer generations.
Now Sir...it seems that a few weeks back, his lovely wife was in the kitchen makin this here sauce fer the next day and old Sig...bein the spy that he is...watched her through the entire process...and here tis folks...Sig's wife's secret Calabrian (Italian) Meat Sauce...
Oh...and dontcha all tell her bout this here article.....cause I'm sure that old Sig would be emasculated and speak in a much higher voice frum now on....
Calabrian Italian Meat Sauce
Sauce
1.5 lbs pork butt
1 lb stew beef
4 to 6 Italian link sausages (either mild or hot depending on taste)
1.5 lbs hamburger
2 28 oz cans of whole peeled tomatoes
3 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes in thick puree
2 6 oz cans tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
Fresh parsley
Olive oil
3 eggs
1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
Grated Parmesan cheese
Trim excess fat from the pork
Throw in maybe three tablespoons of olive oil into an 8 qt covered cook pot (just enough to barely cover the bottom of the pot. DO NOT use vegetable oil).
Cut up the garlic into small pieces. Amount of garlic depends on taste. Start with maybe one or two small cloves.
Over medium heat throw in the pork, beef and sausages
Brown the meat/garlic. DO NOT add water. The meat will provide it’s own juice.
When the meat is almost browned start opening the 28 oz cans.
Blend the whole peeled tomatoes (puree)
Add the 28 oz cans of tomatoes directly into the pot right on top of the browned meat. This is important as the juices from the cooked meat go right into the sauce.
Add parsley to taste (1/2 tsp to start)
Set the pot to simmer.
Meatballs
Mix the hamburger with 1 cup of unseasoned bread crumbs and 3 eggs. The Parmesan cheese is another “taste” seasoning so start light with maybe less than a quarter cup and mix everything well. The more cheese and bread crumbs you add, the meatballs taste less “hamburgery” and have a softer consistency. Some butchers will have their own meatball mix where they throw some veal into it. This is also good.
Roll meatball mix into balls approximately one and a quarter inches in diameter.
Pour olive oil into frying pan to a depth of approx. ½ inch.
Fry the meatballs, drain them into paper towels and add to sauce. Remember that they will also cook in the sauce. Over cook them in the frying pan and they may break apart in the sauce.
Simmer for about six hours. After the meatballs are in you can add the tomato paste and mix it into the sauce.
You will find out what brands of crushed/whole tomatoes you like. Some brands are too watery.
Do not use ingredients that are already flavored (like bread crumbs or olive oil), add your own.
This is a learning process. The more you do it the better you get.
This is best served the next day after the meat has sat in the sauce over night and then reheated. Start your own Italian tradition. Make the sauce every Saturday morning. My in laws remember walking to church and the whole neighborhood smelled of sauce. When my wife makes sauce you can smell it on the street. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Well folks...there y'all go...so enjoy...I knows I will.....
posted by Cookie..... @ 3:52 PM
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