Lantello Family Italian Recipes - Sauce

Lantello Family Italian Recipes - Sauce

 

***** This has been transcribed from my mom’s notes*****

If making sauce after making the meatballs I brown up any other meat I plan to add (usually Italian sausage and also pork or beef bones of some variety—neck bones and/or short ribs are my favorite to use). Once all the meat is browned, I take it all out and get my sauce going.

If you cannot find certain brands, please try to find the best quality ones you can or can afford too. Quality products really make a difference.

 

Ingredients:

1 – 32 oz. can of Progresso (or real imported Italian and supposedly San Marsano are the best) chopped tomatoes

2 or 3 -12 oz. cans of tomato paste (again, imported tastes the best, but I’ll use Contadina if I am in a bind)

1 full 12 oz. (tomato paste can) of water for EACH can of paste

½ tsp. of salt

1 tsp. black pepper

Gobs of fresh basil leaves (I usually use a full bunch of fresh basil)

1 ½ tsp. dried oregano

Enough DRIED basil (in addition to the fresh) to cover the top of the sauce (I never measure… I just use enough to cover it somewhere between a sparse layer and so dense of a layer that you can’t see the sauce)

Approximately 1 ½ tbsp. sugar (this supposedly kills the acid)

Directions:

I add all of this to the olive oil/garlic/bits of meatball mixture that was left in the pot after all of the meat was browned. Then, I stir it all up and it will probably still be really, really thick. I add somewhere between ½ and a full can of water using the 32 oz. can that the chopped tomatoes came in. I add a little at a time and stir as I go and then stop adding when it seems a bit thicker than where I want it. Once you add the meat back in , the sauce will thin out a bit more from all of the meat juices. After it’s cooked for a couple of hours, if it still seems too thick, you can add a little more water. It’s better to initially add too little than too much as you can always add more.

After the sauce has cooked about 20 or 30 minutes add all of the meat back into the pot and turn the sauce down to a simmer on the lowest setting my burner will go. I let the sauce simmer COVERED for 3 or 4 hours and I give it a good stir every 20 minutes or so making sure to get the bottom of the pot so it doesn’t burn.

I actually prefer to make my sauce the day before I want to use it. Once it’s done cooking, I let it cool and then I stick it in the fridge for the night. The next day when you heat it up, the flavor will have changed dramatically!