Every little old Italian lady will tell you, the key to making a good gravy is to let it cook for three days. I’m here to tell you that ain’t the case. You can do it in a day. The secret is lots of red wine. You should drink at least a whole bottle. Ha! I’m kidding! You don’t need to drink that much. Seriously, though, after the tomatoes, it’s the most important part of the sauce. I use 4 large cans of Hunt’s sauce, then a large can of whole tomatoes that I sort of “chunk”. Next is the wine – I’ll use about a cup to a cup and a half with this much tomatoes. Then I add the spices and let is simmer fast for a few hours with no cover. If you’re attentive enough to keep stirring, the higher the temperature the better during this stage, as long as the bottom of the pan doesn’t burn you’re good. After a few hours of simmering, stirring, and drinking your red wine, sauté some sweet Italian sausages and add them, then cook up some ground beef and add that. You can add veal, chicken, whatever you’ve got room for in the pot just sauté it first to sear in the flavors and cook it 90% of the way before adding it into the pot. Oh, yeah: the spices! Sorry, I’ve got to actually cook it to get the dosages right for the spices – lots of oregano, a bit of garlic salt, garlic powder, red pepper, I’ve got some dipping spices (for dipping bread) that lend themselves nicely to the sauce, I toss in a little bit of this and a little it of that. Drink a little more wine. Stir.
There you have it! You’re sauced. Let me know how you make out. I’ll check in later and tell you how to make the world’s best Garlic Bread.
Hello Dan, it’s Joe here, I hope you’re keeping well
It’s the 21st of December, and now they’re ringing the last bells
If I get good behaviour, I’ll be out of here by July
Won’t you kiss my kids on Christmas Day, please don’t let 'em cry for me
I guess the brothers are driving down from Queensland and Stella’s flying in from the coast
They say it’s gonna be a hundred degrees, even more maybe, but that won’t stop the roast
Who’s gonna make the gravy now? I bet it won’t taste the same
Just add flour, salt, a little red wine and don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce for sweetness and that extra tang
And give my love to Angus and to Frank and Dolly,
Tell 'em all I’m sorry I screwed up this time
And look after Rita, I’ll be thinking of her early Christmas morning
When I’m standing in line.
This confused me - gravy is the brown, lumpy stuff you pour over your potatoes. What you’ve described is spaghetti sauce, which, while I don’t cook it for 3 days, I do prefer it the day after I’ve made it. Interestingly enough, I’ve been thinking about making a big ol’ pot while I’ve been off work. Maybe I’ll do that today.
My approach is different - I start with the meat. Normally, I brown ground beef, drain it, then add chopped onions. Next comes the canned sauce and diced tomatoes, oregano, basil, garlic, pepper, maybe a little sugar, and fresh mushrooms if they’re not too obscenely expensive. But wine sounds good - maybe I’ll add some the next time.
Some - that’s the operative word. My sauce is never exactly the same because I truly have no idea what quantities I use. A few years ago, my daughter wanted to make a batch and she called me at work for my “recipe” - I guessed the best I could about the amounts. I guessed way too high for the pepper. I need to do what my mom did to get my grandmother’s crab soup recipe - measure what I normally use as I go along. Or I can just make the kid come here and I’ll show her how much is “some” oregano.
I don’t know if it’s an Italian thing, an Italian-American thing, an an Italian-American-Northeast thing, but that’s what they call it. The idea is that gravy is cooked long and slow with meat in it, by the third day of simmering it’s pretty brown. Then there’ Marinara - fast red sauce made without meat, or relatively little. You can whip up a marinara in less than an hour.
Smitty you have described what sounds like an especially nummy sauce. A sauce I’d happily bathe in, even. Gravy is a completely different thing. Gravy involves pan drippings, flour, water or milk, some salt and pepper, giblets (if it’s Thanksgiving gravy, and we all know Thanksgiving is all about the gravy) and maybe some other stuff, but it has to start with pan drippings. Let us not confuse sauce and gravy. Wine is appropriate to drink during the making of both, of course. Great starter OP for the MMP! Who knows maybe there’ll even be a debate over sauce vs. gravy.
GOOD MONDAY MORNING EVERYBODY!!!
Speaking of drinking wine, I had a nice soak in my whirlpool tub last night while sipping on some chardonnay (whatever). That’s another thing wine goes well with.
Ok, enough already with rubbing our faces, figuratively, in your hot tub, swampy. We all know you have one. And a pool. And a super-cool grill. So how’s about we crown you King of Cool Backyard Stuff and you can just hush yo’ mouf about the damned hot tub.
Who me, cranky? Yeah, yeah, bite my big toe…
Incidentally, I just had chocolate cake for breakfast. It is so breakfast food: wheat and milk and eggs… no grapefruit juice, though. (gold star to the first MMPer to identify the source of that breakfast)
FCD is crashed - he was up most of the night, and when he did get to sleep, he had a very disturbing nightmare. So I’m letting him snooze, and I’ve got a load in the washer to start my daily chores. Tomorrow, I’ll go back to work. That should be interesting, considering I haven’t had an undisturbed night’s sleep in almost a week. Oh well…
Yeah, the first time I heard “gravy” in this context, my mind rejected it. But yes, Italians around here call it gravy (for the reasons cited above), and when in Rome…
Mmm. I just made a pot last weekend, but I already want to make more.
I was not talking about my hot tub. I was talking about my bath tub, which is a whirlpool tub, with little jets and all. So There! And I am King of Cool Backyard Stuff.
My Italian Gravy never turns out as good as my country gravy which, with the appropriate amount of sausage, went great of biscuits made with Swampy’s recipe.
By the way Swamp diggidy dog, they turned out okay, but I think my torn off hunks rolled into a biscuit shapes were too large, and the cooking time was closer to 18 minutes, though that’s probably my crappy stove. Is it odd that the husband in my house (that’s be me) bitches about the quality of the kitchen? The wife thinks it’s adequate for my cooking need, but she’s insane anyway.
Whirlpool tub? Pfffft - we all know it’s just a big tin tub in the middle of the kitchen, and you eat beans so you get the “whirlpool” - that’s how they do it in Jawja!
No, I have no idea why I feel the need to pick on you, but it feels good.
A drive-by hello, y’all. I’m getting ready for my big trip to Motown, and I leave for the arport in a couple of hours.
Not one damned Doper has said they want to hoist one with me while I’m there. :mad:
That sounds like fun! I just wish there was enough room between my sink and stove to put a big tin tub. A big ol’ helpin’ of pinto beans and some hot water in the tub and I’d be bubblin’ away!
So this is MMP Cool Kids travel week is it? Well, I’m going to Americus, GA and Tifton, GA this week but neither one’s an overnight trip. Does that count?
And I’ll be going to Baltimore on Thurs so FCD can get unstapled. But I don’t think a 2-hour car ride counts. And afterwards, we’re going back to my mom’s to claim Bernie. Wonder if she’ll have abandonment issues??
Bernie, I mean - not my mom…
