Feeling Saucy

I've made cheese, I've made pasta, I've made meatballs, but without a good sauce they just don't come together well. I have no idea if the Italians categorize their sauces or not, but I do. I think of pasta sauces as falling into three types. The first type is tomato based, the second is cream based and the third is stock/wine based.

I make several sauces and enjoy each of them for what they bring. Some are quick and easy and other takes all day or at least hours to make. Some are healthy and others are; well, not healthy.

In my humble opinion, if you're going to cook at home, you need to have several pasta sauces in your repertoire. Even the best recipe can get old if you go to it too often. I know not everyone believes that and there is something to be said for the tradition involved with having the same meal every Sunday night or something like that. If you're talking about Grandma feeding 20 plus people with a sauce that took all day to reduce down to perfection, it really is hard to argue with that. I'm talking about the day to day consumption with your immediate family. The more variety the better, but good variety, not just something different for the same of something different.

The first sauce to learn is a basic red sauce, or a close relative a basic meat sauce. These are what most Americans would consider the most traditional of Italian pasta sauces. Much like my commentary on meatballs, these recipes tend to be handed down through families and closely guarded by their artists. I have my own take on a red sauce, but don't actually make it very often. I'll include it below.

The next sauce to learn is something you can make "on the fly" or at least in under an hour. Pomodoro is a basic fresh tomato sauce. I'll also include the recipe below for my version of it. I really love a fresh sauce with fresh pasta, they just seem to marry well for me. What I mean by a fresh sauce is simply a sauce that has no components from a can. You can use fresh or dried herbs depending on availability, but fresh herbs make a huge difference in a sauce that does not cook long.

The third sauce to learn would be another staple of the Italian kitchen, bolognese sauce. Bolognese sauce is a long cook meat based sauce that has onion, celery and carrots in it. This is a tomato and cream sauce which also has wine, but in my versions of categories I consider it a tomato based sauce if that veggie or some version of it makes an appearance. I make huge vats of bolognese sauce at a time. This sauce holds up well to portioning off and freezing; which I do with regularity.

After you have these three sauces down it is time to start really exploring sauces that you normally only get in restaurants. Several of them are not at all difficult to make, but because they don't make good leftovers or they're wickedly unhealthy they don't get much play. My recommendation for your top sauces to learn are as follows, roughly in order:

1. Basic Red Sauce (with or without meat)
2. Pomodoro and/or Marinara
3. Bolognese
4. Alfredo (butter and cheese)
5. Carbonara (bacon and egg)
6. Bechamel (great starter for cheese sauces)
7. Pesto
8. Primavera

As promised, I'll include my recipe for the first two and I'll explore the next six with their own blog as I make them again. 

Basic Red Sauce:

Two large tomato sauce cans

1 Tbl Dried Oregano

1 Tbl Dried Basil

2 cloves of garlic, finely diced pushed through the garlic press

1 small onion finely chopped

1/4 cup of olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

(For meat sauce add 1 lb. of either ground beef or Italian sausage)

1. Saute the olive oil and onion in the bottom of a large pot until the onion is translucent
2. If making meat sauce, add the meat at this time and cook through before adding the liquid
3. Add the tomato sauce and bring up to a light boil
4. Stir in the herbs and let simmer for 2 to 8 hours stirring occasionally

The color should become a noticeably darker red during the simmering

Pomodoro sauce:

1 tomato per person, diced

1 leaf of fresh basil per person, finely chopped

1/4 small yellow onion per person, diced (or a shallot, but I mostly use onion)

1/2 clove of garlic per person, finely chopped

1/8 cup of olive oil per person

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil and saute the onion until translucent (about 5 minutes)
2. Add the garlic and continue sauteing for about another minute
3. Add the diced tomato and basil
4. For Pomodoro, allow to saute for a minute or two, just until the tomato is heated through
5. For Marinara allow the sauce to cook for about 10 minutes until the tomato starts to break down but still clearly has chunks
6. Add the wet pasta directly to the sauce and serve once the pasta water has evaporated

Meatballs!

I love making Italian food, it's hard not to love it. I've recently experimented with making fresh pasta and cheese and I've always made several different sauces. Every good Italian cook makes there name within their circle with their meatballs. I'm not claiming to be a chef by any stretch of the imagination, but I really do like my meatball recipe.

Meatball recipes are handed down from generation to generation and very closely guarded. I don't get to cook for friends or family very often, so I've decided there really isn't a need to keep my recipe a secret. I have no children to pass it down to, so I'm going to share it with this group.

The meatball can be added to almost any pasta and sauce combination in Italian cooking that doesn't have seafood in it or a bunch of meat already (although, does extra meat ever hurt?). I really love them with just a basic pasta pomodoro or even with fettuccine alfredo. I'm sure those recipes will appear in other blogs once I figure out what my recipe has in it. I do have a habit of making things from scratch, knowing what the ingredients are, but not the proportions.

In addition to the traditional use of meatballs on pasta, they can be used in a few other ways. The first is to simply eat them as a side with some sauce on them. The other way I like to use them is on sandwiches. The meatballs I make are about the size of a racquetball so I have to cut them in half to fit a sandwich. Simply use a hoagie style bun with some tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. Meatballs go well with almost any white Italian cheese. You can even slice them and put them on pizza or in a calzone.

Spaghetti Pomodoro, 3 meatballs and some Parm...mmmm

Recipe:

1 lb. Ground Pork
1 lb. Ground Veal
1 lb. Ground Chuck
1 small can of tomato paste
1 to 1 1/2 cups of Italian seasoned bread crumbs*
2 large eggs
1/2 cup of cold water (give or take to control moisture level)
1/4 cup of shredded parmesan (parmigiano reggiano)

*if you don't have seasoned bread crumbs, use regular bread crumbs with about a 1/2 teaspoon each of dried oregano, basil and granulated garlic.

1. Mix all of the ingredients together completely, you'll have to use your hands, so take the bling off.
2. Bake racquetball sized meatballs in a 325 degree oven for 1 hour in a pan with sides (meatballs will give off some oil in the baking process, so don't use a cookie sheet)
3. That's it!

Makes 18 to 24 good sized meatballs.

Top Secret Info: This is also my meatloaf recipe, but add a cup of instant rice to the mix and cover the loaf with a can of tomato sauce cut with a half can of water.