Sunday Gravy

About a week ago, I asked y'all what dish I should make to celebrate my weight loss, and most of the replies indicated I should go with Julia Child's beef bourguignon.  But like a true muttonhead, I went with the Sunday Gravy. 

I'll save the bouguignon for when I own a decent dutch oven.  (hint  hint, birthday bunny)

I believe the first time I heard of Sunday gravy was from everyone's favorite perky little food temptress, Rachael Ray.  Hey, say whatcha want, she makes some yummy stuff.  I thought it was an odd name for a tomato sauce, but it grew on me.  

Then a few weeks ago, I saw Velva's wonderful Sunday sauce at her blog Tomatoes on the Vine, and knew it was something I wanted to try.  Any dish that incorporates 5 different kinds of meat earns my respect right away.  I did weenie out a bit and left out one of the meats.  I thought my family might send me to one of those rehab places for people with meat addictions if I included them all.  

So this sauce is not something you want to make on a day when you're rushed for time, as there are quite a few steps.  Forming and broiling the meatballs, browning the meats, breaking up the tomatoes, and a good two and half hours for simmering.  But if you've got a few hours to put together a memorable meal and few folks to share it with, I think this is something you might enjoy.

Here's the recipe...don't forget to look at the end for some of the things I did differently.

Ingredients:

For the Sauce:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

8 links mild Italian sausage

1 rack of spare ribs (about 3-1/2 lbs), cut between the bones into individual ribs

1 pound pork butt, cut into 4 pieces

1 large onion, diced

4 whole peeled shallots

4 whole peeled garlic cloves

3-28 ounces cans whole peeled tomatoes

20 fresh basil leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound of rigatoni pasta

For the meatballs:
3-4 slices firm textured white bread
8 ounces ground beef
8 ounces ground pork
1/2 medium onion, chopped fine
2 garlic cloves, chopped fine
2 eggs
2 ounces (about 2/3 cup) grated Pecorino Romano cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Directions:
1.  Place 3 slices of bread in a bowl and pour enough warm water over them to moisten completely.  Let stand until softened.  Crumble beef and pork into a large mixing bowl, add onion and garlic.  Beat eggs, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper in a small bowl and add to the meats.  Break up bread and add to the meats.  Working with your hands, knead the mixture lightly until evenly blended.  The mixture should be creamy and soft.  If not, soak and add remaining slice of bread.  Chill mixture until firm, about 1/2 hour.

2.  While meatballs are chilling, start tomato sauce: In a heavy, large (about 8-quarts) pot; heat olive oil over medium heat.  Working in batches without overcrowding the pot, brown spare ribs, sausages and pork butt well on all sides, removing as they brown. (Add small amounts of oil if necessary during browning.)  When all the meat is browned, add the onion, shallots and garlic to the pot.  Cook, stirring, until the shallots and onion are lightly browned, about 4 minutes.  Place tomatoes in a bowl and break up into small pieces with a whisk or your hands.  Add tomatoes, half the fresh basil, salt, dried basil, dried oregano, red pepper and black pepper to taste. Return meat to pot.  Bring to boil, lower the heat and simmer until sauce is thickened and ribs are tender, about 2 hours.

3.  While the sauce is simmering, preheat the broiler.  Using about 1/3 cup of the meat mixture for each, roll 8 meatballs with your hands, placing them on a broiler pan as you go.  Broil until well browned on top, about 4 minutes.  Turn them and brown the second side.  Add the meatballs to the sauce gently so you  don't break up the meatballs.

4.  To serve: cook rigatoni in a large pot of boiling salted water according to the package directions.  Meanwhile, stir remaining basil into the sauce.  Drain pasta and return it to the pot.  Add enough of the sauce to lightly coat the pasta and transfer it to a large platter.  To serve family style, arrange the meats around the edge of the platter and top the pasta with more sauce.  Serve remaning sauce and grated cheese separately.

*The recipe didn't specify beef or pork spare ribs.  I went with beef, I think either would be fine

*After the meats had simmered for a while, I took the ribs out and let them cool for a few minutes, cut the meat off into bite size pieces then put the meat back into the sauce, and gave the bones to my small black dog.

*I left out the sausages, although I think they'd be super in there

*The recipe says "whole" shallots and garlic.  I think giving them a rough chop is a good idea.

Now about that "pasta", and I use that term loosely, that my sauce is sitting on.

I ran across a Michael Chiarello recipe for a pappardelle that didn't require a pasta making machine, you just roll it out.  Seemed simple enough.

It seemed to me the amount of eggs you add to the dough was completely overwhelming and impossible to work with.  I had to add about a cup of flour to make it workable, and then I really didn't get it rolled out thin enough, and it resembled dumplings a lot more than pasta.  It didn't really make enough to feed more than 2 or 3 people.  Having said that, I'm glad I gave it a try, and thought it was pretty good with the sauce.  Since it had a thicker consistency, it held up nicely to the hearty sauce.