Guess what, y’all?!
Coach Buck has generously offered to do a guest post on his seeerioulsy, awesome sauce (not to be confused with ketchup ~ ahem, Marsha ;D).
Y’all are going to love him – enjoy!
Hey Folks ~ Coach Buck’s in the bloghouse!
Prepare yourselves for the greatest red sauce ever.
Now, if you need exact measurements, get the heck out of here right now. I’m not kidding! The greatest cook to ever live, Grandma Genco, did not pass this recipe down to me to give to a bunch of measuring-spoon-wielding-sissies.
Cooking is about adventure and experimentation, not rules and regulations. I will give you some guidelines and you should feel free to modify your sauce to your own taste.
So, put on your apron, or in my case manpron, and let’s get to work.
Any good sauce begins with onions, garlic and carrots. I start with 2 sweet white onions, peeled and halved ~ I prefer Vidalias.
Grab a handful of garlic ~ it’s good for what ails ya. Smash the cloves slightly with the side of your knife and peel.
I like to squish them with my hands and dab a little of the goodness behind each ear. My wife loves her some garlic!
Get chopping.
Just a rough chop, more on that later.
Peel up a mess of carrots.
Chop chop!
Add olive oil to an 8qt. pot.
Use enough oil to go up the side of the pot about 1/4 inch. No, I don’t know how much that is exactly.
What did I tell you about the measuring?
Use medium heat and add your carrots first. Put in a pinch of salt and pepper and give the carrots a couple minutes head start. They will take the longest to cook and will sweeten the oil.
Next, dump in the garlic, onion and add another pinch of salt and pepper. Pay very close attention to the heat. We are just gently sautéing, or sweating this stuff, not browning. Continue to sweat the veggies until soft ~ about 7-10 minutes.
Ahhh, a thing of beauty.
After all of your veggies are soft, slide them into your handy-dandy food processor and pulse until smooth and creamy. This step is why we only had to rough chop earlier ~ let the machine do all of the work.
Usually, I skip this part entirely. Real men like their sauce extra chunky, but if you have kids, or possibly an older brother, who don’t like onions, stick with the Cuisinart.
Scrape your lovely orange base back into the pot and give yourself a little pat on the back ~ you just hid a ton of nutrition in your sauce and your big bro, I mean your kids, know nothing about it.
To be truthful, I kind of chuckled, too.
Now it is time for some tomatoes. I use six 28 oz. cans.
I prefer to use four cans of whole, peeled Roma tomatoes and two cans of tomato puree.
Later in the summer, I will have fresh Romas from the garden, but up here in the frozen tundra we do what we can. Try to use tomatoes that are low in sodium or have no salt added.
We are making sauce not luring in deer, so no salt licks please.
Add your whole Romas to the food processor, two cans at a time, and pulse until smooth.
Now I know what you are thinking, “Coach Buck, why can’t we just use all tomato puree and cut out this step?”
If you like bitter, nasty sauce, go right ahead and use all puree. When the big manufacturers make puree they do not remove the skins from the tomatoes. The skins, when cooked, become just like my ex-girlfriends ~ bitter. (*snort* Um, sorry. I couldn’t help but interject there ~ Ruthanne)
Add all of your tomatoes into the pot and bring to a boil while stirring constantly.
Be careful here.
When your tomatoes start to boil, turn the heat down immediately and gently simmer. When it comes down to a slow simmer, lid the pot but vent it with a wooden spoon so some steam can escape.
Don’t run away! You will need to stir your elixir every 5-10 minutes – for about the next 2 hours or until it is the right consistency for you.
When your beautiful pot of sauce is in its infancy, you have to make a choice.
Am I a meat eater or a vegetarian?
If you are a carnivore, add 6-8 frozen pork bones right now. Oh yeah, I save all of the bones from my pork loin chops and freeze them. That way you can add a ton of meat flavor and save some cash, too. All great food is peasant food, so you have to think like someone with a lot of time and very little money.
If you are a veggie, go ahead and omit all of the meat.
Now, go out to your garden and grab some basil, flat leaf parsley and oregano. Two parts basil, one part parsley and 1/2 part oregano. Remove the leaves, no stems please and chop.
You can use dried herbs, but remember you need half of the amount when using the dry stuff.
Stir in your herbs. I like to save a little of my herb medley to add on top of sauced pasta.
It’s all about the presentation.
The vegetarians might want to turn away ~ that is an awful lot of carnage (24 italian sausages to be exact).
Why so many?
I only use half of them in the sauce and I freeze the rest individually. Then, when my kids want an Italian sausage sandwich, I pull one out of the freezer, throw it in the nuker and presto chango we’ve got lunch.
Lube your half sheet pan with olive oil and arrange the sausage.
Fire your oven to 375 and roast the sausage for 20-30 minutes, turning once.
Before serving your sauce you need to remove all of your pork bones. It’s kind of a search and rescue mission.
After the bones cool, my dog and I gnaw on them a bit.
It’s a man thing.
(Could I get a picture of that next time, Coach Buck? ~ Ruthanne)
When your sausage is fully cooked, throw as many as you want back in the sauce and let them plump up a little.
Did you notice all of the fat that rendered out? Better on the sheet pan than in your sauce. Grandma would fry up her sausage in a pan first and then add it to the sauce, but I think the oven does a better job.
Once the sausage plumps up, taste your sauce and see if it needs anything. I like to dunk some french bread in the pot and chow.
Now, you can use this red sauce for all things Italian, but I like to just ladle it on a pile of linguine, add three sausages and get busy.
*********************
Hi.
It’s me again.
Don’t forget to pair this sauce with Coach Buck’s Arancini recipe!
Um, can you say divine?
Now I think I have an idea what to do with all those Romas I'll have ripening come, oh, Halloween. Until then, it's pico pico pico!
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Besides being thoroughly entertaining, it was a feast for the eyes.
Too bad I don't have any frozen pork bones– nobody told me to hold on to those things!
I hope grandma never finds out that you said your oven idea was better than the old school way she cooks the sausages.
I gotta print this recipe out now. Thanks for sharing the family secrets with your non-Italian friends like myself!
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OK Ruthanne — so you've been taught by the pro…when is our scrumpdeliumpious Italian supper going to be that you will invite us to?
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WOW! I am so inspired!!
I love the older brother comments!
CB
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Yummers!
I will be trying this!
We eat so much pasta…
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Wow! I can almost smell it. : ) I'm with Marsha, I'll have to make a pork dinner first. : )
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I made the vegetarian version of this sauce today and served it over farfalle with grated parmegiano reggiano. I had about 15 pounds of ripe romas and had to do something. It's a dynamite sauce! I might add some cayenne pepper and a little cream and make a vodka sauce with the leftovers. Very good, very filling and makes the house smell GOOD!
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