I don't use sugar in pasta sauce -- I use carrots, like my Sicilian Great-Grandma

I think using sugar is Hospitaliano!

:popcorn:

;)

But then, they sold his name and did horrible things to pasta in a can.

Tell her I believe her...Off to Google.

:)

:eyes:

Spelled Boiardi.

if you're Sicilian. :D

Plus some Irish "teamsters."

:P

I'm a quarter Swiss, but I really don't like to talk about that part of the family. They're insane, and the food is worse than Irish food.

That's delicious !



Let's all take a dive!!!

I've been fed an assortment of horrid meats, though. We can probably blame the fact I don't eat meat on my Swiss grandmother.

"Assortment of horrid meats". Just the way you say it gives me the creeps.

I make his basic tomato sauce all the time.

You better fugghedaboutit...


If you know what's good for ya.

Recipe, please. :9

If you don't call it "gravy", then you aren't a *real* Italian. :rofl:

I've never even attempted to make tomato sauce. I just open a jar.

Now potatoes, I know potatoes...

The three of us should hook up and have a "heritage day" - the Italian wife can make her *ahem* GRAVY, and you - the Irish chick - can whip up the potatoes for my pierogies, a Polish delicacy. I only use onion, not cheese - just like my Babci made 'em. :)

That sounds delicious.Am I invited ? :9

(Man,my stomach is reminding me that I forgot supper!)

There's sauce and there's gravy.

You use meat in the gravy, and no meat in the sauce.

Do I have to explain EVERYTHING?

Jesus, this is getting old fast ........................

see?

She did learn to make sauce from an Italian-American friend, so maybe that's why.

OMG--youthful flashback. There was an Italian widower who lived down the street from us and he brought us a pan of pizza whenever he was in the mood to make it. Yum -- it was a plain pie, no toppings other than the sauce and cheese.

a lot of it. I use wine to deglaze the seared meats pan, and then also add a bunch to the sauce. It's :9

I open a bottle of wine for me, then I dump a jar of sauce onto the pasta.

Good wine (err I mean) one! :rofl:

:)

to glaze the cook.

What kind of wine do you use?

usually a fuller-bodied wine like a Merlot or a Syrah. It doesn't take much.

.

When I used to grow my own, the sause was awesome. Romas worked really well.

They RIPPED DOWN THE FUCKING DEER FENCE and ate everything, except for the broccoli and leeks. Apparently, deer don't like those.

1). Carrots, just like you said

2). Put the tomatoes through a food mill...any bitterness in the sauce comes from the seeds and skin. I have a Kitchen Aid mixer with the fruit & vegetable mill attachment. You get beautiful juice, pulp, and that's it. Make your sauce with onion, celery, carrots, garlic and herbs, and you're good to go.

:toast:

One, it's not always 100% tomato puree without any additives.

Two, being an Italian, I'm a snob about the tomatoes I use, so I generally get whole canned San Marzano tomatoes from Italy. They're the world's greatest canned tomato. Authentic San Marzano tomatoes have to be certified. There's a seal on the label or it's not the real deal. One brand comes from New Jersey (!)...how they get away with that, I don;t know, unless they are San Marzano SEEDS, but that brand definitely doesn't have the seal.



And yes, you can taste the difference.

:toast:

Makes all the difference. :9

:fistbump:

But how do you add them? Grated or what?

We in northern Italy use non-tomato based sauces the most. Being from Bologna, the culinary capital of Italy, I grew up knowing the difference between salsa and sugo. Having lived in the U.S. (both NC and NY/NJ), most of what passes as 'Italian' food I just can't recognize.

But, if anyone is interested, here is an authentic recipe for Ragu`, the typical Bolognese meat sauce, best served with tagliatelle (like fettuccine).

You'll need: diced medium yellow onion, diced carrots, diced celery, salt, 3 small cans of tomato paste (without seasonings), red wine, beef bouillon cubes (I suggest Knorr), 4 lbs. of ground beef (as lean as possible), olive oil, a little bit of milk, patience, a large skillet with high borders or (best) a cast-iron skillet.

Place the diced veggies and oil in the skillet. On low-medium heat, make a soffritto (that is, let the veggies cook and tenderize in oil; you'll know when this is done when the onion becomes transparent).

Add the ground beef to the skillet and, with a wooden spoon or similar tool, mix with the soffritto and break into small chunks. When all the beef is browned, crumble beef bouillon cubes (I typically use 2). Stir very well. The bouillon cubes will melt into the beef and soffritto juices.

Then, add red wine (amount is up to you; I usually add about half a bottle). Stir well. The secret is in constant stirring.

About 5 minutes later, add the contents of 3 small cans of tomato paste (plain paste; no spices added). Stir very well. This is not a tomato-based sauce. The tomato is only added for color and taste, not to make the ragu` soupy.

When the paste has been incorporated, add a little milk (about half a cup). Stir very well. Now stage two is ready to begin. Lower your heat to low/simmer and let cook for 3 1/2-4 hours (yes, that long), stirring on occasion. Make sure you taste the ragu` for saltiness (add if needed). If the tomato paste is too acidic, add a pinch (but only a pinch) of sugar (that takes care of the acidity). I have never added sugar, however.

Now, in ancient times, my grandmothers (both from Bologna, as my family has been there for generations) used to use whatever meats they came across, since meats were a luxury once upon a time. Beef is obviously more popular, but if you want you can have 2 lbs of beef and 2 lbs of ground turkey, or even venison and rabbit (as they used to do).

When cooked, you can put the ragu` in tupperware and freeze it. Re-heat in microwave when you want to use it. I usually place it in several containers so it can be used for several pasta meals.

As for the pasta that is most appropriate for ragu`, you want something that holds on to the sauce such as tagliatelle, maccheroni, rigatoni, farfalle.

The wrong kind of pasta would be spaghetti.

proper seasoning is, but basically bouillon cubes are cheap ways of seasoning with salt and chemicals... I prefer to use real herbs and spices (and yes, it includes salt).

my grandmothers used to make beef bouillon cubes by cooling off broth of chicken (which leaves the fat) and add salt to it, then dividing into cubes that could be kept without refrigeration (as refrigerators were a luxury then).

That is what they used as 'bouillon cubes.' The best bouillon cubes were made out of bone marrow of beef (the famous ossobuco) or capon (castrated chicken).

Today, it's much easier to use bouillon cubes than to make broth, let it cool off, etc. etc. Then again, Bolognese cuisine is surprisingly simple (though rich) and definitely not spicy.

than what you buy in stores for past 50 years! Just add proper seasoning rather than those crummy salt/chemical cubes! And adding herbs/spices in proper amounts does not make it spicy, unless you want it that way.

I too use carrots. Despite being almost-everything-BUT-Italian by heritage, I had the good fortune of working for an Italian family in a really good everything-from-scratch restaurant, and I have to say it really spoiled me for good Italian food to the point that it's hard for me to go out for pasta sometimes. They were awesome. The Sicilian patriarch and matriarch of the family were really good to me, and fed me non-stop to the chorus of "Donnie! You're too damn skinny! Eat this!" while handing me a giant mountain of food. I highly value the many things they taught me about cooking and making pasta, and just for being neat people.

On the other hand, it also is one of the contributing factors in me giving up meat. Homemade stock and sausage and "cleaning" chicken parts every day got kinda gross after a while. But I digress.

Carrots in a marinara is definitely the way to go. Cooked onions and some kinds of peppers can also sweeten it up a bit.

I am half Italian on my paternal side. I don't put any vegetables in my sauce at all. I abhor onions in sauce. I season it with basil, salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes. When it's reached a point that it is heated but not yet cooked, I stir in grated parmesan cheese.

Sometimes I start it with meat, sometimes with just mushrooms. It's never bitter at all.

I don't like sauces that are sweetened in any form.

I suppose it all comes down to what you grew up eating. Food has an amazing ability to evoke childhood memory that tends to fashion ones taste in these things.

:hi:

my mom used sugar, as do I. There is no sauce that I have ever had that beats my mom's, my brothers and my kids would agree. But my mom's 1/2 French best friend made pasta sauce with a tomato soup base and her kids probably loved that too. :rofl:

I don't think I do. Whatever Ragu Traditional has in it and whatever hunt's tomato sauce has in it is what I use along with onions and ground beef. :shrug:

How's my LDKB today?

Actually, the delta in MS is full of Italians. A lot of them are farmers. Go figure.

And she is so happy today as usual. Not a happier kid in the world.

Thomas Jefferson brought over a bucnh of Italains to work his vinyard.

Good.

YOU argue with him :scared: