Italian Red Gravy

As foreign as red dogs from Maine are to my New Jersey sensibilities, I know that Red Gravy is equally as foreign to all but a select group of Italian-Americans. I am of the 'gravy' sect and growing up in my house, you almost got punished for calling it sauce -- that is unless it was Alfredo, marinara or vodka.... Those were called sauces.

During college -- WAY before the TV show -- I learned that a friend and classmate, Randy Soprano, also grew up with gravy vs sauce. After a heated debate among our friends, I actually went home and did the research in a dictionary (no Google back in those days) to learn:

GRAVY

sauce made from cooked meat juices together with stock and other ingredients.

SAUCE

thick liquid served with food, usually savory dishes, to add moistness and flavor.

It boils down (pardon the pun) to the meat drippings and as you will see, there is no shortage of meat drippings in my family's gravy.

I grew up to the aroma of the gravy boiling all day every Saturday in preparation for Sunday dinner. If you looked in our fridge, there was always some container filled with some kind of beef or pork fat that my mother and Nana collected from whatever they cooked that they could snare the fat from -- NEVER any kind of poultry though.

Italian Red Gravy for a Crowd

The gravy would get started by melting the collected beef or pork fat and then simmering diced onion and garlic with salt, pepper, oregano, and basil in the giant stock pot.

Next, some combination of beef or pork braciole, sausage, meatballs, and or plain ground beef get added to the pot to brown. Each of these options have a different set of instructions which Ill cover later.

Once the meat(s) are browned and their individual processes is complete, the tomato paste is added and cooked until it darkens but doesn't burn. (there is a fine line here). After the paste is mixed with the other ingredients in the pot, use the empty can(s) to measure out an equal amount of red wine to the pot and stir to combine. This also helps to get the last of the paste out of the can. Mom and Nana used to use water, I upped the game to dry red wine.

The last step before the epic simmer is to add the tomatoes and cloves. My preference if I'm not using fresh is a combination of imported crushed and diced. NOTE: Fresh tomatoes for gravy have a whole set of their own instructions.

And yes, I did say cloves. For years, I couldn't figure out why my family's gravy had a uniquely different taste than everyone else's -- until one day that flavor was gone. When I asked my mother what was missing, and she explained that she had left out ground cloves because my dad felt like that ingredient was giving him indigestion. I always include the cloves and never add sugar as many do.

At this point, the gravy just simmers and simmers for several hours -- no less than 4 but as many as 8. On most weekends, when mom turned it off, she left the pot on the stove overnight and brought it back to a boil at dinner time on Sunday. Although that flies in the face of food safety, I'm still here to talk about it.

I like to add a handful of additional fresh basil while the gravy is being heated to serve.

RECIPE:

1 large onion diced

4 -5 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1/2 c (at least of beef or pork fat, you can also start with olive oil

dried basil, oregano, salt, and pepper to taste

Meat (see below)

2 - 6oz cans of tomato paste

2 - 28oz cans of tomatoes (1 crushed and 1 diced is preferred

12oz. of a decent dry red wine

1-2t ground cloves

Heat the fat / oil and simmer the onions and garlic until tender

Now the meat:

For Braciole:

Add assembled braciole to brown and cook in the gravy until tender but not falling apart (depending on size and thickness up to 2 hours)

For Meatballs:

Add raw meatballs to brown on all sides and remove from gravy to continue cooking in the oven.

For Link Sausage or Ground Beef or Pork

Brown and leave throughout the cooking of the gravy

Once you've done what you need to with your choice of meat, stir in the tomato paste until is begins to darken and add the wine. (I like to put the wine in the paste cans to help scrape out the paste that wants to stick to the can).

Once paste and wine are well blended add the tomatoes and ground cloves.

Simmer for no less than 4 hours and up to 8. Don't forget to remove braciole if you don't want them to disintegrate.

Serve over your favorite variety of pasta or use to assemble eggplant or chicken parmesan or baked ziti.