Recipe request

[dragonmeister]

Hey Swerb,

Good article on The Finer Things in Life!

Perhaps you would like to share your

homemade sauce

and

homemade meatballs

recipes with us! I'm always looking to make changes to mine.

Thanks!

[swerb]

Thanks Meister ... here it is.

Swerb’s Homemade Sauce Recipe

First things first. Open a good bottle of wine to get the morning started. Making sauce is a perfectly acceptable reason to tie on a little AM buzz. You should use wine in the sauce recipe, and want to give it a little time to breath. And you’ve got to taste it to make sure it tastes OK. For my sauce? I like to use a sweet Italian wine, usually a nice Chianti. Any cabernet, merlot, or Chianti will work though.

You’ll want to get started about 10-11 AM if you want to eat at around 5 PM. You’ll need about 45 minutes to an hour to get it going, then another 45 minutes or so to make and fry the meatballs a couple hours later.

In a large saucepan, brown desired meat in Olive Oil (extra virgin for best results). You can use Italian sausage, pork chops, or western style ribs. The browned meat gives the sauce a lot of flavor. I usually use some fresh Italian sausage and maybe a couple of pork chops, with the bone in. The bone adds flavor. The meat will stay in the sauce for the duration.

When meat is browned, add a generous amount of chopped garlic and let it fry with the meat. The garlic will cook quickly, and the amount you use is up to you. After the garlic cooks a bit, I add about ¾ cup of red wine (see above) and 3 or 4 tablespoons of sugar.

Let the meat/garlic/wine/sugar mix come back to a slow boil and add the following:

Three 29 oz cans of tomato sauce (Contandina, Redpack are the best)

Two 29 oz cans of crushed tomatoes (same brands)

One and a half of the empty 29 oz cans filled with water

Let the sauce come to a light boil and add the following:

Fresh parsley, oregano, grated cheese, crushed red pepper, basil, garlic salt, pepper, and 2-3 bay leaves

It’s crucial that you use fresh spices. Most spices stay good in the cupboard for a couple of years, but they lose flavor over time. If you can use fresh chopped basil and oregano … that’s only going to make the sauce tastier. Fresh parsley is a must. Of course the amounts you add of each of the above ingredients will help determine the taste.

You may have to add water through the cooking process if the sauce gets too thick. I usually end up adding another can or two of water as the sauce cooks. Remember, you can always add water to thin…but not take water out to thicken. Also, my recipe calls for more crushed tomatoes than other recipes, which inherently makes the sauce a little thicker to begin with.

The sauce should be of medium consistency and you should let it cook for 4-5 hours. If you leave the lid on, the sauce will thin out. Lid off, and the sauce will thicken. I usually crack the lid for the majority of the time. Stir the sauce at least every 20-30 minutes, making sure to scrape all the goodness off the side and bottom of the saucepan as it builds up.

I like my sauce a little thicker than most and go heavy on the wine, garlic, and crushed red pepper. It’s all a matter of preference and the beauty of making sauce is that you will tweak the recipe a little bit every time you make it.

This will make enough for a feast, as well as enough extra to freeze for 3-4 additional meals. I fry meatballs, and dump them in the sauce about 2-3 hours before it’s done. Here is the homemade meatball recipe:

Buy 1 ½ lbs of the pork/beef/veal ground meat combo that they sell at all grocery stores. Add 4 large pieces of Italian bread. Before adding the bread, quickly soak the bread with water and wring out before breaking up bread pieces into the meat mixture. Add 2 eggs and all the ingredients you used to season the sauce (except wine, sugar, and bay leaves). Heavy on the garlic. Mix everything together and roll into meatballs. Fry in extra virgin olive oil until browned and dump into sauce after they cool.

[peeker643]

That ain't right to do at 930pm sir.

I can actually smell the stuff cooking.

[comish]

He lost me at the opening of the bottle of wine . . . I would get all distracted

[dragonmeister]

Appreciate the time you spent on posting your recipe. You are too funny. Will let you know how mine turns out!

[General]

Swerb, are you my mother? That is exactly my routine for sauce creation, with the wine and Jerry Vale, Dean Martin, and Sinatra CD's playing.

[swerb]

Swerb, are you my mother? That is exactly my routine for sauce creation, with the wine and Jerry Vale, Dean Martin, and Sinatra CD's playing.

Without a doubt Gen, I bust out the Deano and Frank quite often as well when making sauce.

Such a good recipe ... best part is, you have about 5-6 frozen dinners left over afterwards. I just freeze the extra meat in the individual extra sauce containers I portion out.

[mswerb]

When is the Swerb cooking show hitting T.V.?