Cooking Italian: How Make Grandma Italian Gravy

Thursday, May 4, 2017

How Make Grandma Italian Gravy

Charlie Scorsese Makes Gravy in Goodfellas

by Martin Scorsese

GRAVY

My grandmother simply called this tasty meat sauce Gravy. It’s made with Veal Shank, chunks of pork shoulder, and Sweet Italian Sausages braised with a bit of wine and tomatoes. You need long slow cooking to get the meat tender, and you end up with a hearty, extremely tasty Gravy that everyone will love. All those except people who don’t eat meat, or don’t eat pork. Well, “Sorry for them,” they don’t know what they’re missing! As for you, make it, serve it, and relish it!

1 Veal Shank

2 pounds Pork Shoulder Meat cut into 2” cubes

1 large Onion, peeled and minced

8 cloves Garlic, peeled and minced

2 carrots, peeled and minced fine

2 stalks Celery, washed & minced fine

¼ cup White Wine

5 – 28 cans Crushed Tomatoes

3 tablespoons Tomato Paste

1 Bay Leaf, ½ a teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

2 pounds Sweet Italian Sausages

Season the Veal Shank on both sides with salt & black pepper. Place half the Olive Oil in a 8-quart non-corrosive pot and brown the veal shanks on high heat until the veal is nice and golden brown on both sides, about 10-12 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside.

Season the Pork Shoulder meat with Salt & Pepper. Add Pork to the pot and brown over high heat in two separate batches.

Once all the meat is nicely browned, remove from pot and set aside. Add onions, celery, and garlic to pot and cook on low heat for 5 minutes.

Season the onions with a bit of salt & pepper. Add wine to pan and cook on high heat while scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. This will dislodge and brown bits that have a lot of flavor from the bottom of the pan (deglazing). Cook until the wine is reduced by half its original volume.

Put all the Veal Shank & Pork back in the pot. Add crushed tomatoes, Bay Leaf, Red Pepper flakes, and tomato paste to pot. Fill an empty tomato can with water and put the water in the pot. Bring all to the boil, then lower flame to a low simmer.

Simmer for 2 hours 15 minutes, stirring and scrapping the bottom of the pan occasionally with a wooden spoon so the sauce doesn’t stick.

After the sauce has been simmering for 90 minutes, brown the sausages in a pan with a little olive oil over medium heat until the sausages a lightly browned on all sides. Remove from pan and let cool for a few minutes.

Once the sausages are cooled, cut each link into 4 equal pieces each, then put into the sauce.

Remove the Veal Shank from the pot and let cool for a few minutes.

Once the veal has cooled enough to handle, remove the meat from the veal shank and break into pieces that are about 2” square. Put the veal meat back in the pot, and let everything simmer on low heat for another 45 minutes.

To Serve : Cook 1 or 2 pounds of your favorite maccheroni following the directions on the package. We like to use; Rigatoni, Mezze Monica, Cavatappi, Cavatelli, or any short maccheroni that you like.

When the pasta is ready (finished cooking), remove from heat, and drain in a colander, reserving ¼ cup or so of the pasta water to mix with the pasta and sauce. Put the pasta back in the pot it cooked in. Add some of the sauce with the pork and sausages to the pot. Drizzle a little olive oil over all and mix.

Spoon pasta onto however many plates you need. Top pasta with some more sauce on top and pass some grated cheese for your guest to apply them-selves. Buon Appetito!

Excerpted From Daniel Bellino "Z" GRANDMA BELLINO'S ITALIAN COOKBOOK

"RECIPES FROM MY SICILIAN GRANDMOHER"