A meat infused tomato sauce often made on Sundays in Italian American homes. Meatballs, ribs, sausage, tomato sauce, simmered for hours and served on noodles.
Prep Time: 30 minutesminutes
Cook Time: 5 hourshours
Total Time: 4 hourshours30 minutesminutes
Servings: 12
Ingredients
2poundsground beef
2poundsItalian sausage, mild or hot
1rackpork baby back ribs
1cupricotta cheese
1/2cupparmesan cheese
1egg
1/4cupmilk
3/4cupbread crumbs
1/3cupfresh basil, minced
1tspsalt
3tbspoil
2onions, diced
1sweet red pepper, cored and diced
2celery stalks, diced
4clovesgarlic, minced
11cupsstrained/crushed tomatoes(3-4 jars or cans)
2cupsred wine, or sparkling grape juice
3tbspsugar
1tspcrushed dried chili flakes
1 1/2tspsalt
1tsppepper
2poundsdry spaghetti or other pasta
Instructions
For the meatballs, mix the ground beef, ricotta cheese, parmesean, bread crumbs, egg, milk, 1/3 cup fresh basil and salt together. Knead the mixture with your hands until thoroughly combined. Roll into 2 inch meatballs and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in the oven at 400 until cooked through, about 20 minutes.
In a large pot, pour in the strained tomatoes, wine/sparkling grape juice, sugar, dried chilies and salt. Bring to a small boil.
When the meatballs are cooked, stir them in the gravy.
In a frypan, heat the oil and cook the sausages until they are cooked mostly through. Stir them in the gravy.
In the same frypan, sear the ribs for a few minutes on each side. Stir them in the gravy.
In the frypan, add the onions, sweet red pepper, celery and garlic. You may need to add a bit more oil if the pan is dry. Also, as the veggies are cooking, this is a great opportunity to 'deglaze' the pan. There are a lot of great flavours on the base of this pan and they need to get in the gravy. Pour in a little bit of water (1/2 cup) and scrape the bottom of the pan to pull up all the bits that are packed with flavour. Once the veggies are soft, pour it all into the gravy.
Cook the gravy at a low to medium simmer for about 4 hours, or longer.
Cook the spaghetti or other pasta according to directions on package