Delicious Sauces (Gravies)

We made three sauces, or gravies if you will, for the Italian Feast Dinner.  I had an Irish mother who learned to cook Italian food from her Italian/Sicilian mother-in-law, but my mother still called "the gravy" the sauce.  So that's how I grew up calling it "the sauce" instead of "the gravy".  Three big pots of sauce for 25 big appetites to feed.  So here they are and they were fabulous.

Red sauce with homemade meatballs and braciole.

 Fresh clam sauce (recipe in an earlier blog)

 Fresh spinach and portobella mushrooms in a garlic olive oil sauce.

 And hey, you can't eat pasta without Italian bread, right?  You need something to sop up all those sauces. So, I made this ciabatta bread with garlic cheese butter (Wegman's) and fresh Pesto (Costco). Cut the bread in half, spread with garlic cheese butter then spread the pesto on top of that.  Broil until melted, browned and crispy, slice and serve hot.  Yummy!

Mangiare! Birthday Boy

So, we had another birthday in our house, my hubby's.  Following our tradition in the family, for his birthday dinner he wanted Spaghetti with Homemade Meatballs and Sausage.  We love the pasta in this house and any kind of meat added to the sauce, makes the meal even better.  My youngest son works at an Italian bakery, so he brought home the fresh baked bread, yummy!  Nothing better than warm bread from the oven, and the butter melting on it and........ Ooh ooh let's get back to the dinner.  I also bought a package of Italian sausages, I am not into making those homemade.  I fried them up and put them into the sauce too, the meats give it so much flavor.  I must say, the dinner was fabulous, enjoyed by all, and everybody had seconds.  Recipe below for the meatballs.

I use a beef, pork and veal meat mix for the meatballs, it makes them more tender.  All of my ingredients for the meatballs are added to the meat.

 Gently mix it, you don't want tough meatballs.  I use about 1 tablespoon of olive oil on a baking sheet so they don't stick, and for the flavor of it. I love fruity olive oil!

Roll the meat into balls a little larger than a golf ball and line them up on the baking sheet.

Bake in a 350 degree oven and they are ready to jump into the sauce!

Now for the sausage.  I am no "homemade sausage girl", so I buy it at the market.  Fry them up in  a dry frying pan, you don't need the extra fat.

 Brown on one side, turn them over and cook until they are completely browned.

 Now let them take a swim with the meatballs in the sauce!  All the meats are done and served..........

with "THE BEST" pasta around.  Cook it up to your taste, I like it al dente, then add some fresh grated Parmesan and Pecorino Romano Cheese. Mangia!

Only "The Best" Meatballs Around

INGREDIENTS

1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 lbs of Beef, Pork and Veal Mix Ground Meat

3 large eggs

3/4 cup of milk, I use skim

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups of seasoned breadcrumbs, may need a little more if the meat is too wet

1 small shallot, minced

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

2 Tbsp dried parsley

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread the olive oil over the bottom of a baking sheet, set aside.  Add the meat to a large bowl and break it up.  Add all the other ingredients and mix gently, with clean hands, by folding the ingredients into the meat. Form the meat into balls a little larger than a golf ball and place on the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, remove from oven and add the meatballs to your sauce.