A Kitchen Primer

This is the sauce I grew up with, the classic Italian-American take on red sauce with a meat base.  I did learn to make it from my mother, as did my sisters and my nephew, but by now all our sauces are different.  The amount & kind of meat is variable, but my mother’s rule was to always use both beef and pork, and if possible to include some bone-in meat to give the sauce body.  It was much easier to find bone-in cuts in her day, but it is still worth trying.

For a moderately large pot of sauce, enough for 2 to 3 pounds of pasta:

• 2 lb of beef – chuck roast, short ribs, or some other cut usually used for stewing, trimmed & cut up
• 1 lb bone-in shoulder pork chops or neck (unless you used bone-in beef, in which case you can substitute more sausage)
• 1 lb Italian pork sausage, sweet or hot as you prefer
• 1 sweet onion, chopped
• 4 or 5 large cloves of garlic, sliced thin
• 2 or 3 dried hot peppers
• 2 or 3 fillets of anchovy
• 3 large cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 small can tomato paste
• vegetable oil and/or olive oil

Trim the beef and cut it up into cubes about 1-2″ across.ch across.  Sprinkle a little salt on the beef & brown in a little vegetable oil.  If you don’t have a big enough pan to brown all the meat at once, do it in batches; it should brown, not steam.

Cut the sausage into pieces about 2″ long and brown in the same oil, then do the same for the pork chops.

In the same oil, saute the onion.  After a few minutes add the garlic, then the peppers, then the anchovies.  Cook until the onion and garlic are translucent; the garlic can brown a little but be careful not to let it get too brown or it will get bitter.

When the vegetables are softened, add the canned tomatoes.  Rinse the cans in a little water & add it as well.  Add the meat back into the pot.  Add the tomato paste, again rinsing the can in a little water.  Bring the pot to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cover but leave the cover ajar.

Cook for a long time – at least 4 hours.  Stir from time to time, and add water as necessary to keep the volume of sauce constant.

This is easily enough sauce for three pounds of pasta.

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A slightly simplified version of Julia Child’s classic recipe.

I cook this in a large saute pan (12″, 5 qt.).  If you don’t have one, you can use a smaller frying pan to brown & saute, and then transfer everything to a large stew pot to finish cooking.  You will need at least 3 utensils to make this dish: either a big saute pan and two smaller fry pans, or a big stew pan and 2 smaller fry pans. The stew pot or saute pan, and the onion pan, should have lids.

Ingredients:

• Eight chicken thighs (bone in)
• One sweet onion (Spanish or Vidalia), chopped.
• 1 or 2 stalks of celery, chopped.
• 1 or 2 carrots, chopped.
• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced.
• 1 or 2 tablespoons tomato paste.
• a bottle of red wine (can be cheap but must be drinkable, better young than old)
• olive oil, butter, salt, pepper as needed
• chicken broth (a quart box should be enough)

Cooked separately and added later:

• a dozen or so small white onions.
• a pound or so of white mushrooms, cleaned and quartered.

Chop the sweet onion, celery, and carrots fairly fine – 1/4″ dice is about right.  Set aside.

Peel the white onions & set aside (this is easier if you drop them in boiling water for a minute first).

Salt & pepper the chicken & brown the chicken in a little olive oil.  Remove from saute pan (or transfer to stew pot).

Add the chopped vegetables to the saute pan.  Mince and add the garlic.  Saute gently (“sweat”) for about 10 minutes.  They should be soft but should not brown.  Add them to the stew pot, or add the chicken back to the saute pan.

Add the wine & bring to a boil.  Stir in the tomato paste, add chicken broth as needed to cover, and bring back to a simmer.  This will now cook for 35 to 40 minutes while you prepare the trimmings.

As soon as the chicken is in the pot, take a separate pan and saute the white onions in a little oil until they begin to brown.  Add a little chicken broth, lower heat, and cover.  These will be ready when the chicken is.

Finally, saute the mushrooms in a little butter for about 10 to 15 minutes.  The secret here is to use fairly high heat & not crowd the pan – you want them to saute, not steam.  When they’re done you can turn this pan off & set it aside.

From time to time, check the chicken, flip the pieces over at least once, and stir them around.  Allow the sauce to reduce by about half, taste and add salt if you think it needs it. It will get somewhat thick, but you will probably want to add a little thickening agent.  I use white flour, but if you want it gluten free you will need a substitute.  Cornstarch is very easy to find but makes the sauce sort of shiny (it’s what’s used in Chinese stir fries).  Potato starch is probably better if you can find it, or rice flour.  Any of these is used in the same way:  make a paste of 2 tablespoons of starch with an equal amount of cold water; then slowly stir it, a bit at a time, into the pot, until the sauce seems thick enough.  The effect is not always immediate so I recommend you add you thickener gradually.

Finally, fold in the cooked onions and mushrooms, and serve with salad & a baguette.

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