It’s Called Gravy.

The finished product over penne.

What is the red stuff you put on pasta? Most people will say “sauce,” and in some cases that’s correct. In my family, the standard tomato-based sauce for pasta is called gravy. The difference between gravy and what most Americans might call marinara sauce or simply red sauce is the presence of meat. A lot of meat. An astounding quantity of meat. Our Old World relatives use the masculine nouns sugo or ragù to differentiate from the meatless salsa, which coincidentally is feminine.

Trapped inside by a horrendous downpour on the last weekend of August, I decided to take the many hours to warm the house and make a batch of gravy.

The cast of characters

Coia Tomato Gravy with Meatballs, Sausage, and Pork

Supplies:

• Four 28 oz. cans of ground peeled tomatoes. I happened to have a huge pile of farm tomatoes, so I substituted 28 ounces of those for one can. My preferred brand is Pastene. I have also used Muir Glen with some degree of success. If I don’t have fresh tomatoes, I will use two cans of chunky style tomatoes and two cans of the plain variety.
• Two 6 ounce cans of tomato paste.
• Two pounds of ground beef, 80% lean. You could use beef-pork-veal meatloaf mix, as well.
• Four eggs.
• Italian bread crumbs
• One package Italian sausages. I use sweet sausages, or occasionally cheesy garlic sausages.
• A pound or so of pork. This can be pork chops of any sort, or pork loin. Don’t worry about the bones; they’ll come out. If you have an aversion to pork for whatever reason, you can make a braciola instead.
• One onion.
• Extra virgin olive oil.
• Basil, preferably fresh.
• Sage or oregano, preferably fresh.
• Two or three garlic cloves.
• Salt.
• Pepper.
• Parmesan and/or Romano cheese.

The first thing to do is to grab a large stock pot and coat the bottom with oil. With these quantities, you should have at least a two gallon pot. My two-gallon pot did not fit all 24 meatballs, so some had to be sacrificed for sandwiches before meeting their tomato-y destiny. Set the lubricated pot on medium-low heat, then peel the skin off the onion before setting it in the oil.

Next is the first entry in the meat parade. One by one, set your pork chops or pork loin in the hot oil, browning on all sides. Don’t worry about cooking all the way through the meat; they will be covered in hot boiling tomatoes for hours. Repeat this process with the sausages. You may look into the pot at this point and say. “Oh my God, that is a lot of meat!” Well, it is a lot of meat.

A lot of meat.

Now, open the cans of tomatoes, and add them one by one into the meat salad on your stove. Now, take two of the empty cans, and fill one with water. Pour the water back and forth between the cans to wash all the tomato out. Pour this water into the pot and repeat for the other pair of dirty cans. Now add the tomato paste and stir. You may look into the pot at this point and exclaim, “There is no way the meatballs will all fit!”

No room at the inn.

For seasonings, my mother has always erred on the side of simple. She thinks that mild salsa is nearly too spicy and she dislikes garlic despite her Italian heritage. Thus, I have had to modify her original recipe which called only for salt, cheese, garlic, and basil, adding pepper and occasionally sage. Sometimes I add oregano too, but usually I save that for pizza. I add enough of each of the salt, pepper, and cheese to completely cover the surface of the liquid. The garlic cloves I slice into long slivers, and the basil and sage leaves I tear into quarters.

Once this is done, it is time for meatballs! Preheat your oven to 325°F and empty the ground beef into a bowl. Then add the eggs. Mix them furiously with a fork until well-blended. The actual amount of bread crumbs to add is a bit of a judgment call. The eggy meat shouldn’t stick to your hands when you mix it.

Yes, mix it with your hands. Just wash them after.

Ready for meatball formation.

Now, you can start taking soup spoon-size globs of meatball mixture into your hands. Roll each glob into a ball and place it on a baking sheet. When you run out, you should a nice little army of meatballs. Cover them each with a little dollop of olive oil.

Ready for the oven.

Pop them into the oven for about 15 minutes, then flip them with a spatula and return them to the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes.

The finished meatball on its way to the tomato volcano.

Finally, add the meatballs into the pot. Keep this on low heat for about 5 hours. I usually pull it off the heat once about an inch of liquid has boiled off. You should boil some pasta at the tail end of these 5 hours so that it’s ready just in time. Place some gravy at the bottom of the pasta bowl before dumping the drained pasta into it, so the pasta doesn’t stick. Take your ladle on a treasure hunt! Remove all the meats and the onion and set them aside. Serve with a small chunk of each meat and a section of the onion, grated cheese, and perhaps a side of garden salad and a taste of red wine.

This freezes extremely well. Three cups of gravy and meat is just about the right amount for a pound of pasta. Each frozen container should have enough meatballs and sausages so that nobody has to fight over them.

To sum up:

Coia Tomato Gravy with Meatballs, Sausage, and Pork

Supplies:

• Four 28 oz. cans of ground peeled tomatoes. I happened to have a huge pile of farm tomatoes, so I substituted 28 ounces of those for one can. My preferred brand is Pastene. I have also used Muir Glen with some degree of success. If I don’t have fresh tomatoes, I will use two cans of chunky style tomatoes and two cans of the plain variety.
• Two 6 ounce cans of tomato paste.
• Two pounds of ground beef, 80% lean. You could use beef-pork-veal meatloaf mix, as well.
• Four eggs.
• Italian bread crumbs
• One package Italian sausages. I use sweet sausages, or occasionally cheesy garlic sausages.
• A pound or so of pork. This can be pork chops of any sort, or pork loin. Don’t worry about the bones; they’ll come out. If you have an aversion to pork for whatever reason, you can make a braciola instead.
• One onion.
• Extra virgin olive oil.
• Basil, preferably fresh.
• Sage or oregano, preferably fresh.
• Two or three garlic cloves.
• Salt.
• Pepper.
• Parmesan and/or Romano cheese.

Procedure:

1. Coat bottom of stock pot with olive oil and set to low heat.
2. In the following order, brown: onion (whole and peeled), pork, and sausage.
3. Add tomatoes and tomato paste.
4. Add two half-full tomato cans of water, using this water to wash all the tomato out of the cans.
5. Preheat oven to 325°F.
6. Mix ground beef and eggs, then add breadcrumbs until mixture is no longer wet in appearance. Form into balls.
7. Place meatballs on baking sheet. Place dollop of olive oil on each one. Insert into oven for 15 minutes, then flip and bake for another 15 minutes.
8. Add meatballs to stock pot.
9. Once gravy has boiled down one inch, serve with pasta or freeze for later use.

Enjoy!