Chef Johns Spaghetti Sauce Food

CHEF JOHN'S SUNDAY PASTA SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil in the bottom of a large roasting pan. Place beef, pork, and chicken in pan and turn to coat with olive oil.
• Roast in the preheated oven until meat is well browned, 20 to 30 minutes.
• Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir onion with a pinch of salt in hot oil until onion is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic; cook and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute.
• Pour crushed tomatoes, 1 1/2 cups water, and tomato paste into onion mixture. Add roasted beef, pork, and chicken to tomato sauce mixture.
• Pour remaining 1/2 cup water into the roasting pan, and bring to a boil while scraping the browned bits of food off of the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Pour roasting pan water mixture into tomato mixture. Stir Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, Italian parsley, 2 teaspoons salt, ground black pepper, and red pepper flakes into tomato sauce; bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low, and simmer gently until sauce reduces and meat is tender, about 4 hours. Transfer meat to a dish. Adjust sauce seasonings to taste.

CHEF JOHN'S TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• Place olive oil, onion, celery, and a pinch of salt into a large heavy saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Cook until onions are very soft, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix garlic into onion mixture and cook just until fragrant, about 1 more minute.
• Pour tomatoes and their juice into a large mixing bowl and use your hands to crush the tomatoes until they look pureed.
• Mix sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, anchovy paste, white wine vinegar, Italian herbs, and red pepper flakes into vegetable mixture. Raise heat to medium and cook just until liquid has evaporated. Stir in tomato paste and bring to a simmer. Pour in San Marzano tomatoes and parsley. Bring sauce to a simmer, turn heat to low, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, adding a little water as the sauce cooks down. Stir occasionally.

JOHN SPENCER'S BOLOGNESE SAUCE

Steps:

• In a large cast iron skillet, place the olive oil and cloves of garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes over medium heat until garlic gets light tan but not brown. Add the tomatoes into the oil and garlic and scald tomatoes for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, and breaking up with wooden spoon. Transfer tomato mixture to a large saucepan and keep on low heat. Clean out cast iron skillet for upcoming use.
• Mix chopped vegetables and herbs together in a big bowl. Take 1/3 of mixture and set aside. Put the remaining 2/3 into saucepan with tomato mixture. Add 1 cup of good Italian red wine, such as Chianti (do not use cooking wine) to tomato mixture. Add 2 (16-ounce) cans of tomato sauce to tomato mixture. Add 1 teaspoon salt to taste, and freshly ground pepper (as such as you like). Let the tomato sauce cook uncovered simmering for 1hour.
• Put about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in bottom of cast iron skillet. Add ground beef, ground pork, and remaining 1/3 vegetable mixture. Cook until meat is medium well and then add mixture to tomato sauce. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar to pot. Simmer tomato sauce partially covered for another 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• When tomato sauce is about 15 minutes away from being done, take the 2 sausage links, make a slit down the middle, but do not cut in half. Put the water on to a boil for pasta. Cook Pasta. Place the sausage links in the cast-iron skillet and cook until browned all the way through. Slice sausage into chunks. Either add sausage to tomato sauce or use as suggested below.
• Place pasta in large serving bowl, add butter, mix, add enough sauce to coat, and as much fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese as you like. Serve pasta from the big bowl into individual servings with a few sausage chunks and more if desired. Bon Appetit!

FRANK'S ITALIAN SAUCE (SPAGHETTI SAUCE)

Steps:

• For the meatballs: Combine all ingredients except the olive oil in a large bowl. Mix well. Form about 16 meatballs and place on a platter. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and fry meatballs over medium heat until browned. Repeat until all meatballs are browned. Place meatballs on new clean platter. Do not discard the oil.
• For the Gravy: In the skillet, heat the reserved oil, add the onion and garlic and saute for approximately 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook on medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Fill the empty tomato paste can full of water, add to the skillet, and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Remove from heat and set aside.
• In an 8-quart saucepan, add the ground tomatoes and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Fill the empty ground tomato can 3/4 full of water and add to the saucepan, along with the tomato paste mixture from the skillet and the reserved browned meatballs. Mix thoroughly but carefully with a wooden spoon so as to not break the meatballs. Add the salt, ground pepper, and parsley and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes, then cover and cook on low heat for 2 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes to prevent sticking and burning on bottom of pan. Serve over al dente pasta and sprinkle with some grated Pecorino Romano cheese, along with crusty Italian bread and a good bottle of red wine.

SUNDAY GRAVY (REAL ITALIAN SPAGHETTI SAUCE)AND MEATBALLS

Steps:

• SAUCE: Heat oil in large heavy pot (use a seasoned pot if you have one). Place the pork in the pot and brown until just about cooked. Transfer pork to plate. Do the same with the sausage and transfer to plate. Leave fat in pot. Add whole peeled garlic cloves cook until tender. Put garlic on plate with meat and stir in tomato paste until "saucy". Chop up tomatoes leaving the tomato juice in the cans (I use my chopper) and add them to the pot.
• Then add 1/2 of one can of the juice to the pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the meats and garlic to the sauce and bring to a boil. Turn down to low and cook for about 1 1/2 hours. Leave the sauce on low and remove all the meat and garlic cloves.
• Mix all ingredients for meatballs and shape into balls. Add to sauce turn up just a little higher than low and let cook the raw meatballs until they are done (1/2 hour) THATS IT!
• Now this is an old recipe, but I have seen it in the sopranos cookbook and this is a bit different.
• I used this sauce to make the ziti al forno from the sopranos cookbook (Recipe #73939) and it was the most amazing thing I have ever eaten, so I posted that too.