Moms Sunday Dinner Italian Ragu With Meatballs And Italian Sausage Food

MOM'S BEST SUNDAY MEATBALLS

Steps:

• In a large bowl. Soak a loaf of Italian bread for about 3 minutes.
• Remove bread from the water. Remove the crust and discard, leaving only the inside dough.
• Use your hands and squeeze all liquid from the bread. Transfer bread to a large bowl.
• Combine bread with ground beef, eggs, cheese, garlic powder, pepper, and parsley.
• Mix with your hands to combine well, or use your food processor. Using a spoon to mix will not work. The mixture will be very sticky. Best to wash your hands before shaping them into meatballs.
• Scoop a small amount of meat mixture into your hand and roll into 2-inch balls. Transfer each meatball onto a sheet of wax paper. Set them aside.
• On the stovetop, using a deep medium-size skillet, pour oil.
• Heat oil on medium heat. When the oil is hot, carefully add a few meatballs and fry until the bottom is crispy brown. Gently turn meatballs over once and continue until crispy brown.
• Remove meatballs from the pan and drain onto a platter lined with paper towels.
• Repeat until all meatballs are fully cooked.
• Eat them alone, fried or place them into your Tomato Sauce and simmer for about 30 minutes to one hour. Using a spoon, gently remove the meatballs, transfer them onto a platter and serve.
• Yields: about 20 meatballs
• In a large heavy-bottomed pot, add the olive oil, onions, red pepper flakes, and basil, and simmer on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes.
• Then add only one can of tomatoes (blended) to the onions to prevent the onions from burning while cooking. (This is a trick my husband learned from his mom). Occasionally stirring. Continue to simmer the onions on low heat for another 15 minutes.
• Then add in the rest of the tomatoes and salt. Cover and raise the heat to bring to the sauce a boil. Lower the heat again, and continue to simmer the sauce on low heat.
• Add the meatballs to the sauce. Simmer for an additional hour, occasionally stirring the sauce. The total cooking time should be about 1 and ½ hours. Taste the sauce. Turn off the heat. Allow the sauce to cool down slightly.
• Yields: 3 quarts

THE MAURO FAMILY SUNDAY GRAVY

Steps:

• For the meatballs: In a large mixing bowl, mix together the milk, bread, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper to make a panade. Whisk in the cheese, parsley and eggs until uniform. Add in the chuck, pork and veal and, using your hands, mix together until combined. Do not overwork! Do a tiny test meatball to gauge seasoning. Once the mixture is properly seasoned, roll it into twelve 3-inch meatballs.
• For the sauce: Heat the olive oil in large Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add the sausage and brown on each side until golden, about 5 minutes. Set aside. Next, brown all sides of the meatballs until dark brown, about 5 minutes a side. Set aside. Drain out all but 2 tablespoons of the rendered fat.
• Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden around the edges, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the Italian seasoning and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until the garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the wine and deglaze the pan, scraping up any bits. Season with salt and pepper.
• Add the tomatoes and increase the heat to medium high. Add the sausage, meatballs and neck bones and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook with the lid on until the meatballs are no longer pink in the middle and are about 170 degrees F, about 1 hour. Remove the sausage and meatballs from the sauce (leave in the neck bones) and refrigerate.
• Simmer the sauce, uncovered, until the neck bone meat is falling-off-the bone tender, skimming the fat off the top and stirring frequently, another 3 hours. (After about 2 1/2 hours, remove the sausage and meatballs from the refrigerator to come back to room temperature.)
• Add the sausage and meatballs back to the sauce and bring to a simmer again for 10 minutes to heat the meat up. Add salt and pepper to taste, then add the fresh basil just before serving.
• Serve on top of a mound of mostaccioli or rigatoni, with a side of hot giardiniera.

HOT ITALIAN SAUSAGE MEATBALLS WITH CAVATELLI #RAGU

Steps:

• Meatballs: In a bowl mix together, sausage, crumbs, cheese, egg, water, parsley, onion. Mix and form into balls, 1 1/2 inches. Coat in crumbs Yields 16 balls. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 - 35 minutes.
• Pasta: Cook as directed on package. Drained and added 1 tablespoon of butter.
• Sauce: In a large sauce pan, empty jar of sauce and add Italian seasoning, fennel seeds, dried basil, and honey. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
• Add cavitelli and meatballs to sauce and simmer for 15-20 minutes until heated through.