Meat Sauce for Pasta

After a hard day burning calories on the slopes, I’ve got a taste for Meat Sauce and Pasta. Also known as Sunday Gravy, this traditional Italian dish is served on a Sunday afternoon with family and friends to share delicious food, give thanks for our blessings and relax. Even if you’re not Italian, there is much to be thankful for in this recipe…

FFTA appreciates getting by with what we have on hand: no meatballs to make or short ribs to fuss over, but instead turkey sausage and bone-in, beef loin steak to work around. And, I get to use my mighty cleaver as a meat tenderizer to pound out the beef for the raisin-and garlic-stuffed braciole (brAH-shee-oleh).

In my house growing up, my mother’s recipe for meat sauce involved burning a pound of ground beef and throwing it in a large pot with a can of tomatoes. Sprinkled with a bit of Kraft Parmesan Cheese, her results were awesome, because hunger is the best sauce, and the six of us girls were perennially hungry. How we survived with our family of eight demolishing a single chicken for the average dinner, I don’t know… But that is for another post. Meat sauce on pasta was a welcome change of pace.

But once I left the smoky haze of my mother’s cooking and began learning to cook in 1979, I discovered that using a piece of beef with a bone in it and some sausage works miracles in a meat sauce for pasta… throw in the braciole and in a couple hours — wowza! Hunger goes right out the window.

So FFTA’s Meat Sauce and Pasta is a bit less work, a few less calories and it uses my Marinara Sauce, which is close to perfection all by itself. So what’s there not to love?

Jennie O Turkey, Olive oil, parsley, Italian plum tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, raisins, beef top loin with bone in, onion, garlic and cleaver.

Jennie O Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage, Olive oil, parsley, Italian plum tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, raisins, beef top loin with bone in, onion, garlic and cleaver.

Wilt a quartered sweet onion in olive oil.

Remove onion from the oil and discard OR sprinkle with salt and eat! Yum.

Add smashed garlic to oil and cook until brown.

Remove garlic from oil and place with onions. This is a bit bitter to eat when brown but it has left its deliciousness behind in the olive oil.

Remove bone from beef.

Cut beef into four pieces.

Smash each piece of meat into a fillet.

Cut sausage into 2-inch pieces and add to oil.

Use grease splatter shield. You can thank me later.

Don’t crowd pan or it will affect browning.

Place raisins in cup and add water.

Microwave for a minute to plump the raisins.

Drain water from raisins.

Pour raisins into bowl.

…add garlic…

…and parsley and mix together for braciole filling. You can add a 1/2 cup of pine nuts if you have them.

Place a generous tablespoon of filling down the center of each beef fillet.

Roll up and secure with twine or toothpicks.

Brown the bone and bits of extra meat as well as the braciole. This will deepen the flavor in the tomato sauce.

The browned and un-browned awaiting their turn.

Crush plum tomatoes in your hand before adding to sauce.

…add tomato sauce.

Nice looking browned meat…

Brown the braciole.

Add basil to tomato sauce.

Everything is browned! Remove meat and set aside.

Add tomato sauce mixture to hot oil. Be careful, it will spit.

Add approximately 1/2 tsp of sugar. I used a sugar cube.

Place browned meat and bones, etc., into tomato sauce. Cover and cook for two hours.

Tomato Sauce

Serves 4
1 bone from beef top loin (meat is used in braciole, below)

1 lb Jennie O Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage

1/2 cup olive oil

2 large garlic cloves, smashed

1 large sweet onion, peeled and quartered

1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes

1 8-ounce can tomato paste

1 Tbsp dried basil

1/2 tsp sugar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Braciole

1 lb beef top loin with bone in, cut into 4 fillets and flattened (remove bone and reserve for tomato sauce, above)

1/2 cup plumped raisins

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 Tbsp dried parsley

Filling for Braciole

Place raisins in a cup of water in the microwave and cook for a minute, to plump. Combine raisins, chopped garlic clove and parsley.

To Make Braciole

Cut meat into quarters and flatten with a meat tenderizer or cleaver. Spread the braciole filling over the fillets and roll up, securing with string or toothpicks.

To Make Tomato Sauce

Place oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the onion quarters and saute until wilted then remove. Add the garlic and cook until browned then remove from pan. Add to the pan the sausage, bone and braciole in small groups, so that they brown well. Remove the meat as it browns and set it aside to make room.

Break up tomatoes by squeezing them through your hands and fingers then add them, the tomato paste and the basil to the pan. Add a 1/2 tsp of sugar and salt and pepper to taste.

Return the cooked meats to the pan with the sauce and cover and cook on low for two hours, stirring occasionally and adding a 1/2 cup of water at a time if the sauce gets too thick. Adjust seasoning and serve with pasta and a salad. Enjoy!

Meat Sauce for Pasta – Use What’s On Hand