NEVER change grandma's recipe - EVER.

[Texas Cookin']

I just read this entire thread and feel half confused. I’m sorry the meatballs didn’t work out. I’m sorry there is so much disagreement. I feel like I’m in a beans or no beans in chili thread. No beans btw.

Fred

 

[Retired Spook]

Meatball hoagie, that steak, Ravioli, spaghetti... Heck just bring it all on!

Jim

Lasagna...

 

[Retired Spook]

...

 

[Retired Spook]

A mini sausage sandwich. Whomever baked the baguette in HEB this morning, HEB should have a bronze statue made of the person and stand it outside in front of the store - the bread was baked perfect.

A Johnsonville hot Italian sausage that was cooked in the sauce on Sunday, some of the sauce and a slice of provolone cheese on a small piece of the baguette sliced and excavated.

This must be like what I imagine being in Heaven is like. It was perfect and sooo good tasting.

Look how nice that sauce is...

I am much calmer and friendlier now.

PS. I bought more meatballs and sauce fixins and just waiting for Amazon to deliver the Cento Marzano tomatoes so I can get started.

Wish me luck.

 

[Texas Cookin']

A mini sausage sandwich. Whomever baked the baguette in HEB this morning, HEB should have a bronze statue made of the person and stand it outside in front of the store - the bread was baked perfect.

A Johnsonville hot Italian sausage that was cooked in the sauce on Sunday, some of the sauce and a slice of provolone cheese on a small piece of the baguette sliced and excavated.

This must be like what I imagine being in Heaven is like.

Look how nice that sauce is...
View attachment 685376

View attachment 685377

I am much calmer and friendlier now.

PS. I bought more meatballs and sauce fixins and just waiting for Amazon to deliver the Cento Marzano tomatoes so I can get started.

Wish me luck.

RS, I hope I didn’t offend you with my previous post. I didn’t have any intention of doing so. If you ever decide to come clean with the recipe I would love to have it. I understand why you wouldn’t though. Have a great day.

Fred

 

[Retired Spook]

RS, I hope I didn’t offend you with my previous post. I didn’t have any intention of doing so. If you ever decide to come clean with the recipe I would love to have it. I understand why you wouldn’t though. Have a great day.

Fred

No worries at all, Fred; I do not get offended - I get even

In all honesty, you can find the recipe on Lidia's Kitchen website (and MANY more excellent recipes) - but we use Chianti and Lidia uses white wine in her sauce - plus, I use more than she does! Other than that, Lidia adds celery, onions and carrots to some of her meatball recipes, and we do NOT do that - we do not want meatloaf balls - we want meatballs.

The Chianti makes a heartier tasting sauce, in my expert opinion, and I get to drink some while I am cooking and it gives me a nice buzz!

If you decide to use a Chinti - be sure to only purchase a Chianti that has a black rooster on the label. No exceptions.

 

[Retired Spook]

Meatball success! They are awesome.

Pictures when I make a sandwich.

 

[JLeonard]

Dang.....Can I have one of those sausages while your whipping up the MOAMBS (Mother of all meatball sammichs). If It looks half as good as that sausage I may need two!

Jim

 

[Retired Spook]

Dang.....Can I have one of those sausages while your whipping up the MOAMBS (Mother of all meatball sammichs). If It looks half as good as that sausage I may need two!

Jim

I'm telling ya, Jim - heaven on a plate! If you were my neighbor I would feed you until you went into a coma like my grandmother used to feed us!

 

[JLeonard]

I'm telling ya, Jim - heaven on a plate! If you were my neighbor I would feed you until you went into a coma like my grandmother used to feed us!

Man you better watch what you offer....I'm looking to get out of Mississippi!
And the food you been posting might have me packing.

Jim

 

[Retired Spook]

Man you better watch what you offer....I'm looking to get out of Mississippi!
And the food you been posting might have me packing.

Jim

It would be great to have you as a neighbor - but do your homework on Texas before you decide to move here

 

[noboundaries]

I can't make any type of red sauce to save my life, but the whole sauce / gravy thing eludes me. I've never actually met anyone who says gravy except reading online.

I woke up this morning and thought of this thread when I saw the following YouTube video. This is how my Calabrian grandmother made her sauce. I never heard her call it ragu. In her thick accent it was called "sowsa." Simple. Easy. The only difference is that instead of lard to brown the meat, she'd render fat she'd saved from meat trimmings. Bacon fat works fine, too, IMO.

The addition of Italian sausage links completely changes the flavor of the sauce, making it better, once again, IMO. Oh, and I add a bunch of chopped garlic with the tomatoes. I guess that's me changing Nonni's recipe. Uh oh.



Here's a bit of tomato trivia I've learned in the past. Some university did a study of San Marzano tomato use worldwide and stated that the San Marzano region could only grow a fraction of the tomatoes claimed to be from there. Most of the San Marzano tomatoes are imported from places like California's central valley then canned in Italy. Yes, there are stamps on the can that can help one determine if you have the real thing or not, but many places grow San Marzano tomato strains and charge 3 to 5 times as much per can.

I live in the CA central valley, bought canned whole DOP San Marzanos and two other brands of canned whole tomatoes (a famous brand and a store brand). I made three minimally seasoned pizza sauces and had my super-taster wife try them. She could not tell the difference. I've been buying the store brand ever since.

 

[Retired Spook]

Technically, a San Marzano tomato is a type of Roma tomato, that is meatier and has much fewer seed - the fewer seeds results in a tomato sauce that is far less likely to taste bitter or give a person "agita" or an upset stomach / acid reflux that often results when lesser quality tomatoes are used.

I can and have made superb sauces from the usual Roma tomatoes that can be found in most grocery stores - but they must be allowed to ripen (in a box with a towel on top place on top of your refrigerator), and they must be processed through a manual food mill (that contraption that grandma used that is like a screen bowl, with a handle on the side, and a crank on top, that removes all of the seeds, skin and pulp, leaving only pure tomato puree, from which very good sauce can be made.

San Marzano tomatoes can be grown in the US, but they are very challenging to grow, and only the best growers have acceptable results.

Cento San Marzano tomatoes have a lot-code on the can you can use Google Earth to locate the exact field the tomatoes were grown in, in Italy. In my opinion, they are the best that can be gotten.

 

[bill ace 350]

@gmc2003 - look up Lidia Bastianich / Lidia's Kitchen - and find the word gravy.

She is the best Italian cook I have ever seen, second only to my grandmother. I have watched hundreds of hours of her shows and it is as if she is my grandmother's twin sister - they cook exactly the same - it amazed me when I first started watching her. I only recently learned from my sister, that my grandmother, may she rest in peace, LOVED watching Lidia's Kitchen.

There IS a difference.

Her shows are on the FOOD Network occasionally.

That is where I learned about Cento.

Pretty good.

 

[Retired Spook]

These days when I get kooky about sauce I use a few bottles of Mutti tomato puree and add a couple cans of Cento San Marzano tomatoes - because making puree from scratch is a lot of work, and I am gettin old...

The best jar sauce I have ever tasted is Michael's of Brooklyn which is excellent sauce and tastes "just like grandma's." Even my sisters have switched over to using it - and it is thick, not watery!

 

[zwiller]

I went down the San Marzan rabbit hole in my pizza making craze and came out with trying every tomato sauce I could get my hands on and that included the #10 cans from GFS. To my surprise, Kroger crushed tomatoes was the clear winner on the home scale but admit the GFS was another level above but that's a LOT of sauce. Stanislaus Full Red being the best.

 

[DonP]

@Retired Spook Do you have an actual written recipe? If I ask my aunt how anything is made, it's just verbal instructions; some of this, some of that, etc. Same with the MIL. And my cousin laughs at me for measuring ingredients.

 

[forktender]

No self respecting "Dego" would ever write out amounts for their Sunday "gravy". Yup, Sunday Gravy was Sugo made with pork, beef, and veal, mainly served at Sunday suppers and on special days, such as religious holidays, birthdays, or New years. It's very similar, the only difference is a handle full of this, or a palm full of that.

 

[noboundaries]

No self respecting "Dego" would ever write out amounts for their Sunday "gravy".

That cracked my Italian half up, Dan.

My German wife, who can only cook if she follows a recipe, insisted I write my recipes down. It's kinda hard to measure what's in my palm, or how many container shakes, or when my brain recognizes "that's enough" of this or that, or number of pinches, or the differences whether using fresh or dried herbs.

I've done it, but every single recipe, even my own, are merely suggestions for my brain to taste and adapt to what I have on hand.

Ray

 

[forktender]

That cracked my Italian half up, Dan.

My German wife, who can only cook if she follows a recipe, insisted I write my recipes down. It's kinda hard to measure what's in my palm, or how many container shakes, or when my brain recognizes "that's enough" of this or that, or number of pinches, or the differences whether using fresh or dried herbs.

I've done it, but every single recipe, even my own, are merely suggestions for my brain to taste and adapt to what I have on hand.

Ray

Ray, my wife is 100% German as well, I completely understand.

She absolutely hates cooking, and you can tell by how her food turns out. I pretty much only let her cook frozen meals, or boxed Mac & cheese these days.

Back when we first started dating she cooked beef stroganoff for me, I ate one bite, and stared laughing.
She comes back with can we order a pizza.

That night we made and agreement with each other, I cook , she cleans up after me. I help her with the big pots and my C.I. pans, and Dutch ovens, because I don't want her scrubbing on them.

That was 30+ years ago, and that's how we still do it.

It's a good thing that I love to cook.

I pretty much never follow recipes, which is why I can't bake for sheeet!

My baking consists of pizza dough, biscuits, and pancakes. I'd like to make sourdough bread, but I haven't really tried very many times.

I will get the S.D. bread dialed in next winter.

Dan .