This is the real stuff, a meat sauce recipe from the Veneto region of Italy, handed down through generations of my wife’s family. I’m sure the recipe changed as it adapted to life in the United States, but when Donna and I visited the old folks in Vittorio Veneto back in the 1980s, we thought their sauce tasted just like ours, so it can’t have changed too much!
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- small roast or 1 lb Italian sausage (optional)
- 1 large onion
- 6-7 large cloves garlic
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 2 regular (14.5-oz) cans tomato sauce
- 1 small (6-oz) can tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- pinch of sugar
Directions
Brown the ground beef in a frying pan over medium heat. While the meat is browning, peel and cut up the onion and garlic, then saute same in olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon. Once the onions and garlic are slightly browned, add the browned meat (drain off any fat first) to the stock pot. Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Use the empty tomato paste can to add three cans’ worth of water to the sauce (that’s 18 oz if you already threw the can away). Last of all, add the salt, pepper, spices, and sugar, then stir. Let the sauce come to a gentle boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for a couple of hours. Half an hour before serving, remove the lid and let the sauce continue to simmer (this will thicken it).
Notes
Use as much garlic as you like – there’s no such thing as too much. Use good (very lean) ground beef. If you want more meat in the sauce, brown a small roast and add it to the sauce when you add the ground beef (or use Italian sausage instead, but be sure to cook it thoroughly and drain all the fat before adding to the sauce). The pinch of sugar helps neutralize the tomato sauce’s acidity.
Serve with polenta or any kind of pasta. If you decide to try polenta, be prepared for a workout. Polenta (at least the most common kind you can find in the States) is coarsely-ground corn meal. You mix it with boiling water (2 cups polenta to 6 cups of lightly salted water), then stir. And stir. And stir.
After an hour of so of constant stirring, the polenta will form a crust on the bottom and sides of the pot, then separate from the crust. That’s when it’s ready. We take the polenta out of the pot by turning it upside down over a cutting board with a towel on it. Wrap the polenta in the towel to keep it warm.
To serve, cut off a slice of polenta and put on a plate. We like to put Monterey Jack cheese on our polenta, then cover with sauce, then grate a little fresh Parmesan on top.
Polenta. It’s what they had before they had pasta!