The Family's Gravy

Okay.  I know it's been a looooonnnnnngggggg time since I've blogged a recipe.  But I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to share a real gem with you.  I am finally giving up the Greico family gravy recipe.  This is actually the Campo family gravy recipe, as it was my mother's side of the family from whence it came.  Actually, it is probably a Sirmarco family recipe, as that was my mother's mother's family name.

For those non-Italians, this is what you would normally call "sauce."  For those who are Italian, they know that this is really gravy and anyone who calls it sauce... (well, I won't say)  My mother says it is called gravy because it is made with meat.   This recipe is like gold.  Of course it's not really a recipe.  It is a creation which can only be handed down from generation to generation to those who are willing to watch mom/grandma/nana in the kitchen, probably more than once.  It take patience, practice, and love to make it right.

You can feel your earliest memories creeping up at the smell awakening you on Sunday mornings.  You can hear the sounds of meatballs frying, pans clashing.  Happiness filled the kitchen and the whole house.

My memories of gravy being made on Sunday mornings go back as long as I can remember.  Not only did my mother make gravy almost every Sunday, but so did her mother and probably her mother's mother and even beyond that.  My grandmother had company every Sunday for as long as I can remember, whether it was my mother and her 4 children or my uncle and all his single friends, my Aunt Nancy who lived there, and a host of others.  To this day, my father insists on macaroni every Sunday.

Hopefully you all have your own special family recipe.  I know every family's recipe is different and usually we are prone to favoring only mom's gravy.

I start with Italian sausage and fry it up in the same pot you will be making your gravy in.  Then meatballs (recipe for another time). Remove from pot once fried.

Gravy

 3 T extra virgin olive oil (EVOO nowadays)
 3 cloves minced garlic
2 small cans tomato paste
2 small cans water
2 large cans plum tomatoes (SanMarzano are the best)
1-1/2 large cans water
Fresh basil
Dried minced onion
Red pepper flakes
S & P

1.  Add your EVOO to a moderately hot pan
2.  Mince your garlic into the EVOO, being careful not to burn it.  It should be barely over the golden color it started out as
3.  Lower the flame and add tomato paste.  Let cook a while and add water.
4.  Season with above seasonings, sprinkling the onion almost to cover the top and just a tad of red pepper flakes.  About 6 leafs of basil. (see what I mean about having to watch)
5.  Raise the flame a bit and add the plum tomatoes and let cook a while.  Add water and re-spice with same seasonings. Puree tomatoes with a hand puree-er

This is the sauce at the beginning, before the flavors have blended to become a rich, sumptuous red-orangy gravy.

6.  You can add a carrot or a potato to cut the acidity of the tomatoes.
7.  Let this simmer for about 2-3 hours.

When the color is an orangy red and foams at the top you know it is perfect and you have made mama proud.

That's Italian!