How do I improve my sauce recipe?

I've been making Sunday gravy for decades. Use good, imported Italian plum tomatoes. Squeezes them by hand. Get yourself some boneless short ribs, some "country style" pork ribs (which are really just slices of pork shoulder that areas then cut on lengths), some sausages, or some meatballs (I can talk about meatballs in a separate post if anyone wants). Sear all the meat I'm olive oil, brown it real good. Remove from the pot. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil, then add tomato paste. Lightly fry the tomato paste a minute, then add the tomatoes you crushed. Bring everything up to heat, scrape all the bits from the bottom of the pan, then add in your browned meat. Drop the heat and cook all day. Several hours. Remove the meat and chop/shred the short ribs and the pork ribs, add the meat back to the sauce. I can elaborate on any steps you don't understand. Sorry for my formatting.

Kind of drunk, but here's what I can fastly type out my recipe, so bear with me while I forget a few steps...

(roast a head of garlic ahead of time)

Olive oil
Diced onions
Some Garlic
Wine to keep it from scorching. Red if meat, white if tomato.

When that's all caramelized and etc, clear a space
Tomato paste
red pepper
whatever other the fuck dried spices (oregano and basil. coarse black pepper)
diced anchovie (since it's a sauce, can be replaced with worcestershire or fish sauce, albeit with mixed results)

Then put in vodka
and blitzed tomatoes
and other old wop things like tomato vine and parmesan crust

Let it brew for a few hours, adjust to taste, add things I've probably forgotten in the right phases, then take off heat

Let it cool and flavors marry for at least a day in the fridge

Wa La!™

>I can talk about meatballs in a separate post if anyone wants
Please do

Also what if I just used bones if I wanted it to be "meatless" but still retain the flavor?

Theyre both. See if you can get a fancy grinder set.

I do have one of those

Meatballs are pretty flexible and you will alter them to your tastes. Here's mine if I wanna go all out on a batch.
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground veal
1/2 pound ground pork
You can switch up that meat. Veal is good but expensive too. You can use half and half beef/pork, or a half pound of each, etc. Flexible. The thing to remember is to use one egg per pound of meat like Ma taught me. Mix the meat with the eggs. If you have made your own breadcrumbs they will be great here. Soak some in a bowl of milk a few minutes. This way you don't have "crunch" when you bite your meatball. Add to the meat and eggs minced onion and garlic to taste, along with chopped basil and parsley. Salt the mixture. You will add grated cheese. I have always liked Pecorino Romano, but Parmigiano Reggiano will work just as well. Add the cheese along with the breadcrumb/milk mixture. Mix everything together. You want a mixture that is slightly sticky but certainly not runny. If it's too dry you will add more crumb and milk mixture. As a note you can also add in a squeezed tomato or two left over from the sauce if you need more moisture.

The best way to prepare meatballs for me is to sear them. Heat olive oil in your pan and cook the meatballs on all sides. If you are going to dropping them in sauce all day then don't worry about anything but browning. If you're serving them separate from the sauce you will need to cook them through of course. If you are not comfortable with frying them then you will bake them, but trust me my friend, you ought to fry them.

The above isn't a recipe per se because I don't really keep recipes. This is just a technique to teach you the proper way to handle the meatball. When you have mastered several batches then you must alter them to your taste.

For your other question you could do such a thing, though you must make sure the bones also have some meat on them, such as pork neck bones. Otherwise your sauce will be greasy.

Not this user, but you HAVE to throw the matballs to pack them well. In the general sense, although there are some that are best left loose.

Ty user, I didn't know so much work went into it.

I did not elaborate but you are correct about that being a proper method does many. I have made meatballs in such a way.

You're welcome. I always try to remember that it is about technique and sharing time with family. You must cook for family.

Hot Italian sausage. Brown the fuck out of it. Then brown chopped onions, shallots and garlic in the grease. Then add decent tomatoes, basil, water and spices. That's about it. Don't be a hurry.

kys

>Brown sugar

Stop that, for one.

pizza restaurant manager here

unfortunately our measurements involve souffle cups.. this makes like 5 gallons of sauce

6 cans of alta cucina plum tomatoes
1 medium to large yellow onion diced
3.5oz souffle cup brimming with fresh minced garlic
3.5oz souffle cup brimming with flour
about 3/4" of a stick of salted butter (not a quarter stick), chopped
a shitload of fresh basil.. if I'm getting it from walmart I use 3oz but if it's from the cheap vendor I use more - remove stems and blend well in food processor or chop by hand
3 and 2/3 3.5oz souffle cups of sugar, filled to the line not to the brim
half a 3.5oz souffle cup of salt
like half a plastic spoon full of black pepper
enough olive oil to saute your stuff in

take 5 cans of your tomatoes and use a stick blender, just target each tomato with the stick blender, then target the biggest chunks, stop before you lose all your chunkiness

or if you have time to reduce, don't worry about that too much and just go at it

drain and hand-crush 1 can, I personally like to take the stick blender to it afterwards just to target the butts and skins of the tomatoes

coat bottom of stock pot with oil, high heat
add onions and basil, stir for 2 minutes, they just start to look soft
add garlic, stir like a maniac for like 50 seconds
lower heat to medium or less, add sugar, stir like crazy - I try to drop the sugar directly onto the onions and let less of it hit the metal, stir till dissolved
add butter and flour, stir until melted
now you pour in a can of tomatoes, stir it all together, back to high heat
2 more cans of tomatos, then add salt and pepper
add the rest of your tomatoes and stir often scraping the bottom so it doesn't burn

don't use a lid

when it boils you're done, or you can reduce the heat and simmer as long as you'd like to thicken it

you gotta work real fucking fast in that first phase up til you add the tomatoes

my sauce is literally perfect

This is a pretty good system, right here.

Take out the sugar and add caramelized onions, carrots, balsamic vinegar, etc. if you want sweetness. I wouldn't add cheese directly to the sauce, just use it as a topping. If you have to use canned tomatoes, get whole onions and blend/crush them yourself, it'll taste fresher. You can also add a little fish sauce or anchovy to give it more of a savory flavor, just don't add too much or it'll taste fishy, but the right amount just makes it more savory.

>If you have to use canned tomatoes, get whole onions and blend/crush them yourself, it'll taste fresher.
tomatoes*, not onions. not sure how that happened.

...

Meh, ambivalent. Gotta add sweetness, but I use wine instead of carrots. Carrots would work well in a thicker meat sauce.

Salt
Butter
Lemon juice/red wine vinegar
Tarragon

no brown sugar

You can keep your sauce thin and still use carrots. Grate them on your box grater and add them for sweetness. It's down to personal taste of course. I prefer a more savory and thick sauce, which you will achieve by slow cooking and bringing out the flavor of the tomato.

No. Tomatoes almost always taste better with sugar in sauces.

buy canned whole san marzanos in water
do not use any salt, sugar, or spices at all
make soffritto with big cheap horse carrots, yellow cooking onions, and celery
use just enough cheap vegetable oil to help the soffritto cook down
dump in the cans of tomatoes whole
add just enough water to swirl the tomato paste out of the inside of the can and pour in
cook 30-60m on low heat
immersion blend the whole thing at the end

if you're making big batches you immersion blend the soffrito with oil in one bucket and the tomatoes in another bucket

the best sauces you ever had were all made like this. don't overcomplicate it.

>underrated

consistently the best tasting tomatoes you can buy.

i make spicy sausage marinara. in a large pot, i start by frying the hot sausage and use the oil with olive oil to soften minced onion, minced red peppers, garlic, salt and chopped basil. then i chop tomatoes roughly and add them with water, oregano, to the pot and simmer for an hour or so. take a potato masher and mash the tomatoes until they're completely gone and it's just a sauce. simmer that all day long, stirring occasionally, until it's thick.

Not sure if you're serious, but what don't you like about it? What are your applications? What don't you like about it? I'm not sure what direction you're going in. I don't generally add bay leaf to tomato sauces. Brown sugar is a strange way to go too. I don't know what you're going for here, but some of your ingredients are different than what I do for tomato sauce.

This. The Best Tomatoes You'll Ever Taste!

Vinny! Don't put too many onions in the sauce.

Add about a half cup of brown gravy. KFC gravy especially works. I know it sounds odd but it works incredibly fucking well.

>traditional
>good

...*sigh*

>not Contadina
Do you even sodium content?

All you're adding is salt and MSG. You can do that without having to buy KFC gravy.

Bump for a good thread.

What is the advantage of using fresh tomatoes vs canned? I see most recipes call for canned, which I'm fine with but have never seen an explanation.

It depends entirely on the quality of the tomatoes you can get.

If you are one of the lucky few who either grows their own tomatoes or has access to good ones then fresh will taste better.

If you're like most of us and only have access to supermarket tomatoes then the canned ones will be superior.

Also, canned food is already cooked for a long time as part of the canning process. That saves you time when making your sauce.

You have to let the garlic liquefy.

le sigh*

I like this easy recipe:
allrecipes.com/recipe/21353/italian-spaghetti-sauce-with-meatballs/

instead of meatballs add in ground beef and pork with the onions, also add another bay leaf

user you have great taste. I refuse to buy anything canned except for Sclafani. They also have a great product here in New Jersey (jokes aside, our tomatoes are excellent) that are local NJ grown, vine ripened properly, and canned super fresh.

I can't speak for a pasta sauce, but I have been trying to perfect a NJ/NY style pizza for damn near 10 years now. I use these tomatoes, a table spoon of salt, a pinch of a few typical Italian herbs, and a teaspoon of good olive oil. Go really light on everything except salt. Don't even cook it, just warm it until its hot then take it off the heat and let it cool. Perfect and simple thin crust pizza sauce. If you want to make a thick crust, Sicilian, focaccia pizza, etc, then you want to cook and season it more.

>not traditional

who gives a fuck?

butter instead of olive oil, get rid of the brown sugar, fresh parmesan instead of romano, cut a onion in half and place both halves in the sauce while it cooks, discard after sauce is done, do not put diced onion in the sauce or some shit.

My man! Great recipe, however I wonder about the cooking process for the meatballs. Better to at least fry it a bit before adding.

My nonna always put a ouch of baking soda or cinnamon at the end to cut the acidity...

Might be a good idea to brown them in the olive oil before you saute the garlic and onion. Extra bit of flavor for everything.

If you have trouble with heartburn then you will need to skim the sauce after it's cooking. The foam you take off the top will eliminate some of the acidity. But you must cook the tomatoes for a long time to bring out their flavor.

That makes no sense whatsoever.

Foam on top is protein. Protein is not acidic.
Fat floating on top is just that...fat. Fat is likewise not acidic.

The idea that skimming reduces acidity is completely idiotic.

I do not skim fat. My grandmother taught me this way to skim some foam that does not benefit the sauce. I am only sharing my favorite way to do it.

If you don't want the onion you just cook them down in the olive oil to infuse the flavor and discard them

I start off by glazing the bottom of a hot pot with olive oil
sweat 5 cloves of garlic, yellow onion, 3 stalks of celery
Oregano, salt, pepper on that, stir.
tomato paste, one can crushed, one can diced tomato drained.
Let it bubble and stir occasionally.

Mix a lb 73-27 ground beef with a 1/4 cup bread crumbs, a 5 fingered pinch of oregano, salt, pepper, one egg, form into golf ball sized balls and bake at 450 till brown on top and flip over til brown on the other side. Take them out of the oven and let them cool a bit and stiffen up before you throw it in the sauce. Simmer for hours. This results in thick chunky sauce

I enjoy a nice veal cutlet with the gravy.