Recipe

Dean Weens Sunday Pasta Sauce Recipe

Add Step-by-Step Photos	Abermouse / All my dishes 1 year, 10 months ago This is a penne with meatballs and sausage, or as it's known throughout the Italian-American community, the Sunday Sauce. This version comes from musician Dean Ween, he says it is hard to make this in under 4 hours. Prep:60m Cook:180m Servings:10	Abermouse
	rich italian pasta sauce

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craners

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Ingredients

4 lbs of ground beef/veal/pork (if you’re lucky enough to have a butcher in your hometown have him grind it from cutlets, if not then buy it in the plastic packs)

some pork chops (bone in)

2 lbs. of penne rigate

1 gigantic yellow onion

1 head of garlic

1 fresh batch of basil

1 batch Fresh parsley

1 egg

1 long ring of hot Italian sausage

4 slices of bread ( any kind of white bread)

Milk

pecorino/romano cheese (don’t skip on this one, buy the best cheese you can get and either grate it or spend extra for the good stuff already grated)

extra virgin olive oil

dry white wine

3 big (29 oz.) cans of tomato sauce (depending on what texture you like—I like regular, already pureed sauce for this recipe)

5 1/2 C. Water (you will fill the 3 tomato sauce cans up 1/2 way to get this water, will not need to measure and set aside during prep)

4 bottles of wine

A loaf of fresh Italian bread, and get some butter too.

Directions

Meatball Mixture:Dice 5 of the garlic cloves and the entire yellow onion, very fine. Chop the basil, all of it. Mix together and Set these aside.

Put the beef/veal/pork/ into large bowl and add salt, pepper, a little bit of oregano, ½ cup of the cheese, and one raw egg.

Take 4 slices of the white bread and put it into a cereal bowl and fill it with milk. This is what will make your meatballs excellent.

Sautee ½ of your onion, garlic & basil mixture in 2 tblsps of oil in a big pan, slowly. I mean really slowly. If you burn the garlic right here then all is lost. Be cautious and go slow and low, medium low heat. When the onions are translucent then it’s ready, approx. 15 minutes. When the onion/garlic/basil mix is finished sautéing, then dump it on the bowl of meat. Squeeze out the milk bread and put the wrung-out milk bread into the meat bowl too. Squeeze the milk bread gently so it relinquishes half of the absorbed milk. Go easy.

Knead the meat mixture for 5 minutes, getting it thoroughly blended. Set aside.

The Sauce: Add another 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a large spaghetti pot and sautee the rest of your onions, garlic and basil, again, slow and low. Do not burn the garlic.

When the onions are translucent, add the three cans of tomato sauce. For every can that you pour in the pot, go to the sink and fill up 1/2 the can with water and dump it in the pot, rinsing out the remaining sauce still in the can. 3 cans of tomato sauce, 1 ½ cans of water.

Now sprinkle oregano on the pot of sauce, and add a tablespoon of sugar, stir it a little, and simmer the sauce on medium low heat.

Meatballs: Brown meatballs before putting them in the sauce. Pour an inch of oil in the bottom of your pan and turn the burner to medium high. Get oil scorching hot. Shape the meatballs in your hand to whatever size you like. Add them to the scorching hot pan, try and not let them touch one another. If the oil is hot they should brown on each side quickly. We are not trying to cook them here, it’s okay if they’re still undercooked in the middle, they will be cooking in the sauce for three hours. When each side is browned, remove the meatballs to some paper towels and add the next batch to your pan. I usually have to do this 4 times, 4 batches of meatballs. When you’re done, add your browned meatballs to the sauce.

Pork Chops: You can throw a couple of (bone in) pork chops into Sunday sauce, they add a ton of flavor and they completely fall apart while cooking in the tomato sauce. Anyway, using the same oil you used for the meatballs, brown your pork chops, remove them from the pan and pat some of the oil off with a paper towel and then add them to the tomato sauce too.

Sausage: After this, cook the sausage and repeat the previous, add the sausage into the sauce.. It too helps the flavor of the sauce.

Deglazing the pan: By now the bottom of your pan is filled with little bits of meatball, pork chop, sausage, onions, etc. put the empty oily pan back onto medium high heat and pour in some wine, enough to cover the bottom and then a little more. Smoke will come billowing out and all of the pieces that were stuck to the bottom will come off. Simmer this for a couple of minutes until the alcohol cooks off, you will be able to smell this. Now pour the brownish wine gravy into your sauce and stir it in.

The hard work is now over. You are going to let your sauce simmer on low heat for the next three hours. Stir it at regular intervals to prevent it from burning on the bottom. Clean up the mess that you’ve created and get ready for the final phase. Over the next three hours your sauce is going to relinquish a lot of fat and oil, like tons of it. Try to skim 90 percent of it off. It is a constant job. Some people believe in stirring it back in for flavor. You will see what I mean. Leave some and stir it back in, but not a whole lot.

Cook your Penne pasta until it is al-dente, about 11 or 12 minutes. When it’s finished, drain it in a colander and then transfer it to a big serving plate. A large plate is better than a bowl for this.

Grab a fistful of cheese and cover the pasta with it and then toss it a little, this will help the sauce adhere to the pasta.

Now start spooning the tomato sauce over the pasta, stirring it in, covering the pasta. Don’t put too much sauce on it yet, let your guests decide how much they want, I just cover it enough to use as a starting point.

You can put some meat around the outer ring of the serving plate, but take the whole pot of sauce and meat and put that on the table too. Let people decide how much sauce they like and let them hand pick what meatballs, sausage, pork they want.

Last but not least, sprinkle the dish with parsley and a little more cheese for presentation. You made it.

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Comments

craners 1 year, 10 months ago said:
Beautiful food..ciao'

mellybelly 1 year, 10 months ago said:
Wow looks great, perfect! I love meatballs simmered in tomato sauce. I think my fiance would go crazy for this and it sounds like a great way to spend an afternoon. When do the 4 bottles of wine come into play? They are probably a key ingredient ;)

coffeebean53 1 year, 10 months ago said:
Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!! Saved it to the recipe manager and to my computer. Thanks for a wonderful, wonderful post.

michellem 1 year, 10 months ago said:
Fantastic post..can't wait to sink my teeth into this dish!

conner909 1 year, 10 months ago said:
Are the 4 bottles of wine for me to drink while I make this sauce, or do I share it with the sauce or for my guests when they come to eat this wonderful dish! What a great dish to make on a rainy day...and it's going to rain here all week! Ha!

abermouse 1 year, 9 months ago said:
I finally made this, and the liquid did not cook off very quickly because I increased the recipe to feed 10 people. Well, not only was dinner late and watery, but it would have fed 15 people after i was done. So, dont worry about adjusting it, this dish will feed 10 easily with no changes, and give extra time to reduce the sauce if needed, like 2 hours.

abermouse 8 months, 1 week ago said:
Yes, the 4 bottles of wine are for drinking with everyone!!

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