Sunday Gravy

After a fun-filled weekend of family, friends and Notre Dame football, Sunday night somehow creeped up on me. Before I knew it, the family and friends were gone, and exhaustion and laundry were all that was left. With just a few free hours remaining before my dreaded alarm clock would sound, and a long week of work would force me back into reality, I decided a flavorful, hearty Sunday dinner with the husband was more than necessary.

I pillaged through the cabinets only to discover the remains of our Friday night cookout and stale tailgate food. I knew those items would not result in the end of the weekend dinner I was hoping for. Instead of scraping together a random spread of leftover brats, dips and an assortment of cheeses, I grabbed my keys and headed to the store in search of quality ingredients and inspiration. 

Within 30 minutes I was chopping and humming away as the husband watched his 5th football game of the weekend.  An hour later the meal was ready and the husband well-fed; proclaiming my creation “amazing” and rating it #1 across-the-board in his three, very nuanced, very refined categories. Beefy. Cheesy. Saucy. 

Pasta with Sunday Gravy:

What you need:

1 onion

1 large carrot

2 stalks of celery

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 red pepper

1 1/3 pound of ground meat (I used a mixture of beef and pork)

I can of diced tomatoes

1 can of tomato sauce

1/2 cup of heavy cream

1 cup of Zinfandel

1 bay leaf

Sea Salt

Freshly Ground Pepper

Fresh Basil

Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

Pasta of your choice

First, chop the onion, celery, carrot and red pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the first 3 ingredients and allow to sweat until soft. 

Add in the red pepper and bay leaf. Allow to cook for a few more minutes. 

Add in the ground meat. I used a mixture of ground beef and ground pork although you could use ground turkey and/or ground veal. Any combination would work. On this occasion, I used a bit more beef than pork.

Allow the meat to cook all the way through. Once browned, add in the red wine and bring to a boil. 

Allow the wine to reduce before adding in the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Stir together before adding in the cream. Add sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Once all of the ingredients are combined, bring the sauce to a simmer and allow to cook for up to 2 hours. If you are in a hurry and do not have 2 hours to spare, let the sauce meld for about 20 minutes before serving. However, the longer the ingredients have to fuse together, the greater the results. 

After the sauce has been simmering for an extended period of time, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook your pasta. You are going to want to select a pasta that can hold up to the weight and texture of this sauce (for example, pappardelle would work well). On this particular Sunday evening, I decided to use lasagna. Once it was cooked, I cut the lasagna into strips. 

Drain the pasta and set aside. Select a large serving bowl and spread roughly a cup of the sauce on the bottom. Add the pasta followed by the remainder of the sauce. 

Toss, and top with freshly chopped basil and grated parmesan. An easy trick for chopping basil is to to layer about 5 or 6 leaves on top of each other. Roll the basil tightly from side to side and then coarsely chop from top to bottom. This makes perfect basil slices! Once you have topped your pasta with the fresh herbs and cheese, serve immediately. 

Finally, as our friend Alex likes to say “Enjoy your Sunday Gravy!"

Mangia!