Zita's Meat Sauce for Pasta
In November when the pig was fat and ready to give its meat for the family, nonna Zita was sure to have enough meat and sausage to make her famous sauce. That is why to this day, in our family, when we really want to taste the real sauce we only use pork.
- One lbs of ground pork
- Three Italian sausages(no fennel) about 6 ounce
- One large carrot (minced)
- Two medium size red onions (minced)
- ¼ cup finely minced parsley
- One cup of combined minced sage, rosemary, garlic
- Two cups tomato sauce
- Two cups chopped tomatoes (you can use the canned tomatoes)
- One tube of Italian tomato paste
- Two cups of water
- ¾ cup white wine
- Two tsp nutmeg powder
- Two tsp dried or fresh thyme
- Black pepper and salt to taste
- ¾ cups olive oil
You will need a 12 inch deep sauce pan.
Start in this order, add the olive oil and the vegetables (wait until the sauce is almost ready to add the nutmeg and thyme because the flavor will get lost in the two hours of cooking).
Add the meat and stir. The fire should be medium high. Sauté and then add the wine, when this is evaporated add all the tomato products. Never forget to stir while doing your sauce.
A good sauce is never left alone on the stove, it will feel lonely and neglected.
Now add the water, salt and pepper, cover lower the stove so the sauce boils gently almost a simmer.
Keep your sauce company for the next two hours, stirring and testing for the flavor. Keep adding black pepper, salt, nutmeg and thyme to your taste.
Now you will see that you have a great amount of sauce. You can freeze what is left for the next time. You can also use this for making lasagna by just adding béchamel sauce and Parmesan cheese but that is another recipe.
