Best Moms Sunday Dinner Italian Ragu With Meatballs And Italian Sausage Recipes

ITALIAN SUNDAY SAUCE

Steps:

• Sprinkle neck bones on all sides with salt and pepper.
• Heat 4 teaspoons oil in a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Place neck bones in the pot and cook for 6 minutes, flipping halfway through. Transfer to a plate.
• Add sausage links to the drippings and brown for 3 minutes on each side, adding remaining oil as needed. Set aside with the pork.
• Add onion to the drippings and season with salt. Cook, stirring often, until onion is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.
• Add tomato puree and crushed tomatoes, than add water and sugar; cook, stirring constantly, until smooth. Add bay leaf. Rub basil and oregano between your fingers to release the aroma and add to the sauce.
• Slice sausages into large chunks and return to the pot with the neck bones; bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Add meatballs, reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 4 to 6 hours.
• Remove neck bones and bay leaf. Remove any meat remaining on the bones, shred, and return to the sauce.

ITALIAN RAGU WITH MEATBALLS AND SAUSAGE

Steps:

• In a large sauce pot (8-quart size minimum), heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil on a very low flame. Add the diced onion and cook slowly until it has turned translucent. Do not brown the onion, but allow it to almost melt away. Add the garlic cloves and very lightly cook them in the oil until golden before adding the tomatoes and all their juices. Add salt and pepper to taste, and the basil leaves and set the heat on low. Allow the tomatoes to cook at very low heat for at least 2 hours before adding the meat.
• Make the meatballs: mix the ground beef and veal together in a large bowl. Combine the bread and milk and mash together to form a paste; add the bread to the ground meat. Add the eggs, garlic, parsley, cheese, salt, and pepper to the meat mixture and combine all the ingredients using your fingers to mix uniformly, but do not over mix or the meat will dry out when cooked. Pick up 2 tablespoons of the mixture and roll it into a ball shape, between the palms of your hands. Do this until you have used all the meat. This should yield approximately 24 meatballs.
• Place the remaining olive oil in a heavy skillet and heat over medium flame. Add the meatballs in 1 layer and brown on all sides before removing. Do this to the remaining meatballs until all are browned to a caramelized color. After all the meatballs have been browned and removed from the skillet, add the sausage links and brown well, following the same method as the meatballs. When all the meat has cooked, add to the tomato ragu, which has been cooking for 2 hours and cook an additional hour. Serve the tomato ragu over rigatoni pasta cooked to manufacturer's directions. Serve the meats on another plate as a second course.

MOM'S SUNDAY DINNER: ITALIAN RAGU WITH MEATBALLS AND ITALIAN SAUSAGE

Steps:

• 1. In a large sauce pot (8-quart size minimum), heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil on a very low flame. Add the diced onion and cook slowly until it has turned translucent. Do not brown the onion, but allow it to almost melt away. Add the garlic cloves and very lightly cook them in the oil until golden before adding the tomatoes and all their juices. Add salt and pepper to taste, and the basil leaves and set the heat on low. Allow the tomatoes to cook at very low heat for at least 2 hours before adding the meat.
• 2. Make the meatballs: mix the ground beef and veal together in a large bowl. Combine the bread and milk and mash together to form a paste; add the bread to the ground meat. Add the eggs, garlic, parsley, cheese, salt, and pepper to the meat mixture and combine all the ingredients using your fingers to mix uniformly, but do not over mix or the meat will dry out when cooked. Pick up 2 tablespoons of the mixture and roll it into a ball shape, between the palms of your hands. Do this until you have used all the meat. This should yield approximately 24 meatballs.
• 3. Place the remaining olive oil in a heavy skillet and heat over medium flame. Add the meatballs in 1 layer and brown on all sides before removing. Do this to the remaining meatballs until all are browned to a caramelized color. After all the meatballs have been browned and removed from the skillet, add the sausage links and brown well, following the same method as the meatballs. When all the meat has cooked, add to the tomato ragu, which has been cooking for 2 hours and cook an additional hour. Serve the tomato ragu over rigatoni pasta cooked to directions on box. Serve the meats on another plate as a second course or with the pasta. (We always couldn't wait til the second course!)
• 4. NOTE: If using plum tomatoes, make sure using a wooden spoon while cooking, you break up the tomatoes. You can also freeze this in batches and use when needed.
• 5. You can make this sauce your own by adding what herbs you like. Oregano or Basil, All Beef Meatballs if you prefer. My mom did all the combinations. MANGIA!

HEARTY ITALIAN SAUSAGE AND MEATBALL STEW #RAGU

Steps:

• Place a 4-5 quart Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the olive oil, onion, green pepper, zucchini and salt. Mix well. Cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring often, until just heated through. Add the garlic and Italian seasoning. Mix well. Add the Ragu sauce, beef broth, garbanzo beans, black beans and diced tomatoes. Mix well and bring to a simmer. Add the pasta and cook until pasta is al dente. Add the sausage and meatballs. Mix well and bring to a simmer to heat through.
• Top each individual serving with grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.

SUNDAY RAGù

Steps:

• Make tomato sauce:
• Pulse tomatoes with juice (1 can at a time) in a blender until almost smooth.
• Heat oil in a wide 10-to 12-quarts heavy pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then sauté onion until golden, about 6 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute.
• Add tomato purée, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 40 to 45 minutes. Discard bay leaf.
• Make braciole while sauce simmers:
• Stir together garlic, parsley, cheese, and pancetta.
• Pound top round to 1/8 inch thick between 2 sheets of plastic wrap with a rolling pin or meat pounder. Spoon parsley mixture evenly over beef cutlets (about 3 tablespoons each). Starting with a short side, roll up cutlets and tie at each end with string to make braciole.
• Make meatballs:
• Form reserved meatball mixture into balls (about 16), using a 1/4-cup measure.
• Cook meats:
• Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Season braciole with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (total) and brown well in 2 batches, turning, about 6 minutes per batch. Transfer to a large shallow pan.
• Add 2 tablespoons oil to skillet and brown sausage in 2 batches, turning, about 6 minutes per batch. Transfer to pan with braciole.
• Pat pork shoulder dry and season with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add 2 tablespoons oil to skillet and brown pork shoulder all over, about 5 minutes. Transfer to pan.
• Pat pork ribs dry and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil to skillet and brown ribs well in 2 batches, turning, about 6 minutes per batch. Transfer to pan.
• Heat reserved oil from polpette in skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Fry meatballs in 2 batches (do not crowd), turning occasionally, until well browned, about 6 minutes per batch. Transfer to paper towels using a slotted spoon. (Discard oil.)
• Finish ragù:
• Return sauce to a simmer and carefully add all meats and juices. Simmer, partially covered, gently stirring occasionally (do not break up meatballs), until all meats are tender, about 2 1/4 hours.
• Transfer meats with tongs to a large platter. Serve with fettuccine and remaining sauce.

MOM'S SPAGHETTI SAUCE

Steps:

• Cut celery and onion (and bell pepper if used) as fine as you prefer.
• If you like chunky style sauce make the pieces bigger, I like mine chopped fairly small.
• In a large skillet, heat 1-2 tblspn of oil, when oil is hot (not smoking) add celery and stirfry.
• As celery begins to clarify, add onion (and bell pepper, if used) and stirfry until it begins to glaze, add chopped garlic, stir for a short time (don't let anything begin to brown).
• If using meat, add ground beef or stew beef and brown, stirring regularly, adjust heat to make sure nothing burns.
• Salt and black pepper to taste.
• Transfer to a larger pot (if you have a good sized pot that you can brown in, you can just start with that instead of using the skillet.).
• Stir in tomato paste and cook until the color darkens.
• Stir in tomatos and tomato sauce.
• Add spices (Italian seasoning or individual spices) to taste.
• Add 3 Bay Leaves.
• Stir in mushrooms and/or black olives and crushed red pepper, if desired.
• Stir in 1-2 cans of water (I use the tomato paste, tomato and tomato paste cans to get the leavings out of them.).
• Adjust heat to simmer.
• Let cook for at least 1 hour, longer if you can, and stir regularly.
• Check spice to taste and add what you want.
• You can cook this for a little while or for a longer time.
• I prefer at least 2 hours to give all the spices a chance to blend well.
• But it can be cooked for as little as a half hour.
• If you want it to cook for a long time, monitor the thickness and add water as needed.
• Don't forget to remove the Bay Leaves before serving.
• Some people like to add a pinch of sugar to cut the acidity, but I believe that the Bay Leaves accomplish this and have never used sugar.
• When done, serve over or mix with the cooked pasta of your choice.
• Add grated parmissan if desired.
• Also individuals can add crushed red pepper to their own servings, for those who like it a little spicier.
• If making a baked dish such as Lasagna, Ziti, etc.
• you may want to make the sauce a little thinner (add water) to start with.