I grew up having Sunday Sauce in the basement of my Italian grandparent’s house in Queens, N.Y. The house smelled amazing, it was frenetic and loud and there was always either a football or baseball game blasting from the TV at the end of the long farm table. By the time we sat down to eat dinner, many meatballs would already have gone missing from the pot and for sure each end (“heel”) of the many loaves of Italian bread would be gone too. Continuing the tradition, we make Sunday sauce a lot. When the kids were little it was every Sunday and my parents, my sister and her kids would come over too – it was always a houseful. We’d start with antipasto, followed by calamari, shrimp some sort of veggie (stuffed artichokes are veggies, right?), roasted fennel then the pasta topped with the deep red meat sauce (not gravy!) packed with pork, meatballs and sausage. The sauce would be started on Saturday and cook all the way through to Sunday afternoon when we’d sit down to eat. Sunday Sauce is delicious, but it’s about so much more than the food. Buon appetito!

Ingredients:
1 medium sized onion, diced
2 cloves minced garlic
A handful of fresh parsley
Tablespoon of oregano
Sale & pepe
4 cans crushed tomatoes (I prefer Redpack)
Meatballs
Fresh Pork (neckbones)
Sausage

How to:
Sautee onion till almost soft, add garlic, parsley, oregano, salt & pepper, sauté for about 2 minutes. Do not let garlic get brown (it will taste bitter and ruin the sauce). Add crushed tomatoes and two cans of water and stir. Add some more salt, pepper and parsley (I like to season at every level when cooking). You should brown the pork (dust in flour first) & sausage in pan with a little EVOO. Add these to sauce when done. Cook meatballs (nearly all the way through) and add to sauce also. All the meat will continue to cook in the sauce, so you don’t need to fully cook before putting in the sauce. Since you KNOW there’s a bottle of nice red sitting next to you while cooking, add about 1/2 cup to the sauce after it’s warmed through. I cook this for many, many hours stirring often and seasoning as needed – the result is a dark red, thick, meaty sauce. I put it over rigatoni (Barilla is my fave) but you can use any pasta you like.

Pro-tip: Never add a wine to sauce that you would not like to drink.