Sunday, June 22, 2008

SUNDAY SAUCE excerpted from DANIEL BELLINO ZWICKE'S upcoming new book "LA TAVOLA"

SUNDAY SAUCE


One of the great traditions of the Italian American enclave in the U.S. is the ritual of Sunday afternoon when the entire family gets together for Mama’s or Nona’s famed “Sunday Sauce.” What is it? Well there are a number of variations on the theme. Most Sunday Sauce’s are made with Italian Sausage, braciole, and meatballs. Some people make theirs with pork ribs, beef neck, and possibly with chicken. These meats are slowly simmered for several hours with tomato, and minced onions, garlic, celery, and carrots. I generally like to make my Sunday Sauce with sausage, meatballs, and pork ribs. Other times I’ll make it with sausage, ribs, and braciole. An old tradition in some families is that mother or grandma would start the sauce early on a Sunday morning, get it simmering away for a couple hours on top of the stove, then put it in the oven for a couple hours while everyone goes to church, the sauce slowly simmers on the back of the stove. When you get back home, the sauce would be ready.
The Sunday Sauce that my mother would make was with sausage, meatballs and beef braciole. My memories are vivid watching my mother stuffing the braciole with garlic,
parsley, Pecorino, and pignoli nuts, then sewing up the bundles with a needle and thread so they would hold together while simmering in the gravy (many families all over the New York and around the country simply call Sunday Sauce “Gravy”). Another fond memory was helping my mother roll and shape the meatballs.
As for me, my Sunday Sauce will vary depending on my mood. One thing I love to do when making the sauce is the addition of pork spare ribs, which not everyone uses. Whenever people eat my sauce, they go nuts for the ribs and some are surprised cause they might never have had them in a sauce before. They didn’t know that you could use pork spareribs. The ribs are traditional with some but not everybody. It is quite a shame for those who don’t add the ribs because they give the sauce some wonderful flavor and they are incrediably delicious to eat after braising in the sauce for a couple of hours. Whenever I make the sauce and I’m dishing it out to friends and family, I always make sure that I have my fare share of the ribs. Pork ribs cooked in this manner, simmering in the sauce are oh so succulent and tasty. They are far beyond compare. “They are Out-of-this-World!!!” The friends, one-by-one, go nuts for them. “Yes they are most than tasty!”
And what to serve with the Sunday Sauce you ask? It should be a short macaroni; rigatoni, ziti, or gnocchi are best.
The rituals of cooking, serving, and eating Sunday Sauce is a time honored one. It is a beautiful thing. If you mention the term Sunday Sauce to any number of millions of Italian-Americans, the wheels start tuning in their heads. Thoughts of how tasty it is, all the different componets; the meatballs, sausages, braciole, (maybe ribs or tne neck), the pasta, and the gravy itself. The think about sitting at the table with friends and or family, people they love. They think about the antipasti that will start the meal and about some good Italian wine, maybe a nice Chianti. They think about the warmth in the air, loved ones, Dino, Sinatra, the Sunday Sauce. “It’s a beautiful thing!!!” If you’ve never done it, “Try it!” If you haven’t cooked one for some time, plan a get-together soon. “Sunday Sauce, it brings people together,” in a most delightful way.


SUNDAY SAUCE is excerpted from Daniel Bellino Zwicke's upcoming new book "LA TAVOLA"
Italian-American New York's Adventures of the Table; Sunday Sauce, Meatballs, Sausage & Peppers, Cannoli, Espresso, Pork Stores and ....

They Eat, they COOK, they laugh, they cry, but most of all their lives are filled with wonderful times around the table as only Italians can do. They do it well.

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