Sunday Sauce with good company

So Ladies and Gents, the moment you've all been waiting for.  No Italian Chef can consider himself Italian if he can't make a Sunday Sauce (if you're from New York you call it Sauce, if you're from Jersey, you call it Gravy, in the end I call it delicious!).  For me Sunday dinner is a magical thing.  It usually encompasses a weeks of planning and family gathering and most importantly a meal that will make you undo your belt buckle.  Being that I just finished my midterm I decided to invite some new friends over for a welcome to the island dinner.  

So first off, it isn't a big secret how to make the perfect pasta sauce (although there are somethings that I won't even tell you I do just because I'm privy to my little tricks).  The best advice anyone could give you for cooking in general is get fresh ingredients and all else falls into place.  In this instance you need fresh or in my case since my plum tomatoes just started sprouting in my garden, canned whole peeled tomatoes (as pictured here).  

Next I use about a half a regular to big sized yellow onion, one shallot, and 2-3 (or 4-5 depending on your preference) cloves of garlic.  I chopped them all up as pictured and throw them in a hot pan with, you guessed it, some nice Olive Oil (about 4 tablespoons or enough to cover the pan slightly).  Then let that work its way down, remembering NOT TO BURN THE GARLIC.  The taste of burnt garlic is the hardest to forget and to get out of a dish.  So once that is set, let that work for about 5 minutes or so.

So now we have our plum tomatoes.  Don't they look beautiful.  To me the taste and smell of a tomato is supreme.  It has a quality of sweet and savory that is hard to beat (and some bread dipped in sauce is one of my favorite appetizers before the meal!).  The trick here is simple, take the tomatoes, and crush them with your hands (make sure you've washed them first!  That's rule number one when cooking in my kitchen, wash your hands first and make sure they're always clean.)

The other thing you can do to get the consistency of your sauce to where you want it is blend them in a blender or magic bullet.  I prefer a slightly meatier (in a sauce sense) sauce then a puree.  I like the bite (and the flavor).  I generally break some with my hand and blend the rest to achieve my goal.  

Now that the garlic/onions/shallots are ready throw in the tomatoes and season them with salt and pepper.  Add some leaves a fresh whole basil and that's pretty much it folks.  The only thing you need now is time and proper stirring.

To be more precise you first bring them up to a boil then put it on simmer for 20 min (for a quick sauce) or on Sundays when you have the time 3-4 hours or more depending on what your availability is.  Just know the more concentrated and perplex it will get the longer you leave it on.  When you have it on simmer you'll notice something interesting happen, it will look like molten lava and bubble surreptitiously here and there.  

Here is a video demonstrating what it should look like!

Now that the sauce is set you can read a book, do some work or watch tv until its time to start the rest of the meal.  For tonight (might I mind you that we actually ate at 7:30 pm.  Unlike most Sunday "night" dinners which happen at around 1-2 pm in most Italian households) it was my side of grilled balsamic eggplant.

I skinned the eggplant since the species they have here have slightly tougher skin then what I'm used to but I normally don't.  Next, slice them on an angle nice and thin, then throw them in a bowl with some sliced garlic, onion powder, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.  Throw some lime juice in there too for a nice little tang.  Then set them on the grill (in my case the Foreman grill!).

 Give them about five minutes on each side then give them a flip and that's your side!

I then made a quick salad since I was entertaining six girls I had to make sure there was enough food (which in any Italian household you can never make enough food because God forbid we run out or the whole neighborhood shows up to eat!)  This was fresh Romaine lettuce with some cherry tomatoes (thanks to my sous chef Nita), Mediterranean olives, feta cheese with sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced peeled Fuji apples and some Mango vinaigrette.

And Finally, for the Pasta...now that the company arrived I dropped the pasta and called "tutti a tavola" (Everyone to the table).  For an added bonus I diced some fresh mozzarella in the pasta for that unforgettable freshness.   I gave it a couple tosses with some fresh basil chiffonade and there you go, Sunday dinner!

Special thanks to my lovely guests, Natalie, Melani, Kelly, Richa, Stephannie, and Nita.  They passed the "Sal test" which is if you don't at least offer to clean up after a meal I made, you're not invited over for another meal!  Plus they brought dessert and wine, who's better than me!  They were the best and we had a great evening.  Thanks again!