Italian Red Meat Sauce
Description
This is a wonderful Italian meat sauce that can be used with various pasta dishes like Cauliflower Gnocchi (which you can access easily here by clicking on the recipe title), lasagna, or Eggplant Parmigiana (which you can access easily here by clicking on the recipe title), or even on Pork Chops with Italian Red Meat Sauce (which you can access easily here by clicking on the recipe title). We love it!
At a Glance
Equipment
It is important to have a large, stock pot to prepare this wonderful Italian sauce.
Ingredients
4 tablespoons of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
4 ounces of Pancetta, diced
4 ounces hard Italian Salami, diced
2 links of Italian Sausage, mild
2 links of Italian Sausage, hot/spicy
½ pound of Pork Loin, cut into about ½-inch pieces
½ pound of Beef Steaks, cut into about ½-inch pieces
½ pound of Lamb Meat, cut into about ½-inch pieces
3 White Onions, finely chopped
1 head of Garlic, cleaned and the cloves minced
3 Carrots, shredded
2 sticks of Celery, finely chopped
3 pounds of Roma Tomatoes, skinned and diced (* see note below)
1 can / 29 ounces of a quality Tomato Sauce
1 can / 29-ounce of a quality Tomato Puree
3 tablespoons of Tomato Paste
1 cup of dry Red Wine
Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of McCormick® Grill Mates® Montreal Steak Seasoning
3 tablespoons of dried Italian Herbs
1 cup of Beef Stock (Note: Add more if necessary)
* Note: We grow our tomatoes, so we use fresh Roma Tomatoes from our garden. Canned or diced Roma Tomatoes can be used as a substitute. When fresh Roma Tomatoes are used, boil the tomatoes in water for about one minute to loosen the skin (do not boil them too long, only 1-2 minutes maximum). Remove / peel the skin off, and dice the tomatoes.
Directions
In a large stock pot, add the tomato sauce, the Roma tomatoes, the tomato puree, the tomato paste, the shredded carrots, and half of the dried Italian herbs. Cook it on the stove on a medium-low heat for about a half of an hour while you are preparing the other ingredients.
In a large sauté pan, add 1 tablespoon of the extra-virgin olive oil and the pancetta and cook them until the pancetta is crisp. Using a slotted spoon, move the pancetta to a plate and then cook the salami in the same sauté pan until the salami is crisp. Using a slotted spoon, move the salami to the plate with the pancetta. In the same sauté pan, add the Italian sausages (both hot and mild). Cook the sausages until they are fully cooked throughout -- turning the sausages and letting them brown a bit. Once the sausages are fully cooked, let the sausages cool a bit and then slice them and put them into the food processer and process until the sausages are ground down. Add the sausage meat to the plate with the pancetta and salami. In the same sauté pan, add another tablespoon of olive oil, and add the pork, the beef, and the lamb into the sauté pan, along with the Montreal Steak Seasoning. Cook the meat on a medium-high heat until the meat is browned and drain off any liquid, if necessary. Once it is browned, move the meat to a plate and set it aside.
To the same large sauté pan, add 2 tablespoons of the extra-virgin olive oil, the onions, the garlic, the celery, and half of the Italian herbs and cook them all together until they are translucent. Once they are cooked, set the sauté pan aside.
Using an immersion blender, chop/blend the tomato sauce mixture that is in the stock pot to smooth out the sauce. Once it is smooth, add the meat, the onion mixture, the red wine and the beef stock to the stock pot and let cook for 3 hours on low, stirring frequently. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Add additional beef broth as necessary, if the sauce is too thick.
Serving Suggestion:
I enjoy making a big stock pot of this great sauce, and then we freeze it in several containers so that we can enjoy it on several occasions with several different recipes.