Tomatoes galore from the garden (2 roma plants, 2 san marzano plants, 1 pink Cherokee plant for slicing, and 1 brandywine plant also for slicing) and onto my 3rd batch of sauce, I wanted to mix things up and make a meat gravy as my grandmom would call it. For this I only use the san marzano and roma (aka plum)tomatoes. First I need to start the sauce so I coat the bottom of the pot with olive oil and turn the heat on very low. Small dice half an onion and mince a bunch of garlic (probably 1/2-3/4 of a bulb). Add them to the olive oil and let them melt into the oil. Meanwhile boil some water and have an ice bath ready. Make an "X" on the bottom of the tomatoes and add a few to the boiling water for about 30 seconds, then remove and dunk in the ice bath. I do mine in batches for more control and keeping the sizes of tomatoes similar. Bigger ones need some more time, than smaller ones. Once all the tomatoes have been quickly blanched the skins should easily peel right off.
Before peeling the tomatoes back to the onion and garlic in the olive oil. When they start to look soft, clear, and slightly brown (pictures would not help sorry it's just a look feel thing learned from my grandmom) I add 2-3 baby carrots depending on the amount I am making. I also add dried oregano, dried basil, salt, pepper, and some crushed red pepper. Keeping on low mix around so everyone gets happy in the pot. At this point that is usually where I stop seasoning for my red sauce, however since I will be adding meat to this I also add some fennel seeds.
You can use fennel bulb instead of onion in the beginning and not use the fennel seeds, however I only do that when I am making this for a large group, and not just me.Back to the tomatoes, peel and rough dice them. I turn the heat to medium and add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer before lower the heat back down.
Another only me eating this change. I usually brown all the meat first before making the sauce so all the flavors are in the one pot, but I did started the sauce then added the meat to save me some time, as this usually takes me from sun up, until dinner time to make.While the sauce was cooking away, I made the braciole. I laid it on the cutting board, added garlic, Italian bread crumbs, salt, pepper, oregano, fresh parmesan cheese, and a couple raisins before rolling and toothpicking. Then browned them in my cast iron before dropping them and the droppings into the sauce simmering away.
Next up were the meatballs, I used beef/pork/veal mixture, aka meatloaf mix. I finely grate onion and garlic to almost a puree, and add fresh parmesan, fresh oregano, salt, pepper, and 1 1/2 pieces of bread (per pound of meat) soaked in milk. I mix all of that together before adding the ground meat mixture, and roll into balls. I had some smoked Gouda and have stuffed meatballs in the past so I decided to use it up and added a cube of smoked Gouda to eat meatball. I have used smoked mozz but the cheese melted out of the meatballs and made a mess. It was good but the Gouda does not melt like mozz so it works much better.
Same thing with the meatballs, Cast iron then everything into the simmering sauce.
Stir everything once in a while so it cooks evenly but be careful not to damage the meatballs as they are fragile (fragiLAY).
When doing this for big events I also add both sweet and spicy Italian sausage and a bone in pork chop or two. With the sausage if using links, half them, or if using the long rope about 3-4" pieces so people can mix and match. I usually let it go for a few hours to make the meat is cooked and tender, and so the sauce can cook down and reduce. Of course the more meat the longer it takes. We always have it with rigatoni, fresh basil, fresh oregano, and freshly grated parmesan cheese with some bread. I made some quick garlic bread (soften butter, garlic paste {garlic and sea salt mince and smash with knife until smoothish}, oregano, basil, then top the bread with cheese and bake).
Meatball cut in half to see the cheese inside:
I know this is a lot, but any questions with process just ask I will try to clear it up but this has been at least 15 years in learning and practice.
