Italian Sunday Sugo

This is the sauce Italian American families call Sunday gravy, and it needs saying plainly: it is a meat sauce, not a gravy in the British sense. There is no roux, no stock, no thin pouring liquid. Tomatoes and several cuts of meat go into one pot for three hours and come out as something thick and dark that dresses pasta first and provides the meat course second. That is how it is eaten in a lot of Italian and Italian American homes, and it is worth the afternoon.

Ingredients

Makes about 1.5 litres of sauce plus the meat, enough for eight

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 500g (1lb 2oz) pork spare ribs, separated
• 400g (14oz) beef shin or braising steak, in large chunks
• 4 Italian pork sausages salsiccia if you can get it, from an Italian deli
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 stick celery, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 3 tbsp tomato puree
• 200ml (7fl oz) dry red wine
• 2 x 400g tins of whole plum tomatoes, crushed by hand San Marzano if you can, they are less acidic
• 500g (1lb 2oz) passata
• 1 Parmesan rind if you have one in the freezer, which you should
• 1 small bunch basil, stalks and leaves separated
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• salt, black pepper and a pinch of sugar

Kit

• Large heavy casserole
• Wooden spoon
• Tongs

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy casserole over a medium high heat. Brown the ribs, beef and sausages in batches, about eight minutes a batch, until they have a proper dark crust on at least two sides. Do not crowd the pan or they will steam. Lift each batch onto a plate as it is done.

2. Turn the heat down to medium low and add the onion, carrot and celery to the fat left behind. Cook this soffritto gently for twelve to fifteen minutes until completely soft and sweet, scraping up the browned residue as it loosens.

3. Add the garlic for one minute, then the tomato puree. Cook the puree for three or four minutes, stirring, until it turns from bright red to a dark brick colour. This removes its tinny edge and is worth the wait.

4. Pour in the wine and let it bubble for five minutes, scraping the base, until it has reduced by half and lost its sharp smell.

5. Add the crushed tomatoes, passata, Parmesan rind, basil stalks and oregano, along with 200ml of water swilled around the tomato tins. Return all the meat and any juices from the plate.

6. Bring to a simmer, then drop the heat as low as it will go so you get a bubble every few seconds and no more. Cook uncovered, or with the lid ajar, for three hours. Stir every twenty minutes and scrape the bottom, because this sauce will catch and burn if you leave it.

7. It is ready when the sauce is dark brick red, the oil has risen to the surface in orange pools and the beef falls apart under a spoon. Lift the meat out onto a warm dish and remove the Parmesan rind and basil stalks.

8. Season the sauce with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar only if the tomatoes were sharp, then tear in the basil leaves. Toss a little of the sauce through rigatoni or pappardelle as a first course, and serve the meat afterwards with more sauce spooned over.

Tips worth knowing

• The browning at the start is where most of the depth comes from. A pale sauce three hours later almost always traces back to a rushed first ten minutes.
• A low heat and a long time is the point. Boiling it hard for an hour is not the same sauce and the meat will be tough and stringy rather than falling apart.
• Keep Parmesan rinds in the freezer. Dropped into a sauce like this they slowly dissolve and give a savoury depth that grated cheese stirred in at the end does not.
• For a non-alcoholic version, replace the wine with 200ml of beef stock plus 2 tsp of red wine vinegar and reduce it in the same way.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps five days in the fridge and is better on day two. Freezes for six months, meat and all. Reheat slowly with a splash of water, since it thickens considerably as it sits.

Questions people ask