Sunday Gravy (Italian-American Ragù)

Italian-American Sunday gravy — a long-simmered tomato sauce with multiple meats (braciole, meatballs, sausage, pork ribs, sometimes pigs' feet) cooked together for 4-6 hours — is the Italian-American family's weekly ritual and the direct ancestor of Creole red gravy (LA2-12). The technique traveled from Naples and Sicily to the tenements of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, where the abundance of cheap American meat transformed a Southern Italian tradition of stretching a small amount of meat across a pot of sauce into an American tradition of loading the pot with every available cut. "Gravy" (never "sauce" in Italian-American households — the distinction is tribal) is made on Sunday morning, simmers all day, and feeds the extended family at the Sunday dinner table. The pot of gravy IS the family gathering.

A large pot of tomato sauce — San Marzano or good quality crushed tomato, garlic, olive oil, basil, and oregano — in which multiple meats are braised simultaneously: meatballs (AM7-03), Italian sausage (sweet and/or hot), braciole (thin-pounded beef rolled around a filling of breadcrumbs, garlic, Parmesan, parsley, pine nuts, and bound with kitchen twine), and pork ribs or neck bones. The meats are browned first, then simmered in the sauce for 4-6 hours. The sauce darkens from bright red to deep brick-red. The meats are removed and served on a separate platter. The sauce goes over pasta (rigatoni, penne, or spaghetti). The gravy is both the sauce and the cooking method — the meats flavour the sauce and the sauce flavours the meats.

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