Episode #4 – Nonna Paolone is back in her home town of Castropignano, Italy where she’ll be teaching us how to make the real authentic homemade tomato and meat based pasta sauce (Ragù) passed down from generation to generation. This is the legit Italian sauce used in all our favorite pasta dishes and also the most important pasta sauce of them all.
Also, in this video Nonna surprises us by making Meatballs… this is an extra bonus for people who want to learn to make homemade classic Italian dishes.
Watch to get the step by step instructions so you can share this dish with your family and friends. One important ingredient that she always adds to her recipe is cooking with her heart. So, be sure when you make this you do it with all your heart. Enjoy!
Ingredients: – Extra Virgin Olive Oil – One whole Onion – MEAT- spare ribs, Italian sausage, chicken legs, meatball, (any meat you like you can put in here. But it in pieces) If this is your first time cooking tomato sauce with meet use the same as what we are using. Spare Ribs, sausage and meat balls) – Salt – Red Pepper Flakes (or any kind of pepper you like using when cooking) – Homemade Tomato Sauce – Tomato Paste – Basil – Parsley – 1 Garlic Clove
***FOR THE MEAT – you can either use fresh meat or if you have frozen meat take it out the night before to defrost it. – Place meat in a pot and fill it with water – Bring it to a boil – Let it boil for 5-10 minutes and remove all the bacteria that rises to the top of the water when its boiling – Take off heat and rise it with hot water. – Place in the pot with the olive oil and onion.
COOKING THE MEAT SAUCE – Place the pot with the meat, olive oil, and onion onto the stove and cook on Medium heat. – Let it fry on medium heat for about 5-10 minutes. – Add salt and pepper – Once the meat is a bit brown add it the homemade tomatoe sauce – Add about a tablespoon of Tomato Paste – Add some basil – Add some parsley – Add one garlic clove – Cover it, but let it breath a little and bring to a boil on Medium heat. – Turn down the heat a little once it starts to boil. – Let the sauce cook for about 1 to 1 ½ hour. Be sure to stir every 10 to 15 minutes. – Once the oil rises to the top and the onion is very soft the meat sauce is done. – Turn off heat and cover it. – Heat up the sauce once you start cooking the pasta to warm up.
MEATBALLS – Ground beef – Garlic (chopped) – Onion (2 tablespoons) chopped. – Salt and or Garlic Salt – Pepper – Parsley – Bread crumbs – Parmasean cheese – 1 Egg
Option 1 – after you make the meatball you can just put it into the meat sauce and let it cook with the rest of the meat
Option 2 – you can fry the meatball with olive oil and once it is brown on all sides you can add it into the meat sauce and let it continue to cook inside the meat sauce.