Not Quite Velva’s Sunday Sauce

During the grandkids visit, Reese requested spaghetti with meat sauce and Bev wanted to add some Italian sausage and meatballs so I went to Velva’s recipe for Sunday Sauce at Tomatoes On The Vine.  I have to say this is the most unique sauce I’ve ever seen and considering the meat she used, at some point this ole BBQer will have to try it as she makes it. – please click on the link to have a look at the original.

I generally used Velva's ingredients for the sauce and changed up the meat and the cooking process a little.

Sunday Sauce – adapted from Tomatoes On The Vine

Ingredients:

1½ lb.             Hamburger

1 large            Onion, diced

3 ea.               Shallots, diced

4 cloves         Garlic, minced

3 qts.              Canned tomatoes (we used ours)

6 oz.               Tomato paste

20 fresh         Basil leaves, divided

1 tsp.              Dried basil

½ tsp.             Dried oregano

½ tsp.             Crushed red pepper

¾ tsp.             Salt

½ tsp.             Fresh ground black pepper

2 ea.              1”x2” pieces parmesan rind (had them laying around in the fridge)

Directions:

1. Add hamburger to a large pot and brown over medium heat.

2. When meat is mostly browned, add onion, shallots, and garlic and cook until they are softened, stirring often.

3. Deglaze the pan with some of the tomato liquid scrapping up all of the brown bits (a little red wine could also be used for this).

4. Stir in the tomatoes, dried basil, dried oregano, red pepper, 10 fresh basil leaves, Parmesan rind, and the S&P, bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer fora couple of hours, if time permits.

5. About 30 minutes before serving, add the meatballs to warm up (we used some we had in the freezer) and grill.  

Grill the sausage , cut into desired lengths and add to the sauce. 

6. Just prior to serving, stir in the remaining basil, then serve pasta per your favorite method – we plated the pasta, topped with meat sauce, added the desired meatballs and sausage, and grated parmesan over everything.

Notes: We added the tomato paste as we didn’t have time to cook it long enough to thicken.  For pasta we used a mixture of spaghetti and linguini as that’s what we had on hand, but use your favorite.

Bev and I both decided this will be our new go-to meat sauce.  Thanks Velva for helping with a delicious meal and now I need to invite some friends over and make the original.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

7/24/2013 event date