Rigatoni with Sausage
Dishes like these make me wish I was Italian-American. Not just any Italian-American but 1940’s New Jersey or Upstate NY Italian-American. I wish I grew up on a suburban street lined with houses packed with Italian-American famiglias. I wish those houses were fronted with porches that on Sundays held old men and women listening to baseball games on AM radios.
Inside those houses heavy set grandmothers would prepare a bounty. Just home from church they’d brown sausage veal and short ribs in heavy cast iron pots. In their leavings onions, and garlic would shed harsh qualities while perfuming the kitchen, the house, and eventually the street.
Around 4:00 the 9th inning would draw to a close, and everyone would gather at large tables with simple salads, and simple sides. We’d drink simple wines that were never fussy, but always good. We’d enjoy a meal as more than just sustenance, and we’d be proudly Italian-American.
But for all my wishes I’m of German decent, and the most traditional meal I make is Roast Pork, with Kraut and Spätzle at New Years. I grew up on a golf course and ate macaroni and cheese spiked with canned stewed tomatoes. I ate meatloaf and potatoes mashed with butter and cream.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t play along. Sunday supper can be whatever I want it to be. I’ll take the same red sauce that’s baked for hours in my oven and add well browned short ribs, and a few links of sausage. After the ribs break down I’ll remove the bones, and shred the meat while breaking up any larger pieces of sausage. The resulting ragu will be a thick, meaty, heavy, and satisfying. A perfect Sunday gravy.
Sunday Gravy
Ingredients
1 Tablespoon olive oil
4 beef short ribs
4 spicy Italian Sausages
1 ½ cups yellow onion, minced
3 tablespoons minced garlic
¼ cup tomato paste
3 28 ounce cans tomatoes, seeds removed, sauce reserved
Heaping teaspoon Oregano
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large heavy pan (I use a 5.5 quart Le Creuset dutch oven). Brown the ribs on all sides, and remove. Break up and brown the sausage and remove. Dump off all but 3 tablespoons fat.
Add the onions, and garlic and cook for 5 minutes till translucent. Add the tomato paste and cook stirring almost constantly for ten minutes until the olive oil separates from the tomato paste and onions. Add the tomatoes and reserved sauce and bring to a simmer. Add oregano, rubbing the herb with your thumb in your palm to help release the flavor.
Cover and place in the oven for 3 to 4 hours. The sauce is done when it is darkened, well reduced, thick and chunky. Shred rib meat and return to sauce.
