This is a meaty Italian-style pasta sauce suitable for spaghetti, lasagna, ravioli, whatever. It features what I call an “Equalizer” technique I accidentally invented accident years ago. In hindsight it seems simple and obvious enough that SOMEBODY must have done it, but I’ve never seen it anywhere else. And I’ve looked.
Slowly reducing reducing a spaghetti sauce uncovered over low heat brings out the deep “Basso profundo” flavors so satisfying in a good Spaghetti sauce. Unfortunately, all that time under heat diminishes the brighter, fresher notes of the tomato.
But we can fix that by reserving a significant portion of the sauce (around one third or one quarter) very early in the cook. When the main batch is about ready, we return the reserved sauce and cook relatively briefly. This restores the “treble” flavors back into the mix without muting the “bass”.
I discovered this trick in my Mother-in-law’s kitchen while making a batch big enough for two large lasagnas. The biggest pot available was just barely big enough to hold the batch, right up to the lid. Any attempt at stirring would slop sauce over the side. It was a family holiday so burners were also at a premium, preventing fixing it by dividing the batch and use 2 burners. So I was forced to remove enough sauce to fix the problem.
That left me with less sauce than I needed for my two lasagnas. While brooding over that during the long cook, it occurred to me I could return the removed sauce (which was in the fridge) once the main sauce was cooked, and had reduced enough to make room for the “reserved” barely cooked stock. Then let it all get re-aquainted while everything came back up to temp.
Talk about a winner! Returning the lightly cooked sauce near the end restored the bright flavors while leaving the traditional deeper flavors intact. It’s like turning up both the bass and the treble on your stereo, thus “Equalizer”.
Make a big batch! A couple of days in the fridge or a few months in the freezer will do the sauce no harm at all.
The baseline amounts are calibrated to produce enough sauce for one lasagna made in a standard 3 quart lasagna pan — It does NOT make 3 quarts of sauce.
| Servings |
quart lasagna pan
|
- 1 lb coarse ground venison. — or lean ground beef if you must.
- 1 lb Italian pork sausage — Hot if that's ok with your crowd. Maybe sweet if not.
- 1 large diced white or yellow onion
- 2 cloves diced garlic — crushed/diced
- 12 oz tomato paste — small can is 6oz
- 28 oz canned crushed or stewed tomatoes
- 2 diced fresh ripe tomatoes. — Flavor really matters here - many grocery store tomatoes are quite bland. Get good ones!
- 13 oz canned tomato sauce or puree
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley — Add when returning the reserved sauce
- 2 tsp dried basil — better is to triple amount using fresh minced.
- 2 tsp dried oregano " "
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme " "
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary " "
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds — Crush them a bit.
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt — back off if you like. Don't go higher until final taste.
- 3/4 cup Full bodied dry red wine (e.g. Cabernet) — if more liquid is needed, use either wine or stock.
- 1 oz brandy
Ingredients
Veggies
Herbs (if using fresh, reserve until 20 minutes or so before returning the reserved sauce. Except the Rosemary, which you chop fine & add early)
Other Stuff
|
|
- Mix meats together, form into wide thin patties and brown well in hot skillet. Chop patties into small chunks and set aside.
- If there is much liquid left behind, separate it and either discard the fat or return it to the pan. I return it. Reserve the remaining liquid.
- add oil to skillet and slowly saute the onion and garlic for 2 or 3 minutes
- Add the tomato paste and mix with the onion and garlic. Heat for a few minutes
- Deglaze with just enough of the red wine to do the job.
- Add all remaining tomato ingredients. If using stewed, optionally first snip the large chunks into smaller chunks with kitchen shears.
- Simmer 10 minutes then remove ~1/3 of sauce and set aside to cool a bit, then stage in the fridge while the main batch reduces.
- Return browned ground meat to skillet.
- Add the salt, sugar and ground pepper, and all remaining herbs and spices (except fresh herbs reserved till end) and bring to a simmer.
- Add any remaining liquids.
- Simmer uncovered, stirring frequently (every 5 minutes or so - I set a timer every time to remind myself) until reduced to a good thickness. It takes a while. It goes fastest if you have a nice wide, shallow skillet or saute pan. When reducing anything, surface area is your friend. The wider the better. You can speed things up with more heat, but if it's hotter than a slow simmer you'll need to stir relatively constantly, and forgetting could ruin the batch.
- NOTE ON SAUCE TEXTURE: If you plan to use this sauce on fresh or "ready to bake" pasta (noodles you don't boil) the sauce should be looser because the noodles will need to soak up some liquid. You can stop reducing earlier, while it is still fairly loose, or add liquid back after reducing using any combination of dry red wine, tomato juice, stock or water. If adding liquid back, bring the sauce back up to a simmer before continuing.
- Mix in the parsley and any other reserved fresh herbs.
- Mix the reserved sauce back in. Bring to a simmer, then stir periodically for 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Remove bay leaf. Taste and add salt/pepper as necessary.
- If not using right away, cool quickly. If planning to store, don't delay. I chill mine in freezer-safe canning jars, then freeze. You can also can it and store it in your pantry, but be POSITIVE you know the correct safe techniques for canning.
Options: Add Roughly 1 Tbsp butter for each 6oz of tomato. Add a little olive oil to the sauce.
Tip: If mixing pasta and sauce together at the table or just before serving, reserve a ladle or two of the pasta water and mix it into the sauce just before serving. No need to do this for lasagna or any other baked casserole-style pasta dish. It helps the pasta and sauce bond a bit better.
If you can, mix in a ladle or two of your pasta water at the end.