pasta sauce

[Otto]

Glad to see so many other Sicilians here!  My grandmother would sometimes put a peeled potato in her sauce to tone down the acid.  Sugar? Never.  Carrots? Maybe sometimes, definitely in a Bolognese sauce.   Our sauce has been made the same way in our family for over 100 years.  No onions, no oregano.  Basil? Yes.  Homemade meatballs, pork ribs, sausage sautéed in garlic, then added to 3 jars of puréed tomatoes, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, big glug of red wine,  and that’s it.

We can tomatoes too, we love the San Marzanos,  but they just are not able to ripen 100% in upstate NY.  My cousin grows them on our farm and sells to a lot of grocery stores and at farmers markets.   We end up cutting out a good portion of it just to get the ripe parts.  This year, we canned 96 quarts.  My mother used to do over 200.   

Anyways, if the carrots work for you, great.  Try a potato next time though.  My wife, who is part Irish, says that is her favorite part of the meal. 

[Pygmy]

I heard it called GRAVY on one episode of the Sopranos...That's good enough for me....Hehehehehe....

[Chef]

Gravy hell no, its either called sauce or ragu...will never hear an italian calling a tomato sauce a gravy. 

Guess you've never met a real Italian

It's only gravy on Sunday's when it's cooked all day with meat

 

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[Chef]

Who here puts carrots in their home made pasta sauce? I use high acid tomatoes to can These due to safety ,higher the acid safer the water bath canning. I have had an awful time with the acidity of my sauce in years past...tried everything...the old Italian methods of swt wines and a pinch of sugar,,nope. I can taste the sugar and the acid though I do use a rich wine in my sauces. Then I read about carrots...man I now have the smoothest sauces...I chunk the carrots for those that don't want them but they some how cut that acid and enhances the tomato flavor with just a hint of mild sweetness... So this is why I ask...about who else has heard of this and does it?

I don't use a carrot. I use a whole red bell pepper I poke a ton of holes in it with a fork... let it sit in the sauce while the sauce cooks... cuts the acidity nicely and adds Great flavor.


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[NYBowhunter]

28 minutes ago, chefhunter86 said:

Guess you've never met a real Italian

It's only gravy on Sunday's when it's cooked all day with meat

 

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Cooked all day with meat would be called a ragu, my family is as italiam as it gets. Never called a sauce a gravy, especially a sunday Ragu.

[Chef]

Cooked all day with meat would be called a ragu, my family is as italiam as it gets. Never called a sauce a gravy, especially a sunday Ragu.

Yes in Italy a ragu..... in many Italian American households Sunday gravy


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[NYBowhunter]

17 minutes ago, chefhunter86 said:

Yes in Italy a ragu..... in many Italian American households Sunday gravy


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Im first generation italian american and gravy was never part of my or my families vocabulary when it came to sauce/ragu, guess your not hanging out with the real italians. Plain and simple a sauce or ragu is not gravy. Call it what you want. Now get back to hunting...lol..

[Chef]

Im first generation italian american and gravy was never part of my or my families vocabulary when it came to sauce/ragu, guess your not hanging out with the real italians. Plain and simple a sauce or ragu is not gravy. Call it what you want. Now get back to hunting...lol..

I agree with you and would never call it gravy.... I'm just Shocked you have never heard that before...


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[growalot]

here ya go....

.http://w.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/11/16/it_is_called_sauce_or_gravy_a_slate_investigation_into_the_linguistics_of.html

https://www.thespruce.com/pasta-sauce-gravy-or-ragu-2019557

http://bostoniano.info/northendspirit/eternal-italian-american-debate-gravy-sauce/

[NYBowhunter]

4 hours ago, chefhunter86 said:

I agree with you and would never call it gravy.... I'm just Shocked you have never heard that before...


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Gravy to me always meant that brown stuff you might put on steak or mashed potatoes. Just never heard that term used to reference a sauce.

[sodfather]

19 hours ago, chefhunter86 said:

Guess you've never met a real Italian

It's only gravy on Sunday's when it's cooked all day with meat

 

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This exactly been having dinner at grandparents every Sunday till I was 14. Now it’s my mom and dad just not every Sunday. Dad is %100 Italian Mom is 3/4%. But call it sauce more than gravy 

Edited October 21, 2017 by sodfather

[NYBowhunter]

7 minutes ago, sodfather said:

This exactly been having dinner at grandparents every Sunday till I was 14. Now it’s my mom and dad just not every Sunday. Dad is %100 Italian Mom is 3/4%. But call it sauce more than gravy 

And if they are like my grandparents and parents and were right off the boat, gravy is not even part of their vocabulary.  And if they spoke italian like my grandparents did and my parents do, the term used would be salsa. 

[Dom]

Grow.Carrots work well to reduce acids from sauces as well as grape jelly.I myself I'm Italian and prefer olive oil and garlic traditions I guess.Many ways of making pasta sauces/gravy 

[Nomad]

I'm a mayonnaise face , you mean there's sauce that doesn't come in a jar ?

[JRod 8G8H]

This topic got out of control! "Gravy" is not in our vocabulary, and yes carrots do sweeten the sauce to help remove acidity... But we have never used carrots.. And my non Italian friends use the term gravy. It must be slang? Or as I said before lost in translation at some point.

[NYBowhunter]

14 hours ago, JaredA WNY8G said:

This topic got out of control! "Gravy" is not in our vocabulary, and yes carrots do sweeten the sauce to help remove acidity... But we have never used carrots.. And my non Italian friends use the term gravy. It must be slang? Or as I said before lost in translation at some point.

Ok so i guess we should close this thread. Shut it down mods. Thought forum was for entertainment , information and debate.

[Pygmy]

19 hours ago, NYBowhunter said:

Ok so i guess we should close this thread. Shut it down mods. Thought forum was for entertainment , information and debate.

I'm being entertained, and I learned something...Let 'er ROLL  !!............hehehehe............

[Uncle Nicky]

Who cares what you call it? I've heard Italians call it Marinara also, we all know what it is.

Anyway, I HAVE seen carrots added and later pureed into the sauce. When I make it, I use a lot of onions, which seems to have the same effect of sweetening the sauce as carrots does, I have never had to add sugar. I WILL say that any sauce cooked with meat in it (meatbal fat, sausage, pig's foot, shoulder blade bone, etc.) seems to come out a little sweeter and well-rounded than sauce made without meat. YMMV.

[ny hunter]

Never heard of anyone putting carrots in GRAVY......I remember my dad in front of the stove every Sunday making Gravy from scratch complete with meat balls sauge and bracoil .....Man do I miss that..,

[growalot]

Hhhhmmm It's official...I can apparently get you guys fighting over any subject...

Edited October 23, 2017 by growalot

[The_Real_TCIII]

1 hour ago, growalot said:

Hhhhmmm It's official...I can apparently get you guys fighting over and subject...

CAN NOT!

[Jeremy K]

Red $hit and noodles ,don't try and fancy it up.  That line actually came from an old man who used to clean our old shop. He came here when he was 4 and ended up fighting in the Korean war later on ,he recently passed away . That old man was the biggest bigot I ever met ,he had something nasty to say about every ethnicity other then Cubans ,he would have us cracking up every day with some of the stuff he would say . He could take a joke also ,I don't know how many times someone made comments about him floating here on various car parts or pieces of house furniture.