[Pez]

ok, here's another go at our Pez House Sunday Sauce. I posted this once before but made a botch of it and it got lost to the ether somewhere.

This is a great sauce, time consuming, and labor intensive. I'm a bit of an early riser so I start my Sunday Sauce before anyone else in the house wakes up and it's a chill way to start a Sunday, especially a game day Sunday. Music in my headphones, coffee, a quiet house, and preparing the mise. I make the sauce and simmer it all day. The only two ingredients I would not substitute would be the San Marzano tomatoes, they are the best for long simmered sauces. Also, this recipe calls for wine and there is a rule in the Pez house that if you are cooking with wine, you use a wine that you would drink, not that bottle of weird Holland House "red cooking wine" thats been in the spice cabinet for eight years. Throw that shit away.

The sauce and the meatballs use many of the same ingredients, so some of the prep overlaps. Anyway, off we go:

Sauce Ingredients:
2T. EVOO
1/2 a red bell pepper - fine dice (you use the other half later so dice the whole thing)
1 medium white onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely diced (this is not a precise measurement, you measure garlic with love)
6 oz. Tomato paste
28 oz. crushed San Marzano tomatoes (I dont dig on big tomato chunks in my sauce, sometimes I just get two cans puree, see below)
28 oz. San Marzano tomato puree
1 C. red wine, divided into two 1/2 cups
3/4 C. fresh grated parm
1 T. Sugar
1 t. salt
1 t. pepper
1 T. Italian herb mix (I use Penzey's brand)
1 T. chopped basil (or 1 t. of dried basil)
1 t. Oregano

Meatball Ingredients:
I swear, one day I'm going to make square meatballs. Seems like that would be a hell of a lot easier to brown properly. Anyway, I digress:

3 T. EVOO, divided into 1 T. and 2 T.
The other half of the red pepper
1 medium white onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, fine diced (see note above)
1 lb. 80/20 ground beef (the fat is important so get the cheap stuff)
1 lb. ground veal & pork mix (dont sweat it if you cant find veal, get groupnd pork, or just do another pound of ground beef).
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 C. plan bread crumbs
1/2 C. whole milk (whole is best flavor, 2%, skim etc still ok)
1/2 C. red wine
1/2 C. fresh grated parm
2 t. Italian herb mix (dried)
1 T. chopped Basil
1 T. chopped oragano
1 T. choppped parsely
2 t. salt
2 t. black pepper

I can be a bit of a freak sometimes, but I like to chop and prep all of the stuff above before I do anything else, the full mise en place. Yes, it takes longer. Yes, you could chop the garlic while the peppers and onions are cooking. For me, this adds stress to the act of cooking, and I think you can taste stress in your food. I like to get everything in it's place before I even get the stock pot out, then the cooking is all about linear execution. This is just me, your kitchen is your kitchen, do it how you want.

Make the Sauce
1. In a very large stock pot (we use a Le Creuset knockoff we got for $80 instead of $500), heat EVOO over med-high
2. When hot, add peppers & onion, saute 3-4 mins
3. add the garlic and saute 1-2 mins (if you burn your garlic here, start over)
4. Once the garlic is fragrant add the tomato paste from the 6oz can, then refill the can with water and add that also, stir well
5. Add crushed tomatoes
6. Add tomato puree, then use the can to put in 42 oz water (1.5 of the 28 oz cans)
7. Add one of the half cups of wine, add cheese, add sugar, give this a good stir
8. Add salt, pepper, the dried herbs, basil, parsely & oregano, stir well and give it a min to settle
9. Taste it, then add salt and pepper to taste
10. reduce heat to low, sauce should be at a very low simmer (no lid)
11. Tidy up your space, take a break & drink the other half cup of wine


Make the Meatballs

1. In a small skillet, heat 1 T. of the EVOO over med-high heat
2. Once hot, add peppers, onion & saute 3-4 mins
3. Add the garlic and saute 1-2 mins more (if you garlic gets brown, start over with less heat)
4. Once garlic is fragrant, remove from skillet and spread the mixture out on a dinner plate, put this plate in the fridge or even the feezer (this mixture needs to cool or it does weird shit like cooking the raw eggs that you add later. The plate is to increae the cold surface area it's touching. If you use a bowl instead, stir it every now and then).
5. Combine all remaining ingredients EXCEPT the red wine in a large bowl
6. Once the onion / garlic / pepper mixture has cooled, add to the bowl
7. Mix with your hands until well mixed
8. Form into 24 meat balls, about golf ball sized, perhaps a bit smaller. (meat squares, go for it, you will be forever remembered as an innovator)
9. In a large skillet, heat 2 T. EVOO until hot
10. Brown the meatballs in 3 batches of 8 (this is just for texture, and to keep them together during the long simmer). As a meatball is browned enough, go ahed and drop it into the sauce.
11. After all the browned meatballs are in the sauce, get it back to a slow simmer
12. Tidy up your space, relax and drink the remaining 1/2 cup of red wine.
13. Simmer the sauce for at least two hours, but all day is better. At least two hours so the meat cooks and you don't kill someone with trichinosis. The fat in the meat will render into the sauce as it cooks, thus all day is the sweet spot. Stop by every now and then and give it a stir.

It's usually about 10:00 AM by the time I get to this step. The house is starting to wake up. It's a chill Sunday. I've had 3 glasses of red wine and have 3 hours before the games start. After we watch the colts win their 1:00 game it's 4:30 and we start thinking about making some spaghetti and sitting down.