From our local Italian restaurant, Pino’s.
Growing Up Italian – “Sunday Sauce” . Growing up Italian – restaurant recipe #1. Pino’s would like to share our popular house made marinara recipe. In many Italian families, we call this “Sunday Sauce”. Everyday at 9:30 am, Chef’s Jose and Alejandro begin the 100 year old Italian-American tradition. Mornings are my favorite times at the restaurant. Smells like Sunday at Nonna’s house. Loaf of bread and a bowl of sauce….forgetaboutit. You can still enjoy the aromas over lunch. Fun fact 1 – today’s traditional marinara is not really from Italy. At the turn of the century, Italian immigrants brought various sauce recipes from the old country. Using anchovies, capers, cheese and various other Italy favorites. Over time Americans didn’t care for some of those non traditional ingredients and settled on a Americanized version. And it is SAUCE not gravy.
Recipe:
- 8 – 8 ounce cans crushed tomato’s 8 – 8 ounce cans of pealed pear tomatoes
- 1 – 8 ounce can (or equivalent) or puree
- 1 large onion chops and minced. You can never put too much.
- 1/2 cup of minced garlic, yum!
- 1/2 cup of chopped FRESH basil
- 1/3 cup of chopped ITALIAN parsley (Italian)
- 1 tablespoons of black pepper
- 2 tablespoons of oregano
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- 1 cups of pure olive oil. Not extra virgin. 100% pure. You can buy it at Sam’s.
- 1/4 cup of sugar.
- 1 1/2 cups of water
Directions: Break up the pear tomatoes. We have a commercial machine. You could use your hands. Leave a little chunky, not purée. Very small chunks. Sauté the garlic and onion using the 100% pour olive oil until soft (not brown). You can do this in the large sauce pot. No need for a separate pan. At this point you should be smiling from the aromas from heaven. Pour olive oil tastes like butter and is best for cooking. Extra virgin has an earthy taste and is best for salad. Add the tomato and all the ingredients into the large pot and stir. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 45 minutes. Not a minute more. Stir and stir. Don’t let it burn on the bottom. You are done making your home smell Italian. Mamma would wake up early every Sunday morning to start the sauce, and the rest of us would wake up from the aromas. Mangiamo! Fun fact # 2. Do you know why Italy has so many churches? Because every Italian will lie and never admit they add sugar. They must confess their sins. You will not find an Italian who will admit it. I watched my dad add it for years but never admit it. Mamma would look you in the eye, show me the wooden spoon and say NEVER, while the other hand was adding the sugar. Fun Fact #3 The wooden spoon in the picture had 2 purposes. 1 to make the sauce and 2 to keep me quite. I’m a wooden spoon survivor.
Growing up Italian. Pino