PASTA QUEST DAY...week 3...DAY 17

5-22-11


Sunday pasta…spaghetti with a pork based gravy.

This is the meal that makes the whole house smell good enough to eat. There was a time…almost magical when I look back now…when I could tell my mother’s gravy from aunt Dolly’s, aunt Era’s, aunt Mary’s, and uncle Fatty’s. Of course hers was my favorite, but they were all wonderful, and I bet all of my cousins could say the same thing!

INGREDIENTS:

Spaghetti
Olive oil, garlic, onion (optional), and red pepper flakes
28 oz. can of San Marzano whole, plum tomatoes
Basil, dry or fresh
“Splash” of red wine
Pork neck bones

PROCESS:

Brown the meat in olive oil, remove, and deglaze pan w wine if needed. Add all scrapings and residual wine to the meat. Add oil to the pan, cook onion and garlic until soft (add red pepper flakes if desired). Add tomatoes and herbs and cook for 5-10 minutes then add the meat to the pot, cover, and simmer for 2-3 hours. Cook with lid off to thicken sauce if needed.

COMMENTS:

I can’t possibly rate this meal. Whether I use pork, or chicken, or sausage, this gravy and the spaghetti never fail to take me home…to my parents, our farm, the kitchen, and the 3 of us sitting down to dinner on a Sunday afternoon. It is so much more than just a dish of pasta; it is a lifetime in a meal.

OK, so I’m getting a little sentimental now, but isn’t that what family meals are about? Certainly it is what I am about. Every pasta dish I prepare is a link to parts of my personal history that I do not want to lose.