The Sunday Gravy Experiment – Part 1: The Introduction – Sybaritica

“Hey, come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys someday… You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it, you make sure it doesn’t stick. You get it to a boil, you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs… And a little bit of wine. And a little bit of sugar, and that’s my trick.”

Who can forget that terrific scene in ‘The Godfather’ when Fat Clemenza shares his special sauce recipe with Michael Corleone? Old Clemenza never uses the term but what he is basically cooking is one of the countless variations on the tomato based sauce that generations of Italian-Americans have come to call  gravy, or, more particularly, ‘Sunday Gravy’…

The ‘Sunday Gravy’ for those unfamiliar with the term, is a tomato sauce in which meats, such as sausage, meatballs, braciole, and the like, are cooked so that they contribute their richness and flavor. The sauce, or gravy, if you will, is then served over pasta with the meat then being served separately, either at the same table, or perhaps as part of subsequent meals. Personally, I love the whole idea of this lovely culinary tradition and, ever since being first acquainted with the notion, I have been fascinated by those recipes and recollections (like this)of those who describe their mothers or grandmothers beginning the base tomato sauce early on a Sunday morning and then adding the meats in various stages before the family finally assembles for the feast.

Another loosely related culinary tradition that has long interested me involves those  preparations like the Chinese ‘Master sauce’ in which a flavored stock is kept alive for years… generations even… by periodically replenishing and adding to the basic ingredients so that, over time, the various additions build layer upon layer of rich and complex flavor.

Now, the typical Sunday gravy is usually made and consumed in a short period but it occurs to me that these two culinary traditions might be combined in some fashion. It would, I think, make an interesting blog experiment to create a basic sauce and then see how it develops over time so I have decided to do a series a posts detailing the experience. Please join me, then, as I create a stock, use it as the base for a rich tomato sauce, and afterwards, as the weeks pass, add to the complexity original recipe while creating a whole range of other delicious meals…

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