Any Given Sunday the Redux

After my City Bakery lunch time feast, I got down to the business of making my last batch of tomato sauce for this week's meatball tasting. This final pot of sauce (aka gravy) had meatballs that were cooked IN the sauce versus fried or baked.

I attempted to use the same percentage of beef/pork/veal as I did last time but keep in mind; this isn't a hard core science experiment so the combinations may be off slightly. I mixed the meat with loads of freshly chopped parsley, chopped garlic, five eggs, a few tablespoons of part-skim ricotta and wheat bread moistened in some water.

After mixing until my hands were freezing (the meat was still a bit chilled), I decided to add an additional egg, some more parsley and a bit more cheese. It was then that I got down to the business of browning the meat: pork butt, hot sausage and sweet sausage. As you can see by the picture, I overcrowded the pan a bit... I never claimed to be a patient cook.

I removed the meat from my beloved Le Cruset and added two cans of crushed tomatoes, one can of peeled tomatoes; some chicken stock, a generous helping of tomato paste and two bay leaves. I let the tomatoes cook for about 20 minutes or so, scraping up the browned bits of meat from the bottom of the pot and then carefully placed the meatballs into the simmering sauce.

In order to keep the meatballs in tact, I let this cook for a good 30 - 45 minutes before adding the browned meat back into the pot. I continued to let this simmer away for a few hours, stirring occasionally and seasoning with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and garlic powder. The consistency of this sauce (aka gravy) was a bit different than the other two sauces. I am sure that is due to cooking the meat in the sauce. The cheese was allowed to seep out a bit and it seemed to make the sauce lighter in color and consistency.

Too beat to make anything else for dinner, I treated myself to a plate of whole wheat rotelle with a scoop of ricotta. I was pleased with my efforts - I can't wait to see what the panel thinks!