Mama's Tomato "Gravy" (Red Sauce)

It's holiday season, and time to make huge quantities of tomato gravy for holiday dinners ... this photo includes meatballs (see other listing on this site), but also for manicotti, spaghetti, chicken parm, and lots of other great menus.

Here's The Empty Nester Gourmet's recipe, adapted from my mom's (which was adapted from her mom's ... and on and on!).

Give yourself ample time to put this together ... choose a rainy or snowy day ... because it needs hours to simmer on the stove-top to come to its full flavor.

Cook ... and enjoy! Buon appetito!


Ingredients

1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
4 pork neck bones
Canned San Marzano tomatoes -- 90 oz.
One 6 oz. can tomato purée
1 c. sweet onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Red wine (1/2 to 1 c.)
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 c. parsley, chopped finely
1/4 c. sweet basil, chopped finely
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp. sugar
Salt and pepper

Process

1. Heat olive oil in dutch oven
2. Salt and pepper the pork bones
3. Sauté the pork bones all over until browned and crispy on all sides.

4. Remove pork bones and sauté onion and garlic in fat renderings. Add olive oil if needed.

5. When onion is translucent, deglaze with red wine.
6. Sauté for a few minutes, until alcohol has evaporated.
7. Add one 6 oz. can tomato purée. Cook four minutes, add salt, pepper and 90 oz. peeled San Marzano tomatoes.

8. Add red pepper flakes, bay leaves, pork bones, oregano and parsley. Using a pair of wide tongs, squeeze tomatoes so they are crushed.
9. Add 1/2 c. red wine.

10. Simmer 2 or more hours, or until sauce is thickened and all ingredients have blended in flavor. Stir in basil.

At this point, you can serve or freeze or refrigerate ... or divide into batches ... freeze some, serve some!

Tarte aux Pommes (Apple Tart)

A delectable sweet treat, au Français. Wonderful straight up, or topped with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. So simple to prepare, yet so sophisticated. Crust is a buttery pate brisée, partially baked. Once cooled, it is brushed with melted strawberry jam, and filled to the brim with thinly sliced Granny Smith and Red Delicious apples, which have been macerated in lemon juice, orange juice, a healthy sprinkle of granulated sugar and a generous grinding of nutmeg. Topped off with more melted jam, baked 'til apples are tender, then popped under the broiler for 2-3 minutes. Voila! The very best apple tarte to serve your v.s.a. (very special amis).

Daube de Gigot (French Lamb Stew)

 

Simple and simply wonderful French lamb stew, adapted from an old family recipe, serves four generously (with seconds and/or leftovers) and is a complete meal all in itself. Make it on an afternoon that you are around the house, writing letters, putting together a photo album or watching a game, because you'll need to hover lovingly over the pot -- to stir and add ingredients over two+ hours. Then serve it to your friends and family with a hearty Burgundy wine. Unforgettable. Leftovers are almost better than the first serving!

Ingredients

2 lbs. lamb round bone shoulder chops, trimmed and cut into 2" pieces (Do not discard any bones.)

4-5 tbsp. butter

1 lb. mushrooms, sliced

1 lb. carrots, cut or sliced into 2" lengths

2 med. yellow onions, cut into 1/4" slices

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 tsp. dried thyme (or 1 tsp. fresh thyme)

3-4 potatoes, cut into 2" pieces, and boiled until tender

1 lb. frozen peas

3 tbsp. flour

1/2 c. hot water

1/2 to 1 c. good quality red wine

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Process

Sauté mushrooms in 2 tbsp. of the butter. Put aside.

In a large Dutch oven, sauté lamb in 2 tbsp. of the butter until browned. Put aside.

 

In fond (juice of sautéed lamb with brown bits), sauté onions and garlic until golden. Make a slurry out of 3 tbsp. flour and 1/2 cup hot water and add to onions. Stir thoroughly. Add more water if necessary. Add 1/2 c. red wine. Let simmer for 10 mins. stirring frequently. Mixture will be thick and fragrant.

To the onions, add the sautéed lamb its juices that have accumulated while resting. Stir thoroughly. Add carrots, sautéed mushrooms, thyme, salt and freshly ground pepper to taste and stir thoroughly.  Set burner to low simmer and add more wine -- 1/4 to 1/2 cup. 

Stir thoroughly every 10-15 minutes, for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Add more water or wine as needed. Add potatoes and let simmer for 15 minutes. Add frozen peas, simmer for 15 minutes more. Voila! It's ready! Serve with a hearty Burgundy and French bread and don't forget to offer seconds!

This Year's Turkey

Our turkey this year was a huge 20-lb. bird that took lots of stuffing and lots of cooking and basting.  We roasted it at 350 for five hours, and 425 for another 40 minutes, basting every 30 minutes with melted butter.  The seasonings ... interior, kosher salt and freshly ground five-peppercorn (from Williams Sonoma) ... exterior, garlic, salt and pepper.  Beneath the bird ... five carrots, five stalks of celery, two onions (quartered) and occasionally, a bit of hot water during roasting to keep veggies from browning too much.  After the bird was removed from the oven, we let it rest and pushed the veggies through a sieve to extract their flavor for our gravy.

Our son hovered in our kitchen this year, learning about cooking a turkey for his own newly-established home in New York City. Teaching him to cook is a true gift for the Empty Nester Gourmet!

Ah, to be in Italy in the Spring ... Risotto alla Milanese with Shrimp and Mushrooms

You can almost feel the pini of Rome swaying gently in the Borghese Gardens while preparing this lovely little dinner.  Fire up your iPod speakers with a selection from Respighi's classic, atmospheric symphony, Pina de Roma, and take a virtual trip to Italy while you put this easy and fast dinner for two (or more) together. The preparation is made all the more simple by the use of an excellent packaged risotto as well as pre-cleaned shrimp and sliced mushrooms. You can get this dinner from pantry to table in less than 1/2 hour!


Ingredients
1 package Alessi Risotto alla Milanese with Arborio Rice & Saffron (see photo at bottom)
1 lb. peeled and deveined raw shrimp
1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Lemon wedges and chopped fresh parsley

Process
1. Prepare Risotto according to package directions.

2. Meanwhile, sauté shrimp in 1 tbsp. butter and 1 tbsp. olive oil, about 3 minutes; set aside.

3. Sauté mushrooms in remaining butter and olive oil; set aside.

4. Approximately 15 minutes before risotto is ready, stir in the shrimp and mushrooms into the risotto.
5. Top with fresh parsley and serve with a lemon wedge. Delicioso!

The Empty Nester Gourmet Recommends

Alessi Risotto alla Milanese ... Excellent, high quality product, and so easy to prepare.

Variations on a Theme: Torta Pesca Rustica*

* Rustic Peach Pie

We love peach pie, especially now when peaches are plentiful, reasonably priced, and oh-so-sweet and juicy.

Here's a delicious alternative to a two-crust pie that uses only a bottom crust it's easier and faster to prepare), and looks every bit as wonderful as our lattice pie, posted earlier.

As in the lattice peach pie, we use overripe peaches and a simple custard-like base that assures a non-watery, firm yet juicy and flavorful filling.

Ingredients
One pastry crust
6-8 overripe peaches, peeled, pitted, quartered and drained of extra juices
1 egg, slightly beaten with fork, for mixture
2/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. melted butter
2 tbsp. flour
1 additional egg + 1 tbsp. cold water, slightly beaten with fork, for egg wash
Ground cinnamon and sanding sugar, for dusting top of pie before baking

Process
1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Gently press pastry crust into the bottom of a baking pie plate, leaving about 2" of crust for folding over peaches.
3. Place the prepared peaches into the crust.
4. Mix the egg, sugar, flour, melted butter in a small bowl. Pour over peaches.
5. Firmly fold the crust over the peaches, stretching slightly.

6. Brush with egg wash, and sprinkle with ground cinnamon and sanding sugar.
7. Bake at 400F for 15 mins. Then lower heat to 300F and bake for another 50 mins.
8. Remove from oven and let cool for two hours before serving.

We serve it with a super-creamy vanilla ice cream and a sprig of mint. Magnifico!

It's the Berries!

 Here's the Empty Nester Gourmet's adaptation of America's Test Kitchen's recipe. It uses six full cups of fresh blueberries, sugar and butter, but don't let it all scare you. It's easy to prep and even better to eat. Here's how:

Ingredients
Double pie crust (packaged or your own)
6 cups fresh blueberries
2 tbsp. quick-cook tapioca
1 Granny Smith apple, grated
Zest of one lemon + 2 tsp. lemon juice
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1/8 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
Sanding sugar
Egg wash (1 egg, slightly beaten with 1 tbsp. cold water)
  
Process
1. Preheat oven to 400F degrees. 
2. Divide the blueberries into half. Simmer 3 cups blueberries and and sugar in a saucepan until reduced to a thick syrupy mixture. Set aside and let cool. When cooled, add them to the cold uncooked bluberries.
3. Mix in tapioca, grated apple, lemon zest, nutmeg, cinnamon and lemon juice.
4. Spread mixture into bottom crust. Top with butter.
5. Work lattice over top of mixture, seal with egg wash and egg wash over top of lattice.
6. Dust with sanding sugar.
7. Bake on parchment-lined, preheated cookie sheet (@400F) for 30 minutes.
8. Reduce heat to 350F, andn bake for another hour, or until filling is set and crust is a golden brown.

Serve with your favorite vanilla ice cream.