Charlie Scorsese Makes Gravy in Goodfellas
by Martin Scorsese
GRAVY
My grandmother simply
called this tasty meat sauce Gravy.
It’s made with Veal Shank, chunks of pork shoulder, and Sweet Italian Sausages
braised with a bit of wine and tomatoes. You need long slow cooking to get the
meat tender, and you end up with a hearty, extremely tasty Gravy that everyone will love. All those except people who don’t
eat meat, or don’t eat pork. Well, “Sorry for them,” they don’t know what they’re
missing! As for you, make it, serve it, and relish it!
1 Veal Shank
2 pounds Pork Shoulder
Meat cut into 2” cubes
1 large Onion, peeled
and minced
8 cloves Garlic, peeled
and minced
2 carrots, peeled and
minced fine
2 stalks Celery, washed
& minced fine
¼ cup White Wine
5 – 28 cans Crushed
Tomatoes
3 tablespoons Tomato
Paste
1 Bay Leaf, ½ a teaspoon
Red Pepper Flakes
2 pounds Sweet Italian
Sausages
Season the Veal Shank on
both sides with salt & black pepper. Place half the Olive Oil in a 8-quart
non-corrosive pot and brown the veal shanks on high heat until the veal is nice
and golden brown on both sides, about 10-12 minutes. Remove from pot and set
aside.
Season the Pork Shoulder
meat with Salt & Pepper. Add Pork to the pot and brown over high heat in
two separate batches.
Once all the meat is
nicely browned, remove from pot and set aside. Add onions, celery, and garlic
to pot and cook on low heat for 5 minutes.
Season the onions with a
bit of salt & pepper. Add wine to pan and cook on high heat while scraping
the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. This will dislodge and brown bits
that have a lot of flavor from the bottom of the pan (deglazing). Cook until
the wine is reduced by half its original volume.
Put all the Veal Shank
& Pork back in the pot. Add crushed tomatoes, Bay Leaf, Red Pepper flakes,
and tomato paste to pot. Fill an empty tomato can with water and put the water
in the pot. Bring all to the boil, then lower flame to a low simmer.
Simmer for 2 hours 15
minutes, stirring and scrapping the bottom of the pan occasionally with a wooden
spoon so the sauce doesn’t stick.
After the sauce has been
simmering for 90 minutes, brown the sausages in a pan with a little olive oil
over medium heat until the sausages a lightly browned on all sides. Remove from
pan and let cool for a few minutes.
Once the sausages are
cooled, cut each link into 4 equal pieces each, then put into the sauce.
Remove the Veal Shank
from the pot and let cool for a few minutes.
Once the veal has cooled
enough to handle, remove the meat from the veal shank and break into pieces
that are about 2” square. Put the veal meat back in the pot, and let everything
simmer on low heat for another 45 minutes.
To Serve : Cook 1 or 2
pounds of your favorite maccheroni following the directions on the package. We
like to use; Rigatoni, Mezze Monica, Cavatappi, Cavatelli, or any short
maccheroni that you like.
When the pasta is ready
(finished cooking), remove from heat, and drain in a colander, reserving ¼ cup
or so of the pasta water to mix with the pasta and sauce. Put the pasta back in
the pot it cooked in. Add some of the sauce with the pork and sausages to the
pot. Drizzle a little olive oil over all and mix.
Spoon pasta onto however
many plates you need. Top pasta with some more sauce on top and pass some
grated cheese for your guest to apply them-selves. Buon Appetito!
Excerpted From Daniel Bellino "Z" s new upcoming cookbook,
GRANDMA BELLINO'S ITALIAN COOKBOOK
"RECIPES FROM MY SICILIAN GRANDMOHER"
Available July 2015 on AMAZON.com & Barnes & Noble Book Sellers
Grandma Bellino 's Italian Cookbook
Recipes from My Sicilian Grandmother
by Daniel Bellino Z
PAULIE SLICES The GARLIC
Nice & Thin For The GRAVY
Paul Castellano & Al Pacino
in
Francis Ford Coppola's The GODFATHER
.
CLEMENZA SHOWS MICHAEL How to Make SAUCE
aka
GRAVY
