Nonna's Sauce

This is the recipe for my Nonna's sauce. But to be honest I don't follow it exactly and technically here is no recipe. Sometimes I don't use mushrooms. Sometimes I add more wine. Sometimes it needs more tomatoes. The key though is letting it simmer for those 4-5 hours. And then right before serving the sauce add a stick of butter to it and let it melt. Stir it up and it's perfect! 

Red sauce

2 chicken legs

2-3 chicken thighs

3/4 red wine

3 cloves garlic 

5 baby carrots

 

1/4 cups chopped parsley

1 tbsp chopped rosemary

1 8oz can tomato sauce

2 cans crushed or diced tomatoes 

1-2 tbsp sugar

Fresh mushrooms

1 can crushed tomatoes with Italian spices

1 can reduced sodium chicken broth

Salt/pepper

In a Dutch oven pot brown meat in about 2-3 tbsp olive oil. Remove from pot and set aside. 

In cuisinart chop parsley, garlic, mushrooms (or you can slice them) and carrots. Place another couple tablespoons olive oil in pan and add in chopped mixture. Cook over medium heat for about 7 minutes. Add wine and let wine reduce by half or so. Add meat back in pot. Back in the cuisinart add the tomatoes and chop them so that there are only minimal chunks. Add all tomatoes and sauce to the pot along with sugar and chicken broth. Now this simmers on low heat for about 4-5 hours. You can add in more chicken broth if it gets to thick. This is the perfect sauce for gnocchi and ravioli. You can replace the chicken with ground beef and or Italian sausage links. You can also eliminate the meat if you want a meatless sauce. 

Mangia! Mangia!