Posted on 04/23/2023 6:27:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Sunday gravy may be the most indelible image of Italian-American culture. Sunday gravy – also called Sunday sauce — is a meat and tomato sauce served over pasta and a staple of home cooking in American cities with a large Italian immigrant population. A vat of sauce overflowing with sausage, meatballs, ribs, or whatever else your family told you was essential to making it, it's not a subtle dish. Instead, it's a weekly celebration, an embrace of bounty, and a tribute to the joy of food in one pot. Sunday gravy is also a classic family dish, not only because it's usually eaten as a big family meal but because distinct recipes are passed down through generations.
Like any immigrant cuisine, Italian-American cooking is a mix of original recipes adapted to the tastes and ingredients of their new home. Dishes like chicken parmesan and marsala are both based on ingredients or preexisting dishes in Italy but became American with the addition of chicken, which was cheaper and more plentiful in the United States than it was in the old country. Sunday gravy, on the other hand, is actually one of the most straightforward culinary transfers from Italy to the U.S. Perhaps owing to its inherent variability, very little changed from the dish Sunday gravy is based on when it crossed the Atlantic. It came from the city of Naples and the region of Campania, and it is as beloved there as Sunday gravy is over here.
Sunday gravy is the Italian-American version of Neapolitan ragù
Italian ragùs are a whole world unto themselves, as they include basically any meat-based pasta sauce, but two classics have come to define the genre. One is the familiar Bolognese, the famous Northern Italian sauce of chopped meat, which traditionally includes few or no tomatoes. The other is less well known in the U.S. by its original name, Neapolitan ragù, but it is the tomato-sauce ragù that became Sunday gravy. Beyond tomatoes, the defining difference between the regions' ragùs is how the meat is treated. In the Neapolitan version, the meat is cooked whole in the sauce, as opposed to the minced or ground meat in Bolognese. Neapolitan ragù also usually includes multiple different cuts of meat, from beef short ribs to pork chops, that will vary by region and chef.
While both Bolognese and Neapolitan sauces made their way to America, the Southern version came to define Italian-American dinners for the simple reason that most immigrants came from Southern Italy. Its long simmering time lent itself to weekend cooking, and by the mid-20th century, it had adopted its Americanized nomenclature of "gravy," becoming the tradition that many Italian families love to this day. In the process, there were only a few small changes, spaghetti became the favored pasta, the meat was served in the sauce instead of on the side, and meatballs were more common. Beyond that, Sunday gravy is a Neapolitan ragù in every way but name.
I splurged and go the Karu 16. I tried using the Weber kettle with their pizza stone, but I just couldn’t get the Weber hot enough, even with wood added on top of the lump charcoal. My infrared thermometer said the stone varied from 250 to 300F, nowhere near hot enough. Our GE oven goes to 550F which worked pretty well.
I’ve been using store-bought pizza dough which has worked pretty well, but I just bought some Italian Caputo 00 flour and am going to try my own dough, too.
I’m excited to get the Karu 16 going tomorrow. Looking forward to patio pizza parties this summer!
I thought about building one and watched a lot of videos about how to do that, but I had the same problem you describe — where to put it. I finally splurged on the Ooni because I can move it into storage for the winter. It weighs about 65 pounds, so not light, but easily moved with two people. And I can set it up on a table on the patio for parties.
That’s delicious, too!
And asparagus and egg sammies, especially in the spring with new tender stalks. A little romano..some tomato...dang I am hungry!
The first 2 paragraphs capture the essence of Sunday gravy/sauce. And of the Italian-American experience.
Our sauce recipe is a closely guarded heirloom. You need to be married at least 5 years before your spouse gets to know how its made...LOL!
I was all ready to build a serious masonry oven about a dozen years ago. Was doing a big back yard makeover, I have a file somewhere with the 8-1/2 x 11 layout plans from the landscape architect. Or maybe I made them on top of the plans he had made, I can’t recall.
Anyway, I came to the realization that it was going to take HOURS to bring that mass of masonry up to temperature. HOURS!
About that time I became aware of a thing called a 2stone Pizza Grill. Sort of an Ooni that you set on top of a gas grill, and used the gas grill to provide the heat.
It worked quite well, and it took only 20m or so to bring it up to 700F on the bottom stone. That was my answer for 10-11 years. It was starting to deteriorate, so I got the Ooni Koda 16. Which also takes about 20m to bring up to temp.
The masonry oven was perhaps the best thing I never built.
Sounds like my Maw Maw in Oak Cliff.
Soprano’s Sunday Gravy
Good, but you gotta have the pork. That’s the flavor.
Goodfellas, 1990
https://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/56/Sopranos_Sunday_Gravy52124.shtml
1 pound meaty pork neck bones or spareribs
1 pound veal stew meat, in 1-inch cubes
OR
2 veal shoulder chops, cut in 1-inch cubes
1 pound Italian-style plain or fennel pork sausages
That’s one thing I miss about Italy (was last there in 1995). Supino’s in Detroit comes reasonably close.
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