Recipe: Tony Danza's Sunday Sauce with Meatballs and Ribs

SUNDAY SAUCE WITH MEATBALLS AND RIBS

FOR THE SAUCE:
2 cans (35 ounces each) plum tomatoes with basil*
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 cup water
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips

FOR THE MEATBALLS AND RIBS:
1 pound ground sirloin or lean ground beef, pork, turkey, veal, chicken, or any combination
2 eggs
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 pound pork spareribs, trimmed

Strain the tomatoes in a colander to extract the juice, breaking the tomatoes apart with your hands. Discard the pulp. (This eliminates the bitter part of the tomato.)

Next make the meatballs. Put the ground meat in a mixing bowl. Beat the eggs and add them to the meat along with 6 cloves garlic, the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, Parmesan, and milk. Mix this all together with your hands. Wet your hands with water and continue to wet them as you pinch meat from the bowl and roll into 2-inch balls. Roll the balls in the flour.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add 3 cloves chopped garlic and saut until golden brown. Remove the garlic with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the meatballs and saut over medium-high heat, turning them, until they are brown all over. As soon as you can pick them up with a fork, they are ready. You don't want them to be well done. (If the meatball slides off the fork when you pick it up, it needs to cook a little longer.)

Cut the ribs apart. Saute them in the hot oil until very brown and remove. Return the garlic to the oil and add the tomato paste to the pan. Cook, stirring, over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Back to the sauce: Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add 4 cloves garlic, the onion, red and black pepper and saut until the onion is soft and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the juiced tomatoes, red wine, Parmesan, and salt. Add the tomato paste and the water and stir together over medium heat. Add the meatballs and spareribs. Bring to an easy boil, then simmer over low heat for 2 hours.

Add the basil and simmer for 15 minutes more. The spareribs should be very tender, falling off the bone, and the meatballs should float in the sauce.

*In our family we use San Marzano plum tomatoes with basil.

ABOUT THE RECIPE:
Tony Danza: "It's wonderful to grow up in a large extended family with lots of uncles, aunts, and older and younger cousins. My son and I were lucky to have that. My mother's family did more than keep in touch, they lived near each other. In about a five-block radius, we had four sets of aunts and uncles with their children, and my grandma and grandpa too. That guaranteed a full house for Sunday dinner. That meant a big dinner with a big kids' table, and that also meant Sunday sauce.

Sunday sauce was different. First, there was more of it. It was a big sauce in a big pot, and there were a lot of things in it. When my grandfather was alive, you never knew what might end up in the sauce. He liked rabbit and some other stuff he wouldn't tell the kids about. Second, it cooked a long time. No shortcuts on Sunday.

It was fun when everybody was there. My mother's brothers Mike and Tony would kid with my aunt Rose's husband, Vinny. My father and Uncle Phil kidded all the aunts. Uncle Tony lifting me over his head with one hand. All the cousins running around. The Italian and English all mixed up. The neighbors stopping by. The moans and groans when everyone had to leave. Family.

Nowadays my son and I keep up the family Sunday tradition at one or the other of our houses. Most of the time we have it at my house, but we have made it over to his. He and his wife have a great house, right around the corner from our house. That's another tradition we try to keep alive -- living close together. Making up the rest of the regular group are Marc's wife (Julie) and their son (Nicholas), my brother (Matty) and his wife (Jackie), my wife (Tracy) and our two daughters (Emily and Katie -- although now Katie is away at school), and any of our friends who are nearby and hungry. As they used to say when we were kids, "More company! Throw another pound of macaroni in the pot." What they made then, and what we make now, is the Sunday sauce. It always has meatballs and pork ribs, and sometimes has braciole and/or sausages. Obviously this is a meat sauce. Not gravy. We think gravy goes on turkey."

Makes 4 to 6 servings
Source: Don't Fill Up on the Antipasto: Tony Danza's Father-Son Cookbook by Tony Danza