Recipe: Oven Penitentiary Sauce with Sausage (spaghetti sauce)

OVEN PENITENTIARY SAUCE WITH SAUSAGE
"Sometimes we had to cook sauce in the oven in the kitchen. That would be after the hacks retrieved the pots and pans we'd "borrowed." For a couple of days we could get only hotel pans-those big metal pans they use to keep food warm on buffets. You can't put a hotel pan on top of the stove-they're too thin, they burn right through. So we'd sneak down to the kitchen and make the sauce in the oven. You just have to watch to make sure the sauce doesn't get too thick too fast. One of our crew was the baker for the prison, so when they pulled our stoves, we'd go down to the kitchen and announce to the guards that we were "baking cakes."

But this sauce turned out to be so good I've made it many times on the "outside." Baking a sauce in the oven with the meat makes the sauce really rich and the meat tender. I had to go to prison to learn this?"


1 pound mild or spicy Italian sausage
1/4 cup olive oil
6 to 8 cloves of garlic (about 2 tablespoons)
2 cans (28 ounces each) peeled plum tomatoes with basil, drained, reserving juice
12 large basil leaves, tom in large pieces, or 1 tablespoon dried
1/4 cup finely chopped Italian parsley or 2 teaspoons -1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 cup dry red wine
1 teaspoon each salt and pepper
Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
Fresh Italian bread slices
1 pound pasta of your choice, cooked and drained

Preheat the oven to broil.

Poke sausages allover and place on baking sheets covered with aluminum foil. Broil sausages, turning when browned, 10-15 minutes, until barely cooked.*

Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees F.

Add all remaining ingredients to a large baking pan and mix very well. Place pan in oven. Cook 15 minutes (but watch your back!).

Add sausages to the sauce, and continue cooking, skimming off, any grease that rises to the top, for 45 minutes or until sauce has thickened and sausage is tender.

Serve with 1 pound cooked pasta if you can, and fresh bread to sop up the sauce, or just bread if you can't get to a stove to boil the pasta.

*Henry's Notes and Tips: You don't have to cook the sausages through because they'll finish baking in the sauce. And if they're not fully cooked, they'll add fat and flavor to the tomatoes.

Makes 4 servings
Source: The Wiseguy Cookbook by Henry Hill and Priscilla Davis