Long-Cooked Sugo and Meatballs

Preparation

1. Frying the Soffritto and Starting the Sugo

   Step 1

   Pour the olive oil into the pan, drop in the onions and shallots, and set over medium high heat. Stir for a minute or two, until the onions begin to sizzle.

   Step 2

   Drop the garlic into a hot spot and spread it out to caramelize for a minute, then stir with the onions. Stir in the carrot and celery, and get them cooking; drop in the bay leaves and cook the soffritto for another 4 minutes, until it is starting to dry out. Lower the heat if necessary to prevent burning.

   Step 3

   Push the vegetables to the side and drop the tomato paste into a hot spot. Toast it for a minute or more, then blend it into the soffritto. Pour in the milled tomatoes and juices, and stir; slosh the tomato container with a cup of hot broth or water and stir that in too. Bring the sauce to a boil quickly, and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes or more, stirring frequently, until it has just begun to thicken.

   Step 4

   Pour in 4 cups of the hot broth, stir it in, and note now the level of the liquid in the pan: this is about the level that the sugo should be at the very end of cooking, after the meatballs have been removed. Stir in another quart of the broth, and bring to a lively boil.

   Step 5

   For turkey meatballs, submerge the cinnamon stick in the sauce. For sausage meatballs, stir in the orange zest, fresh thyme leaves, and up to 1/2 teaspoon of peperoncino, to taste.

   Step 6

   Cover the pot and adjust the heat to maintain a steady but gentle bubbling all over the surface of the sugo. Let it cook for at least an hour or longer, checking the pot every 20 minutes or so. It should be reducing steadily. If it’s barely dropping, or not at all, raise the heat and set the cover ajar to speed its concentration. If it’s dropping extremely fast, lower the heat to slow the evaporation. Add hot broth or water if needed to keep the sauce at the level you want.

   Step 7

   Make either the turkey or sausage meatballs while the sugo cooks, following the directions at the end of this recipe.

   Step 8

   Have the sugo at a gentle simmer over low heat when the meatballs are fried and ready to go into the saucepan. Have hot broth or water on hand if needed. Drop the meatballs in one at a time; fit as many as you can in the bottom of the pan in one layer, but leave enough space to roll them around. Drop the rest of the meatballs in to make a second layer. Add hot broth or water if necessary so the meatballs are all covered with liquid. Stir gently to mix the broth with the sugo—don’t break the meatballs! Cover the pan and raise the heat slightly to bring the sugo back to a simmer. Set the cover ajar and adjust heat to maintain steady simmering (but no threat of burning the meat on the bottom), and cook the meatballs for 35 to 40 minutes.

   Step 9

   Turn off the heat and let the meatballs cool in the sugo and absorb more of its flavor (unless you need them right away). When cool, remove them to a big bowl. If the sauce is thin (probably well above the 2-quart mark), return it to a boil gradually and cook it uncovered to thicken. Stir frequently as it thickens; reduce it to the 2-quart level, or to whatever consistency you like—that’s the most important guideline. Taste the sauce during this final cooking, and add salt, if needed, or adjust the other seasonings.

   Step 10

   Serve sauce and meatballs right away if you want. Otherwise, pack the meatballs in containers with enough sugo to cover and the rest of the sauce in separate containers. Portion them, for convenience, in the amounts you’ll use in different dishes. Store in the refrigerator for 4 days, or for several months in the freezer.

2. Must Meatball Be Fried?

   Step 11

   Frying meatballs before adding them to the sauce adds another layer of flavor and creates a crust that holds the meat together so the ball doesn’t break apart in the sauce. But it is not essential, and unfried meatballs can be quite good providing they have lots of sauce to cook in, so increase the sauce by a third (or decrease the meatballs by a third) if you choose the unfried method.

3. Good With . . .

   Step 12

   As a topping for a big bowl of dressed pasta (ziti, rigatoni, spaghetti)

   Step 13

   As a meat course with vegetables, following a first course of dressed pasta

   Step 14

   With fresh pasta (tagliatelle, pappardelle)

   Step 15

   In baked pasta, such as cavatappi-and-meatball torta (page 196; 2 cups of sugo and 6 meatballs needed)

   Step 16

   As a topping for polenta

   Step 17

   Gnocchi

   Step 18

   In a risotto, using the sauce and broken-up meatballs

   Step 19

   In a fresh-pasta Lasagna with Sausage Meatballs and Sugo (page 206; 4 cups of sugo and 12 meatballs needed)

   Step 20

   As a filling and sauce for ravioli

   Step 21

   In a sandwich

4. Sugo—The Gravy for Meatballs

   Step 22

   Sugo, or gravy, is a long-cooking sauce that has a big component of meat in it, which releases its flavors as it cooks and transforms the sauce into a more complex and flavorful gravy.

5. Step 23

   This is the base in which I cook meatballs. Here I give you two different recipes for meatballs, one made from turkey meat and the other made from sausage meat. Both are quite easy to make.

6. Step 24

   The common denominator in both is the sugo, and the base for a good sugo is a soffritto—that essential Italian technique of cooking vegetables and aromatics in fat or olive oil slowly over low heat. Italian cuisine uses a soffritto as the start of many dishes—soups, braised meats, and pasta sauces. For this sugo the soffritto is made of onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and shallots. It is the first thing that goes into the pot with the olive oil.

7. Step 25

   The sugo can be cooked to the halfway point (which it reaches after about 30 minutes of cooking) in advance. Then, when you are ready with the meatballs, add them to the unfinished sugo and continue to cook together until done. You can also make the meatballs in advance, freeze them, and when you are ready proceed with the final cooking in the sauce.