The East Harlem Marinara
Chapter 1 — The Sauces: The Foundational Layer
This is not a thirty-minute weeknight pasta sauce, so do not let anyone tell you otherwise. This is Sunday Gravy, the unapologetic, aggressively comforting culinary bedrock of the Italian-American experience. It requires a four-hour commitment, a Dutch oven, and a houseful of loud people waiting at the table. You do not make this dish to be subtle; you make it so that when your friends take their first bite, they close their eyes and know exactly what that legendary red-leather booth on Arthur Avenue tastes like.
Before you start
Hydrate the breadcrumbs to create a panade.
In a small bowl, soak the breadcrumbs in the whole milk until it looks like thick, wet oatmeal, and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Mix the meatball blend gently.
In a massive mixing bowl, combine the beef, pork, and veal with the soaked bread mixture, eggs, grated Pecorino, parsley, garlic paste, salt, and pepper. Use your hands to mix lightly—do not squeeze or overwork the meat, or your meatballs will turn into hockey pucks.
Form and par-bake the meatballs.
Roll the mixture into balls slightly larger than a golf ball, space them out on a lined sheet pan, and bake at 425°F for 15 to 20 minutes until they develop a beautiful browned crust. They will finish cooking in the gravy.
Ingredients
- ground beef chuck1 lb
- ground pork1/2 lb
- ground veal1/2 lb
- high-quality breadcrumbs1 cup
- whole milk1 cup
- eggs2 large
- Pecorino Romano1 cup
- fresh flat-leaf parsley1/2 cup
- garlic3 med clove
- kosher salt1 1/2 tsp
- freshly ground black pepper1 tsp
- extra-virgin olive oil3 tbsp
- pork neck bones or spareribs1 lb
- Italian sausage links1 lb
- yellow onion1 large
- garlic6 med clove
- tomato paste6 oz
- dry red wine1/2 cup
- whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes84 oz
- crushed red pepper flakes1 tsp
- bay leaves2
- fresh basil1 small handful
Method
- 01
Sear the pork and sausage aggressively.
Place your largest Dutch oven over medium-high heat with the olive oil. Sear the pork bones and sausages until they develop a deep, dark brown crust, leaving a sticky fond on the bottom of the pot, then set the meats aside and keep the rendered fat in the pot.
- 02
Sauté the aromatics and caramelize the paste.
Drop the heat to medium, toss the diced onions into the pork fat, and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes until golden. Add the smashed garlic and red pepper flakes for 60 seconds, then squeeze in the tomato paste and stir continuously for 3 minutes until it turns a deep, dark brick-red.
- 03
Deglaze the pot with red wine.
Pour in the wine to release every browned bit stuck to the bottom of the pot, letting it reduce until almost entirely evaporated.
- 04
Crush the tomatoes and add them to the pot.
Dump the San Marzano tomatoes into a large bowl and crush them by hand to keep a varied, rustic texture. Pour them and their juices into the Dutch oven, slosh a little water in the empty cans to salvage the leftover juice and add that to the pot along with the bay leaves.
- 05
Submerge all the meats into the tomato bath.
Drop the browned pork bones, sausages, and your par-baked meatballs directly into the sauce, bringing the whole cauldron to a rapid simmer before immediately dropping the heat to the lowest possible setting.
- 06
Simmer the gravy for at least four hours.
Partially cover the Dutch oven and let the sauce barely breathe. Stir gently with a wooden spoon every 30 minutes, scraping the bottom so nothing burns, as the collagen in the pork bones slowly melts into the sauce, turning it glossy, thick, and profoundly rich.
- 07
Finish with fresh basil and serve.
After 4 hours, turn off the heat, stir in the torn fresh basil, and use tongs to carefully extract the meats onto a serving platter. Toss the thick, stained gravy with freshly cooked, al dente pasta and eat loudly.
Notes
Do not rush this sauce.
A thirty-minute Sunday Gravy is a culinary impossibility. Start this at 11:00 AM on a Sunday, not 5:00 PM on a Tuesday. The four-hour timeframe is biologically necessary for the tough collagen in the pork bones to hydrolyze into gelatin.
The Garlic Bread Protocol.
Do not slice a baguette and toast it open-faced like crostini. Slice a soft Italian loaf horizontally, slather the interior heavily with garlic butter, close the loaf, wrap it tightly in aluminum foil, and bake. The foil traps the steam to soften the bread while the butter melts deeply into the crumb.
The tableside Caesar.
To fully achieve the intended aesthetic, construct a Caesar salad tableside in a wooden bowl aggressively rubbed with a raw garlic clove. The emulsion of raw egg yolk, anchovy paste, Dijon, lemon juice, and olive oil forms the base.
Chicken Parm is two distinct recipes.
If using this marinara for Chicken Parmigiana, treat it as two entirely separate techniques. Perfectly pound, bread, and shallow-fry the cutlet first. Only then do you assemble it on a sheet pan, spoon the Sunday Gravy over it, drape with mozzarella, and broil until bubbling.
From Cook Red Sauce at Home.