The Great Sauce Off 2012

This is my recipe for sugo

What you need:

1. Stew pot
2. Two cans tomato sauce
3. Brown sugar
4. Parmesean cheese
5. Garlic
6. Red meat
7. Salt 
8. Pepper
9. Time

Brown the meat (can be burger or cubed steak or stew meat) with garlic and salt and pepper in the bottom of the stew pot.  Do not drain the fat.  Add the tomato sauce and some good fat shakes of parmesean cheese and salt and pepper.  Put the lid on and turn it down to a slow simmer and let it sit.  The longer it cooks the better it will be.  I like to simmer for at least two hours and usually the rule in my house is if you walk through the kitchen, stop and stir the sauce.  

Cook your pasta in a different pan. Any pasta will do, sauce makes enough to cover 8 servings which is the amount in most boxes of dry pasta, but feel free to use the sauce on what you like.  I like a penne pasta and when it's all put together and on the table it's mostaccioli or as the kids call is "monster choli" 

Sometimes I add mushrooms or basil or a little onion but they aren't needed. Oh! And sometimes if I have a little merlot, I put some in with the meat when it's browning and then I put some in me while I'm cooking.  

This is a great meal if you have big eating guests.  I used to make it for firefighters and construction dudes along with a salad and some italian bread and those guys never left hungry.  

But because we almost never eat eight servings, unless we have guests, I always make a baked pasta the next day.  I put the left overs in a casserole dish and top it with shredded mozzarella.  Throw that in the oven for a half hour at 350 and it's almost better than the day before.    

Also see I Still Hate Pickles for the rest of the Great Sauce Off 2012.

Depression Soup

Because of my new favorite celebrity from Illinois (now in upstate NY) Clara Cannucciari and her You Tube Channel Depression Cooking I've been thinking of this recipe from when I was a kid. It's from my Mom's side of the family and found in the trusty DeCori Family Cookbook, in which the recipe is attributed to Helen DeCori and Kay Nuciforo and so my Mom says it must be a Roman recipe. Menestra Shama loosely translates (as passed down) to "mock soup" or "poor man's soup" or "depression soup" I don't know and no amount of internet searching or English to Italian internet translators can clear it up, so please, if you know someone that speaks Italian or better yet lived/s in Northern Illinois AND through the depression AND speaks Italian, please ask them for me if they have any insight to the etymology of the Shama part of Minestra Shama. So anyway, on to the recipe that taste very yummy, was one of my favorite soups as a kid and costs a total of $4.25 to make.

Tomato Paste 1.25
Ditalli Noodles 1.75
Cabbage 1.25
I assume you own olive oil or some type of oil, salt and pepper.

Minestra Shama
4 qts Water
1/2 lb Ditalli Noodles (or any noodles really)
1/2 Head of cabbage
1 8 oz Can Tomato Sauce or 1 8oz Can of Stewed Tomatoes or 1 Tablespoon of Tomato Paste (whatever you can afford)
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil (or vegetable oil - again whatever you can afford)
1 Tablespoon of Salt

Bring water and tomatoes to a boil, add salt, put in the sliced cabbage (long thin strips), when the cabbage is soft put noodles in and cook until tender. Pepper to taste.

My mom always made it with the tablespoon of tomato paste and more cabbage, less noodles and I suppose it would be good with a little Italian sausage in it as it's kind of yummy as a spicy soup, but really it's best as is with a grilled cheese sandwich.

A New Beginning

Well, hello new blogger. It finally let me switch over. Looks the same as old blogger so far accept for "labels" and that will be fun. I can categorize everything. I imagine I'll need one called simply "stuff" and a "family" or "toddler runway" maybe a "bad jeans" and perhaps "politics" but today I'd like to start something new called "Grandma DeCori's Recipes".

I recently received a recipe book from my mother that is filled recipes from my Grandma DeCori. My aunt Marilyn and uncle Tony gave it to her at Christmas on disk - all scans of the little worn cards in her handwritting. Today I'll share the most important recipe in the whole book - the one you can feed masses with, the one me and my cousins looked forward to on every important holiday. "Home Made Spagetti". The one that warms my heart just looking at it and the one you should remember should you ever be able to afford only eggs and flour.













Now what do you do with this gooey concoction? Simple - roll and cut and roll and cut and roll and cut. Sounds easy huh?