Danger - Italian Grandmother's Tomato Sauce

This post is a little late today. Why, you ask? Because I cooked dinner last night. Let me explain.

I have a friend of Italian descent. He shared with me his grandmother's recipe for tomato sauce. It is simple to make and very, very tasty. But it has a hidden pitfall. It uses one cup of wine. Now as most of you know, there is more than one cup of wine in a bottle. Furthermore, once a bottle is opened the wine doesn't keep that well. It's drink it or lose it. (Hey, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

So after adding the cup of wine to the sauce I poured a glass for my wife, and one for myself. The average bottle of wine holds somewhere around 4 to 5 glasses, depending on how heavy your hand is when you  pour them. When my wife and I split a bottle of wine she usually has 2 medium-full glasses, and I have the rest. But after setting aside that pesky cup of wine for the sauce, we were both feeling short-changed. So we opened a second bottle...

She had one more glass from that bottle and then wimped out. According to the 'drink it or lose it' credo I subscribe to (see above), that left it up to me to prevent an egregious waste of good wine. After all, waste not, want not. So I saved the wine from going to waste.

While I was saving all that wine the sauce continued to simmer. I also prepared a salad, cooked the pasta, and fixed some garlic bread. The sauce and the second bottle of wine were both finished at the same time. Dinner was served.

However, what's a nice Italian meal without a bottle of wine?

So I opened the third bottle...

I saved that one from going to waste as well.

I slept in rather late this morning...

Anyway, below is the recipe for the sauce, edited to add my comments. It really is quite tasty, but if you make it beware of that third bottle of wine.

Italian Grandmother Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 lb. pork loin roast
• Olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ red onion, finely diced (and I mean finely – almost minced. The idea is to have the little pieces dissolve during cooking and impart their flavor to the sauce. You don't want hunks of onion floating around in the finished product.)
• ½ bell pepper, cut in half (in other words, half of a bell pepper cut into two pieces)
• 2 6 oz. cans (12 oz. total) tomato paste (* see tomato paste rant at the end)
• 1 15 oz. can crushed tomatoes (use the entire can, liquid and all - you can substitute diced tomatoes if you prefer)
• 3 cups liquid (I like to use two cups of water and 1 cup of red wine)
• 2 to 4 tablespoons dried basil (I like the slightly sweet flavor this much basil gives to the sauce, but you can adjust the amount to suit your individual preference.)
• 2 bay leaves
• Black pepper (as much or as little as you like)
• Pasta (your choice as to type and amount)

Directions

1.  Pour a couple of glugs of the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Heat it until a drop of water flicked into it sizzles. Brown the pork loin roast on two of its four sides.

2.  When you are halfway done browning the roast (two of the four sides, remember?) add the garlic and onion. Brown the remaining two sides, while at the same time sautéing the garlic and onions. Add a little more olive oil if necessary.

3.  When the roast is nice and brown, add all the remaining ingredients (I like to add about half the liquid, then everything else, and then pour the remaining liquid over it all). Stir well to thoroughly mix and combine.

4.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 2 ½ to 3 hours, stirring and turning the roast occasionally.

5.  Remove bell pepper pieces and bay leaves. Discard them. Remove roast and set aside. Serve sauce over pasta.

You can serve the roast with the pasta as a side if you desire. Or you can use the roast in other meals  throughout the week (that's what we did). It's very moist and tender, so it's terrific in pulled pork dishes.

* Tomato paste rant – This is one of the few recipes I know of that uses an entire can of tomato paste. Most call for a tablespoon or two. It's all part of a conspiracy by the tomato paste cartel. How often does that leftover tomato paste get shoved to the back of the refrigerator, only to blacken and grow green fuzz over time? I'll tell you how often – every single damn time! And the next time you need tomato paste you have to go out and buy a new can of the stuff. I once saw tomato paste in a small tube, like toothpaste. That was a great idea. But it was killed by the tomato paste cartel because it would have cut sales. I'm telling you, it's a conspiracy!!!