Sure, everyone has their family recipe for Sunday gravy, well that is if you were of Italian heritage, others would refer to this as Spaghetti Sauce. Well I’ve made many a Sunday Gravy, had some failures and some great successes, this recipe has always proved to be one of my best.

This recipe will make approximately 20 cups of gravy.

For the gravy you will need:
Four 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes
One small can tomato paste
Two cups beef stock
One medium size sweet onion
Carrots – enough to equal the volume of the onion
Four or five sprigs fresh oregano
Four or five garlic cloves
Fresh ground pepper
Kosher salt
Two pounds country ribs
Two pounds Italian Sausage (your choice of sweet or hot)
Two pounds ground chuck
Two pounds ground pork
Enough stale bread (I used leftover Italian bread) to equal the volume of the ground meats
Two cups milk (or more if necessary)
Two cups shredded Parmesan cheese
Two large eggs
Olive oil
Vegetable oil

In a heavy bottom stock pot heat four tablespoons olive oil until shimmering. Place carrots, onion and garlic in a food processor and run until the vegetables are of a paste consistency. Thoroughly brown the country ribs (in batches if necessary) until a nice brown crust forms, remove and set aside. Pour off any liquid from the stockpot, add four tablespoons olive oil, reheat until shimmering then brown the Italian sausage until a nice brown crust forms, remove and set aside. Pour off any liquid, add two tablespoons olive oil, and reheat until shimmering. Place vegetable past along with tomato paste to the stockpot and cook until the mix is somewhat dry. Deglaze pot with the beef stock scraping up all the fond at the bottom of the pot. Add the four cans of crushed tomatoes, the sprigs of oregano and the ribs and sausage to the stockpot. Reduce heat to very low, place lid over pot and simmer for 5 or 6 hours. To reduce the possibility of the gravy burning I take one of the unused burner grates, place it on top of the burner you are using, make sure that it is firmly in place, put the stockpot on that tiered burner. Stir the gravy every occasionally to insure a good mixture.

While the gravy is simmering make the meatballs. Break up the stale bread into medium to small chunks, but into a bowl large enough to hold the bread and both meats. Pour one-cup milk into the bowl, as the bread starts to absorb the milk using a fork start to mash the bread. If there is not enough milk continue adding more until you can mash the bread into a paste. Add the parmesan cheese, the eggs, the meats, salt and pepper (to taste) and using very clean hands or hand covered with rubber gloves and work the mixture until it is thoroughly combined. Form the mixture into equal balls (I like mine large). In a sauté pan large enough to hold the meatballs, heat approximately one-quarter cup of vegetable oil until shimmering. Carefully lower meatballs into oil, do not crowd, work in batches if necessary, and cook until a nice brown crust forms rotate balls until all sides have that same rich brown crust. Set aside meatballs until cooled enough then place in the refrigerator. During the last one to one and a half hours of cooking the gravy, add the meatballs submerging them to cover. During the last half hour taste the gravy for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Once the time used in this recipe is completed, cool to room temperature.

Remove the meatballs, sausage and ribs from the gravy and portion two cups of the liquid into quart freezer bags for future use. Similarly portion out the meatballs, ribs and sausage into quart freezer bags for future use.

Over the holidays I had an excess of pomegranate, and not wanting to waste them, I separated the seeds and froze them in a zip log bag. I knew that I would be looking for something different and just recently came up with this quick dish. Additionally, I had purchased a large quantity of pork loin cut into steaks, it was a deal, price wise, so I just couldn’t pass them up. You can substitute pork chops very easily.

You will need:
Pork Loin Steak – approx. 6 oz./serving
Olive oil
Fresh ground pepper
Kosher or Sea Salt
Pomegranate Seeds – approx. 1 TBSP/serving
Pomegranate juice – approx. 2 TBSP/serving (I used POM brand)
Beef stock – approx. 2 TBSP/serving
Unsalted butter – approx. 1/4 TBSP/serving

Prepare the pork – heat a sauté pan (oven-proof, not non-stick) over medium high heat, brush both sides of pork with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste (it is OK to be generous here). Sear pork to get a nice rich color on both sides, put into a pre-heated 350 degree F oven to finish (cook until temperature is 140 degrees)

For Glacé – when pork is finished remove from sauté pan, keep warm by covering it with aluminum foil. Deglaze the pan with pomegranate juice scrapping up the fond. When juice starts to thicken add beef stock, pomegranate seeds and butter. Heat through until butter is emulsified into the sauce, pour over pork and serve. If you don’t have the pomegranate seeds diced dried cherries will work. Enjoy!

Lydia P.

This recipe has been in my family forever. It comes from my father’s side of the family and my father and his siblings each inherited an enamel baking pan from my grandmother. These baking pans, 13 ½ inches in diameter, were from my grandfather’s bakery and had very, very long handles for use in my grandfather’s huge brick ovens. They cut the handles off of these pans for use at home.

You will need:
1-2 lbs ricotta cheese
2-4 handfuls of pecorino romano cheese (half a pound works better)
8 Italian sausage, cooked and sliced thin
1/2 lb perciatelli, broken into thirds
1 dozen eggs

Preheat oven to 350F
Fry the sausage. Boil the macaroni.
Beat the eggs, add the ricotta and romano cheeses to the egg mixture. When the pasta is cooked and drained, add that to the egg mixture. Slice the sausage, add to the mixture.

Grease the pan with the sausage fat. (13″ round enamel pan is best)
I took 3 tablespoons of sausage fat and greased the pan with that and did not add any more fat to the mixture. Pour mixture into pan and smooth it out on top so there is no macaroni sticking out of the top (unless you like burnt, crunchy macaroni).

Bake for 1 hour or until knife comes out clean. (mine took 70-75 minutes) It will be brown (NOT burnt!) on top.
This can be served either hot or cold. It freezes well, too!

You can cut this recipe in half and bake it in a glass deep baking dish (13×9) as well.

When we prepared this recipe we used half the amounts stipulated. Not knowing the size of the handful of cheese mentioned we went with one full cup of Pecorino. It is difficult to determine link size when purchasing the sausage so we went with 2 pounds.

As you can see in the photograph of our version we used a football shaped baking dish which was sufficient in size to hold everything. Using the fat from the sausage to grease the baking dish hadn’t been tried before by us but really like the idea, it gives the dish a little added dimension.

Thank you Lydia and congratulations on being the first, of hopefully many, Guest Chef.

I happened upon a taste testing at my local supermarket just prior to the holidays. They were offering samples of various dips and spreads for that special holiday party. One of the dips was an artichoke jalapeno being served on sea salt pita chips. I enjoyed the taste and purchased both the dip and the pita chips, it was a delight. Being one that holds no interest in all the chemicals now found in prepared items I set to recreate the dip. I hope you will enjoy my version.

Artichoke Pepper Dip

You will need:
One 14 ounce can artichoke hearts
One cup sour cream
One cup mayonnaise (I use Hellman’s)
One Jalapeno Pepper
One Serrano Pepper
Sea Salt
Cracked pepper
Pita Bread
Vegetable oil

Drain liquid fro canned artichoke hearts, place half of the product in a food processor. Split both peppers open and clean out seeds and ribs rough chop and place in food processor along with artichoke and puree . Chop remaining artichoke into 1/4 inch dice, combined with pureed mixture. Place mayonnaise and sour cream in a bowl, add cracked pepper to taste and the puree mixture stir together until artichoke dice is well coated.

Sea Salt Pita Chips

Since pita by itself would be too thick to use as is you must split each in half thickness wise. I haven’t found an easy way to do this step so be patient. I used a serrated knife holding the pita bread on a flat surface start to cut through it while rotating the bread. Don’t worry too much some of the final pieces will be thicker in places than others. Brush both sides of the pita with oil and cut into 8 wedges. Place on a cookie sheet and sprinkle sea salt over each wedge on both sides. Bake in a 350° oven for 20 minutes then turn each over and finish baking until they are a golden brown. Let chips cool before serving.

NB: If you do not have the time or the inclination to make your own pita chips there are several commercial brands that I have used with this wonderful dip.

I received, for lack of a better word, a loaf of ground venison from a friend and wanted to use it in a way I hadn’t done before. I’ve prepared Rack of Venison before but never had the opportunity to work with ground product. Being wild caught I knew that the ground meat would be a tad gamier so I needed something that would take advantage of that fact without totally masking the taste. I immediately thought of doing a chili but the recipes I have would almost surely obliterate that fact that my guests would be eating deer meat. I went through my library of recipes and decided on the one I have for turkey chili adjusting it to taste. This recipe will make enough for six people.

You will need:
One pound ground Venison
One medium Vidalia or Walla Walla onion diced.
One medium green pepper diced.
Olilve Oil
One 14 ounce can diced tomato.
One 14 ounce can white beans such as cannellini, drained and rinsed.
Chicken Broth – approximately 2 cups.
Tomato Paste – approximately 2 TBSP.
Garlic – approximately 2 cloves diced finely.
Chili powder – approximately 2 TBSP
Ground Cumin – approximately 2 tsp.
Ground Cinnamon – approximately 1 tsp.
Ground Allspice – approximately 1 tsp
Dried Oregano – approximately 2 tsp.l
Salt/pepper to taste
Good quality bittersweet chocolate – approximately 2 TBSP grated fine.
Grated Sharp Cheddar cheese

In a hot dutch oven add 2 or 3 TBSP of olive oil – remember venison is very lean – sauté ground meat until just browned, add tomato paste, garlic, onion, green pepper continue to sauté until vegetables soften, add all the spices/herbs and continue to cook for approximately three minutes. Taste for balance of seasonings adjust to your personal taste. Add chicken broth, diced tomato and beans stir to combine. Turn heat down to a simmer, cover dutch oven and cook for approximately 20 minutes. Check again for seasoning balance and adjust if needed. Stir in grated chocolate, serve immediately topped with some of the grated cheddar cheese.

I had a taste for seafood but really did not know what I was going to prepare. I visited my local fishmonger to see what was available. The usual fare was there, nothing seemed to tickle my fancy. I was about to consider something else to have and then she brought out some bay scallops and shrimp. They looked so fresh although I knew they were recently thawed and ready to be displayed. At first I thought to do the usual shrimp scampi but just couldn’t resist purchasing both.

My mind started to envision how to put these two items together and what else to add to make an interesting combination. I walked around the produce department and saw some sun dried tomatoes they were snatched up quickly to add to my growing recipe. I considered what I had in my larder at home and knew that I had some heavy cream and garlic along with half a box of fettuccini.  My meal was set. You will find that this is a quick and simple dish to prepare.

You will need :

Bay Scallops – approximately ¼ lb/serving
Shrimps – approximately ¼ lb/serving [16 21's or smaller]
Sun Dried Tomatoes – approximately ½ oz/serving – I used dry packed but olive oil packed should work as well.
Fresh Garlic – to taste
Tomato Paste – approximately 1 tsp/serving
Hot Pepper Flakes – to taste
Heavy Cream – approximately ¼ cup/serving [add more if you like a soupier sauce]
Romano Cheese – grated – approximately 2 TBS/serving

In a stock pot large enough to hold the pasta bring water to a rapid boil. Add pasta and prepare to just al denté. Peel and de-vein the shrimp, combine with scallops lightly salt and pepper. In a sauté pan large enough to hold all the ingredients add a good quality olive oil and heat to a simmer. Finely dice garlic add to sauté pan along with tomato paste and pepper flakes.  Once the garlic is translucent add shrimp and scallops. Cook seafood until shrimp starts to become opaque tossing occasionally to distribute evenly. Add heavy cream and Romano cheese to the shrimp/scallop mixture cook until the cream starts to thicken. Add pasta to the sauté pan and stir into the seafood sauce. Serve immediately.

This simple sauce is made from a variety of very ripe tomatoes from the garden. I call this a starter sauce as it could be used, with some additional ingredients, in many regional/ethnic recipes. Here I have outlined the sauce and thereafter showed some variable.

For the starter sauce:
Garden ripened tomatoes – any assortment you might have
Garlic bulbs – use any ratio depending on your personal taste
Good quality olive oil
Sea Salt
Cracked pepper

Heat oven to 350° F. While oven is heating core out the stem side of the tomato, just enough to remove the stem attachement, cut a small “X” into the other side. Place the tomatoes, cored side down on a baking sheet, cover liberally with olive oil, salt and pepper. Separate garlic bulb into cloves and add to the baking sheet. Roast the tomatoes and garlic until skins are blistered and cracked [NB: Time needed will depend on the size of the largest tomato]. Once the tomatoes and garlic are roasted remove from oven and let cool completely on the baking sheet.

Place a strainer/sieve over a non-reactive bowl and squeeze the tomatoes to remove seeds and inner membrane. Press any solid through the strainer/sieve leaving only the seeds behind. Crush the tomatoes into the bowl holding the juices. Cut off the stem end of the garlic gloves and squeeze the pulp into the tomato liquid. Place tomato/garlic mixture into a sauce pot, season with additional salt if needed and cook over low heat until the tomatoes break down to your desired texture.

For an Italian style sauce: Add torn fresh basil, oregano and olive oil just before serving.
For a Mediterranean style sauce: Add finely sliced red bell pepper, finely sliced sweet onion, pitted and sliced black olives and fresh oregano [NB: Simmer the added vegetables in the sauce until they wilt then add the oregano just before serving]
For a Spanish style sauce: Add any of the following in any combination [NB: this will need some trial and error here for although they each compliment the other quantities will need to be adjusted to personal taste} ground clove, paprika, cinnamon, parsley, mint, rosemary and thyme

Here is an easy yet refreshing pasta sauce. If you don’t have a garden you can purchase these fresh items from your farmer’s market.

You will need:
Italian style plum tomatoes (such as San Marzano) – approximately five per serving
Fresh Garlic – approximately two cloves/serving
Fresh Shallot – approximately two cloves/serving
Good quality olive oil
Fresh Basil – approximately two TBSP/serving
Fresh Oregano – approximately one TBSP/serving
Pepperoncini – approximately one tsp/serving (if you don’t like a little spice you can eliminate this item)
Fresh or dried pasta – I used Spaghetti Rigati for this recipe [this pasta is slightly thicker than Ange Hair - approximately four ounces dry pasta/serving

Clean herbs well and chiffonade - set aside [NB: Lay basil leaves flat on cutting surface, stack several leaves then place oregano leaves on top, stack remaining basil leaves on top. Roll basil/oregano bundle into a tube form then finely chiffonade. This method makes it easy to work with the smaller oregano leaves]. Quarter tomatoes and remove all seeds and membrane, cut quarters in half and set aside. In a sauce pot large enough to hold all the tomatoes add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot. Heat oil until just shimmering, add pepperoncini, garlic and shallot, with a wooden spoon stir until garlic/shallot mixture is just translucent add tomatoes add salt and pepper to taste and cover pot. Cook tomato mixture over medium heat until they break down. When the sauce is broken down mash larger pieces to get a somewhat chunky consistency, cook pasta. When pasta is ready add basil/oregano chiffonade to sauce, plate spaghetti and top with the fresh garden tomato sauce.

Baked Potato with Horseradish Mayonnaise
Steamed Broccoli with Tahini Compound Butter

You will need:
Angus or other good quality Rib Eye Steak – one/serving (I used a steak that was cut one inch thick)
Broccoli Crown – one/per serving
Baking Potato – one small/per serving
Garlic clove – two/serving
Shallot clove – two/serving
Olive Oil – two TBSP/serving
Panko Bread Crumbs – approximately three TBSP/serving
Tahini – approximately one TBSP/serving
Softened Unsalted Butter – approximately one TBSP/Serving
Sea or Kosher Salt – to taste
Fresh Ground Pepper – to taste
Mayonnaise (jarred will do) – one TBSP/serving
Horseradish (jarred will do) – one TBSP/serving

Prepare crust:
Finely dice garlic and shallot cloves place into preheated sauté pan and cook until just translucent (do not brown) set aside to cool. When garlic/shallot mixture is cool add Panko crumbs to coat, set aside.

For Horseradish Mayonnaise:
Combine horseradish and mayonnaise and set aside. If you decide to use fresh horseradish you will have too grate a little more than the stated one TBSP and combine with a little vinegar and sugar.

For Tahini Compound Butter:
Bring butter to room temperature to soften then combine well with Tahini Paste and set aside.

Prepare the Potato:
Coat the potato with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake as you would normally when the potato is finished baking start with the balance of the steps to follow (keep warm)

Prepare the steak:
I used an oven ready grill pan however you can sauté the steak if you desire. Coat both sides of the steak with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Sauté/grill steak on one side for approximately five minutes or until a good crust/grill marks are evident. Turn steak and coat with the bread crumb mixture. If you are using a sauté pan you will need to turn the steak over one additional time to get the crust mixture crisped and browned. This step will take a little practice since you might lose some of the coating. Finish steak to desired doneness

In the meantime steam the broccoli crown(s) until just al denté.

Top the broccoli with compound butter, cut open the potato and top with horseradish/mayonnaise plate and serve.

I like a good steak occasionally and although I, at times, like it with a little steak sauce [my latest favorite is A-1 Cracked Peppercorn] I decided to do something with mushrooms, onions and Marsala wine. It is simple, quick and easy and hits the spot. I served this with Baby Brussels Sprouts.

You will need:
Bone-in New York Strip steak approximately 8 ounces/serving.
Coarse Sea Salt
Cracked Pepper
Olive Oil
Baby Brussels Sprouts approximately 4 ounces/serving
Butter (unsalted) approximately two tablespoons/serving.
Button Mushrooms, sliced, approximately 4 ounces/serving
Sweet Onion such as Walla Walla or Vidalia, sliced thin.
Dry Marsala Wine approximately 4 TBSP/serving.
Kosher Salt/Pepper

Rub olive oil on both sides of steak, season with sea salt and cracked pepper then grill or pan sauté to desired doneness. While steak is cooking pour olive oil into a sauté pan large enough to hold all ingredients add butter when oil is warm, add sliced mushrooms and onions, season with salt and pepper. Sauté until mushrooms lose most of their moisture and onions are translucent. Add Marsala wine and continue to cook until wine is absorbed.

While the steak and mushrooms are cooking place Brussels Sprouts in a pot of boiling water, make sure the pot is large enough to hold all the sprouts without crowding. Depending on the size of the sprouts boil, until they are fork tender then remove from pot and keep warm. In a small sauce pot melt butter until just foamy, add salt/pepper to taste, add a small amount of cornstarch or arrowroot to some water to form a smooth paste whisk into butter until slightly thickened add Brussels sprouts to coat.