nonna gullo's sugo sauce w/ homemade meatballs & pasta

when pete was growing up he lived next door to his grandma and grandpa gullo.. and he remembers on sunday's she would make sugo sauce.. his memory was she would be cooking all day and they would go over and have sunday supper.. (but her recipe calls for using a pressure cooker so i don't think she was necessarily cooking all day..) when i got my 25 lbs. of tomatoes he wanted me to make sugo sauce.. what we found out his grandmother didn't use fresh tomatoes.. so i will post both recipes.. kinda like ones a little bit country and ones a little bit rock n roll.. both are fantastic..

nonna gullo's sugo sauce

prep time: 15 minutes
cooking time: 30 minutes
servings: approx. 6

ingredients:

1 small can of tomato paste (hunts)
1 big can of tomato sauce (hunts)
1 onion chopped
2 garlic buds
basil salt
water
olive oil
whatever meat you want.. chuck roast, chicken or pork

brown onion and garlic in a little oil when done add tomato sauce, paste, 1 large can of water, onion and garlic to a pressure cooker add salt and basil to taste and pressure cook for 20-30 minutes..  if you choose to add meat brown whatever meat you are using to the pan when cooking your onions and garlic.. place meat at the bottom of the pressure cooking sauce and then if your making meatballs they go on top.. pressure cook for 20-30 minutes.. if you want a thicker sauce remove lid from pressure cooker and cook until sauce is thicker.. (now this is her recipe as given to jimmy.. below is the way i made it..)

rock n roll sugo sauce

prep time: 30 minutes
cooking time: 6-8 hours
servings: approx. 8

ingredients:

3 cans of tomato paste
2 cans italian diced tomatoes
fresh tomato sauce (recipe below) (about 3 large cans would be what i made)
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbls.  fresh basil, chopped
1 tbls. fresh oregano
1 tbls. fresh parsley
3 lb. chuck roast, cut into chunks
40 meatballs (recipe below)

make your tomato sauce when its done to that add 1 can of tomato paste, diced tomatoes, garlic, basil, oregano, parsley, roast and meatballs.. cook on medium low for about 2 hours.. stirring often.. after about 2 hours add another tomato paste and stir often.. after another 2 hours turn to low/simmer.. again stirring often, after another 2 hours (6 hours total) add your last tomato paste using 2 forks shred the roast.. at this point it should be ready but we weren't ready to eat and i cooked it another 2 hours.. a m a z i n g.. so rich and meaty and simply delicious... so your wondering i am sure where is a picture of this amazing sauce.. i don't have an answer not sure where that step got lost.. (oops now there are pictures.. i have a confession.. the pictures were not taken sunday.. they were taken a few nights later when we had it for left overs.. *hanging head in shame*) *smile*

meatballs (again I did mine a little different I will just point out what i did differently)

prep time: 15
cooking time: 20-30 minutes
servings: approx. 8

ingredients:

2 lbs of ground beef ( i used 1 lb. ground beef and 1 lb. spicy italian sausage)
4 eggs
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 cup fresh grated romano cheese
1 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
garlic powder to taste (i used 2 cloves fresh minced garlic)
salt and pepper

mix all the ingredients in a bowl add water to moisten if needed..(i did not do this) shape meatballs (i made them about 2 inches around) brown in frying pan with a little oil.. (i did not do this, i was not looking forward to the splattered mess.. so i put them on a lined baking sheet and baked them on 375 (f) around 20-30 minutes .. basically until golden brown).. taste meatballs (now this was a step i totally got on board with.. maybe a little to much..) add meatballs to sauce..

tomato sauce

prep time: 30
cooking time: 3-4 hours
servings: approx. 8

ingredients:

30-35 chopped roma tomatoes
salt

cut up a boat load of tomatoes. i think we cut up around 30-35 medium roma tomatoes.. now the controversy.. several recipes called for peeling and seeding the tomatoes first.. and several said the step was not necessary.. well it is.. i mean it is if you want a pretty sauce.. the skins make it kinda funky.. the taste is wonderful..but presentation wise it was a bit weird.. its basically up to you so pile all your tomatoes in a pot salt really good and cook over medium for about 1. keeping stirring.. after about an hour the tomatoes start to break down.. with the back of your spoon kinda mash them.. some will and some wont.. turn the temp to low and cook another 2-3 hours.. stirring often.. every time you stir mash more tomatoes.. eventually its a smooth sauce..

(see you can see the skins and its not really appealing)

so since i was making grandma gullo's sugo sauce shell decided she would make homemade pasta.. my kitchen was a disaster and flour every where but all in all stupendous..

pasta

prep time: 20 minutes

cooking time: 4 minutes
servings: 4

2 eggs
1/2 lukewarm water
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt

mound flour on counter kinda like a volcano and make a hole in the center.. drop eggs into hole add salt and then add water gradually and knead until firm.  let rest for 10 minutes in a covered warm bowl.. divide dough into halves and roll out about 1/8 of inch.. cut into strips.. we hung ours on coat hangers until time to cook.. in a medium size pot boil your water with a fair amount of salt.. once boiling drop in pasta for about 4 minutes.. drain and serve..

I was able to salvage 2 little noodles that she made.. the rest was devoured and I had to make regular pasta for seconds.. thirds.. and left overs..