Red Sauce:

Meatballs:

(makes 24 meatballs)

Ingredients:

1 lb. of meatloaf mix (beef/veal/pork)

1 egg

1 cup of seasoned breadcrumbs

Oregano, basil, parsley, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder

½ cup Locatelli Pecorino Romano Grated Cheese

1/3 cup Beef Broth or water

 

Directions:

Mix meat together with a fork in a large bowl until meats are evenly mixed.

Add 1 egg

Add 1 cup of seasoned breadcrumbs

Sprinkle in oregano, basil, parsley, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder to taste

Add ½ cup Locatelli Pecorino Romano Grated Cheese

Add 1/3 – ½ cup beef broth until meatball mixture is moldable

With a tablespoon, scoop up meatball mixture and mold into 1 ½ inch diameter meatballs.

 

Less cholesterol recipe: Substitute meatloaf mix with ground turkey; 1 egg with eggbeaters; and Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese with Fat free mozzarella cheese.

 

Heat Wesson Canola Oil in 12“ frying pan (cover bottom of pan with oil)

Set burner on med/high

Sprinkle water in to oil, when it starts to sizzle, the oil is ready

Brown meatballs turning as they cook. Cook through so that you can have the treat of sharing the meatballs with the kids before they go into the sauce. (Always a treat for us as wewere growing up!)

Line large bowl with paper towels. As the meatballs cook, take them out of the oil and lay them in the paper towels to absorb the extra oil.

Use ten meatballs for the sauce and freeze the rest for the next time you make sauce.

 

Sausage:

I use sweet pork sausages, without fennel seed.

Use same oil that was used for frying meatballs. Set another bowl aside lined with paper towels for sausages.

Place 6 sausages in hot oil in frying pan. Cover with a splash guard over frying pan. Use tongs to turn sausages as they brown (a fork will poke them and they will spray hot juice and oil out on you.) Lift splash guard carefully as you turn sausages. Brown on all sides.

Take browned sausages and place on bed of paper towels in bowl to absorb excess oil.

Sauce:

Ingredients:

1 twelve oz. can of Tuttorosso Tomato Puree

2 twelve oz. cans of Tuttorosso Crushed Tomatoes (The blue can is chunkier than the green can; I usually use one of each. If you can’t find Tuttorosso brand, you may need to put cans of chunky crushed tomatoes in a blender so that they are not so chunky unless you like your sauce that way.)

1 twelve oz. can of Hunts Tomato Paste

Oregano, parsley, basil, pepper, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, bay leaf

½ cup of sugar

Directions:

Empty cans into 6 quart pot

Add parsley, oregano, basil, pepper, salt, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste

Add 1 bay leaf

Add ½ a cup of sugar (maybe a little less but the key to a good sauce is a salty and sweet taste at the same time.)

Stir

Add 10 browned meatballs and 6 browned sausages

Stir so sauce covers meatballs and sausages

Cover loosely at an uneven angle so that the sauce can breathe

Cook (all the way on low) for 4 to 5 hours, stirring occasionally

 

Eggplant Parmigiana:

Pick black shiny eggplant.  The thinner, the less seeds.

Skin eggplant.

Cut into thin slices (I use a meat slicer to cut them thin and evenly).

Dip eggplant slices in egg (use egg substitute, it’s easier to work with), then dip eggplant slices into seasoned breadcrumb mixed with some grated pecorino romano cheese.

Brown eggplant in Canola Oil on stove till lightly brown.  The eggplant will bow up when the side is done, then flip it over and brown the other side.

Dry eggplant on paper towels after frying.

Take a casserole dish and line the bottom with red sauce.

Then lay fried eggplant slices on top of the sauce, overlapping slices.

Then spoon red sauce on top of eggplant.

Then add mozzarella cheese on top of sauce.

Add another layer of eggplant slices.

Red Sauce.

Mozzarella Cheese.

Add a third layer of eggplant slices.

Red Sauce.

Mozzarella Cheese.

Bake in oven at 350 degrees for ½ hour or until the cheese on top starts to brown.

 

Chicken Parmigiana:

Use thin-sliced chicken cutlets.

Pound chicken cutlets to make them thinner.

Dip in flour

Then dip in egg substitute (less messy than eggs)

Then dip in breadcrumbs

Fry cutlets until golden.

Line casserole dish with sauce

Place breaded and fried chicken cutlets on the dish.

Spoon some sauce on top of cutlets.

Then cover cutlets with shredded mozzarella cheese

Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and starting to brown.

Theresa Dodaro is the author of The Tin Box Trilogy:  http://www.theresadodaro.com