Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Marcella Hazan’s Marinara Sauce 3

Good morning once again everyone.

And happy Saint Patrick’s Day Eve to you.

I mean, look at the feckin’ flag!

That’s a proper flag. Not that union jack shite!

Be sure to have a lovely pint or two.

Might be a good idea to have a big breakfast to lay down a drinking foundation.

And remember to “Split the ‘G’” on your first drink of Guinness.

While making sure to catch sunset over the River Liffey.

Or just do what I plan on doing, celebrate on the Saturday or Sunday before the 17th to avoid a Tuesday hangover, because that would fucking SUCK.

Hope everyone is well, fully functional and reasonably happy.

Suppose I should advise you that our recipe today has literally nothing to do with Saint Patrick’s Day. Don’t get me wrong! I’ll be celebrating later today with family and proactively took tomorrow off from work as any forward looking smart motherfucker is supposed to do.

We now resume our feature presentation.

Want to see the easiest recipe you’ll ever see in your life?

Of course you do!

See that banner picture?

There’s your goddamn ingredient list. That and maybe a little salt and some grated cheese if you like.

Look again.

Can you open a can? Cut an onion in half? Cut up 5 tablespoons of butter?

Then make this shit.

If the name Marcella Hazan rings a bell, you’re either a regular long-time reader of Sunday Gravy, or you more likely are familiar with her book “The Classic Italian Cook Book: The Art of Italian Cooking and the Italian Art of Eating.”

If you recall, way back in the long ago – 2019 – I did a request recipe for our very own Scotchy, where I made bolognese.

Stealing from my own post, I wrote: “When doing my research the name of cookbook author and cook, Marcella Hazan kept popping up. Marcella was born in Italy, immigrated to the US, married Victor Hazan and basically taught herself to cook by remembering tastes. She also was a famous cookbook author who wrote “The Classic Italian Cookbook” released in 1973. Many cooks consider her the pioneer of Italian American cooking and many still refer to her as one of the foremost authorities on Italian cuisine.

Her bolognese sauce is considered to be the “gold standard” for a classic bolognese so why the fuck wouldn’t I try my hand at that?”

That recipe in that link is, as the kids say, “A fucking banger” so please give that a go if you’re able.

Inspiration for today, this is yet another recipe from the Slate Magazine 25 Most Important Recipes post. Yes, the same place where I got the idea for the Gochujang Caramel Cookies we did a few weeks back.

Goddamn those are so fucking delicious.

Like I said, I may not get a chance to do all of these recipes in the article but I’m gonna hit more than a few this season for sure.

When I saw the recipe and the 3 ingredient shit I was all “Fuck yes! Easy day in the kitchen.”

Folks, it really does NOT get any easier than this one. Fuck it, I even used store bought pasta and bread because I am freshly out of fucks to give for this easy-ass recipe.

Grab a bottle of vino and get all shitty drunk. Pretend you’re Julia Child in the kitchen or some fucking thing.

Still need the pretty pictures and guidance for a 3 ingredient recipe?

Why the fuck not? I’m already here after all.

Just a heads-up folks, you’re going to see probably more than 1 of these “3 ingredient dishes” coming up in the weeks ahead.

We begin.

Original recipe calls for fresh tomatoes when they are in season, which makes perfect sense, but a can of whole San Marzano tomatoes will do quite nicely.

Tomatoes go into a deep saucepan. Not really enough volume to require the Dutch oven.

Cut the onion in half and peel. Chunk that fucker right in the pot as is. Don’t have to chop it up or nothin’!

Since we’re only using 3-4 ingredients and one of the ingredients is butter, go ahead and get yourself the good shit. The high butter fat shit. Cut it up.

I likes me Kerrygold, Boyo!

Quick aside: We met a guy who works for Kerrygold on our tour bus in Ireland as we headed to the Cliffs of Moher.

The Kerrygold guy was from Chicago and the company flew him to Ireland so he could see how the cows were actually treated. They grazed in open pastures on real Irish grass and were treated like bovine queens. He also mentioned how he got to hold and feed a baby cow on the visit and that dude seemed like he was committed to Kerrygold for life after his trip.

Nice to hear about a real humane company and I have no problem paying a few more Euros for that.

We’ll continue with the recipe now.

Butter goes in the sauce.

Now we’ll add some salt! Maybe a teaspoon.

Breaking a sweat. I know. We’re almost done with the prep, Marathon Man!

Slap a lid on the skillet.

You’re almost to the finish line, man! You can do it!

Now.

Reach out.

See that dial on the stove?

Turn it to the right.

You did it! You’re a goddamn champion. Yes, you!

Now let it cook for an hour, occasionally using a spoon to help crush up the tomatoes. Stir every so often.

This is about halfway through.

Since I’m at the helm today and I just. CAN’T. Do shit the easy way, let’s roast a head of garlic.

Fuck, it was cold in the kitchen when I made this and I needed the ambient warmth.

So, roasted garlic it was.

We are being lazy as fuck today remember?

Let someone else bake the fucking bread.

Tasty selection that.

Oh shit! That’s right! We have to boil water to make pasta.

Make some goddamn pasta already. Penne today.

One last check of the sauce.

That sure looks like the sauce we’ve been making alright!

Saucy.

Next, how about a cool “saucing” technique. It works well with any of the smaller pasta shapes but can be a little trickier with the long strands of pasta.

Grab a bowl and spoon some of the pasta and some of the sauce in there and give it a good toss or a stir.

You’re not one of those “Cook some pasta and just ladle some shit on top without stirring kind of pasta people are you?”

Don’t do that. Be a better goddamn pasta making person. Especially with the penne pasta here. It gets the sauce all up inside them little pasta tubes. That’s the shit I’m talking about.

C’mon. Life is short. Do your pasta right.

Now let’s plate it up.

Oh yeah. Now that it’s cooked, if you want to cheese up this motherfucker then cheese it up!

That shit looks good doesn’t it? And it was 4 ingredients and a little salt.

You’ve earned some sexy, sexy garlic bread action today, Cowboy!

That’s what the roasted garlic was for.

If you think you’ve seen that spinach salad up there quite a bit well, that’s because you have. I love that stuff. It’s nice to add whatever fruit is freshest and in season to the salad to just to vary things up a bit.

While I’m still obviously attached to my own mother sauce, this baby was simple and simply delicious. When that butter incorporates into the tomatoes some goddamn magic happens. It’s really really tasty.

This sauce would be a perfect marinara for say, a batch of meatballs. Oh shit! Use this as the sauce for a meatball sub. It would also be the shit on some chicken parm.

/ distant bell rings in the back of my brain.

This weeks positive holidays courtesy of A Bit of Good News: “March 16: National Archer Day, National Corn Dog Day, National Freedom of Information Day, National Panda Day, National Quilting Day, National Vaccination Day, Black Press Day and Play the Recorder Day.”

You have a new directive. Eat a corn dog and play the recorder. Be sure to report your findings in the comments.

That should do it for today. Appreciate all of you stopping by.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got folks coming over and some cooking to do for a proper Irish get-together.

Be well folks.

Sláinte!

Until next time.