Sunday Pasta Sauce

..or as the Italians would say it, gravy.

You would think having an italian mother-in-law, i'd have a secret family recipe for the sauce, but alas that's not the case.   Friends of mine make sauce every sunday, but it seems they are still in pursuit of the perfect sauce as they keep changing the proportions and ingredients every week.

So here's my take:

Software:

• 1 lb. ground pork
• 1 28 oz can tomatoes
• 1 celery rib (diced)
• 1 carrot (diced)
• 1 onion (diced)
• 1/2 cup hot milk
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 tbs. butter
• 1/4 lb prosciutto (diced)
• 1 cup chicken broth
• and of course, salt and peppeer

Start off by preparing the vegetbles.  Here you can use your knife skills and really dice up a storm or use the handy dandy B&D mini-chopper.

In a large skillet/dutch oven, heat the butter and oil over medium heat  and once it begins to foam,add the celery, onion and carrot.  Stir this until it becomes soft (about 5 minutes).  Add the pork and prosciutto and season with salt and pepper.  Keep stirring this breaking up the meat until it loses it's pinkish color.

Next, add the wine and continue stirring until the liquid is almost reduced (about another 5 minutes).  Then add the chicken broth and can of tomatoes.  Once the liquid reaches a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and let it cook for about 2 hours.

Every so often, you can peek in and chop up the tomatoes and after 2 hours, you'll have this.

Pour 1/2 cup of heated milk into the sauce and let simmer for another 45-60 minutes (dependent on how you want the consistency of the sauce to come out.

After 3 hours, pour the sauce over your favorite pasta.  In our case, we usually freeze the remaining sauce in 1 quart freezer bags for quick easy homemade sauce.

Sometime in the future, homemade pasta.