Scavone Family Cookbook: Brown Sauce

14 July 2011

Grandma Tressa's Brown Sauce

Jimmy says this is Paul Chalifour's favorite Scavone family recipe.

1-2 oz dry Porcini mushrooms
Minced garlic
1 lb bulk Italian sausage
12 oz tomato paste
28 oz can tomatoes
Red wine
Salt, pepper to taste
Basil
Oregano
Parsley
Allspice

Reconstitute 1-2 oz porcini mushrooms in small amount of water. Save water. In pot, saute garlic in olive oil. Add sausage, brown and drain thoroughly. Add paste and saute about 1 minute. Puree tomatoes in blender and add to sausage mixture. Thin mixture with the tomato paste can filled with 1/2 red wine and 1/2 mushroom water (including mushrooms). Season with remaining ingredients. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Serve over pasta.

Benvenuto!

THE WOMEN

The handing down of recipes through the generations is a means of preserving family as an identity. One doesn’t simply produce offspring, one leaves them with the knowledge of who they are, with parts of those who’ve gone before and what they knew of life. In teaching her to cook, a mother teaches her daughter to nurture, to grow her children to be strong and good, and to preserve the tradition of family for them to take as their own.

When a new daughter entered the family, she went to her new mother to learn her husband’s favorite dishes, for to do his job of supporting the household, a man needs nurturing, too. Stella learned from Fanny how to cook for John; Barbara learned from Stella how to cook for Manny. The new daughter combined these skills with her own; thus, the family table was further enriched, and traditions grew.

It is to our lasting good fortune that these women were much more than students. Each was a talented chef. They knew how to follow a recipe and when exact measurements were important. But so much of it was instinctive. Mom would put "this much" salt in the gravy, and pour an amount into her palm. Was it a teaspoon? A tablespoon? It was enough so that the gravy tasted right. They were inventive. What matter if there was little in the refrigerator when times were tough? They could take almost anything and make a meal that more than satisfied hunger and taste. Experiment with the recipes yourself, add your own touches. Mom, Nana and Grandma won’t mind, as long as you enjoy what comes out. In our family tradition, food represents the bounty of the Earth. It is a gift, and our duty not only to use it, but to use it well.

14 July 2011

Grandma Tressa's Brown Sauce

Benvenuto!

THE RECIPES

Printing Recipes

Manny and Barbara (Valerie) Scavone

Nana Rosie

Nana Stella

Grandma Tressa

Grandma Fanny

THE WOMEN

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