Good job! Use your favorite sprinkles to adorn cookies.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 5 hrs 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 6 hrs |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 pork neck bones
- 1 country-style pork rib
- 1 (8 ounce) beef chuck in 1 piece
- 1 beef rib, or more to taste
- 1 lamb shank
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 pinch dried basil, or to taste
- 1 pinch dried mint, or to taste
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes, or to taste
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste
- 2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
- 7 cups water, or as needed
- 2 pinches dried basil
- 2 pinches dried mint
- 2 pinches crushed red pepper flakes
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound bulk Italian sausage
- ½ tablespoon white sugar, or to taste
- 1 pound ground beef
- ¼ pound ground pork
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
- ½ cup chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons olive oil
Instructions
- Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Cook neck bones, country-style pork rib, beef chuck, beef rib, and lamb shank in hot oil, turning regularly, until browned on all sides, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove all the meat to a large bowl.
- Pour another 1/4 cup olive oil into the stockpot and heat over medium heat; stir a pinch of basil, a pinch of mint, and a pinch of red pepper flakes into the oil. Cook and stir onions in hot oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic; cook and stir 1 minute more. Stir the tomato paste into the onion mixture until incorporated. Pour crushed tomatoes and water into the mixture and bring to a low boil. Add an additional 2 pinches each of basil, mint, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and black pepper.
- Return the browned meats to the tomato mixture; bring to a simmer and cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2 1/2 hours. Remove the neck bones and discard.
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Crumble Italian sausage into the skillet; cook and stir until crumbly, evenly browned, and no longer pink, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain and discard any excess grease. Stir sausage into the tomato sauce with sugar. Return the sauce to a simmer and cook another 1 1/2 hours.
- Mix ground beef, ground pork, eggs, milk, Italian bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan cheese, and garlic with your hands in a large bowl until evenly mixed; shape into 2-inch balls.
- Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the meat balls in hot oil until evenly browned, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add meatballs to the tomato sauce. Cook at a simmer for 1 hour, adding water as needed to keep sauce from becoming too thick. Remove stockpot from heat; let sit 2 to 3 minutes. Skim and discard any fat from the top of the sauce.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 527 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 25 g |
| Cholesterol | 110 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 28 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 869 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 36 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Fantastic! We did leave out the lamb shank as we aren’t fans of lamb and the mint because we didn’t have any. Doubled up the recipe and added extra meat to make up for the missing lamb. It didn’t look inspiring when cooking as it was very thin and greasy. Once the meat starts breaking down and the meatballs are added it tirns into a beautifully thick rich sauce. Thank you so much for sharing.
There are, unfortunately, only 5 stars to rate this recipe. I followed it exactly the first time and it was a winner. The second time I opted to make a stock out of the ingredients which had bones….. not for me, but for family who may be a bit finicky about having a bone in their gravy/sauce. That is the only change that I made, but for #3, I want to return to the original recipe. When I saw the words ‘north end’ ….. I thought ‘oh good, this is one from my hometown’, but when I saw that the author was from another city, another country….. and after mentioning to my wife, she said…. ‘hey – a lot of cities have a north end’ – but make no mistake: This is the best tomato based gravy/sauce on Allrecipes, if not THE best recipe.
Simple, we’ll written directions led to a delicious gravy reminiscent of grandma’s!
this was my first attempt at Sunday gravy (sauce). It was easy and came out wonderful!