Yia Yia's Sunday Sauce (p. 229)

Wow, what a great weekend! My 30th birthday was on Sunday (yes, I know, I'm a Valentine's baby, how cute). So after I spent Saturday making chicken stock and smoking some pork chops & beef jerky (side note: you can still smoke on the Weber when it's 20 degrees out), my wife threw me an awesome birthday party at Bier Market / Bar Cento on Saturday night. I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate my birthday than to share more than a few drinks and pomme frites with my closest friends & family. I also received some great food & beer related presents including Chef's School at the Greenhouse Tavern, an awesome food mill, The Flavor Bible, some amazing & rare IPA's, dinner at the Culinary Vegetable Institution, and a gift certificate for dinner at the Greenhouse Tavern. I am so blessed to have so many great friends and family to celebrate my birthday with. Thanks to everyone that made my birthday a great time!

I also wanted to mention that I'll have some exciting news coming up on Live to Cook at Home later this week, including my first giveaway, so be sure to check back soon.

So, how about Michael Symon's Yia Yia's Sunday Sauce? I usually save my review for the end of the blog, but wow, this is probably the best red sauce I've ever had. This sauce, which is the base for several other dishes in the book, is the same sauce Michael's maternal grandmother made when he was growing up. This recipe is a perfect example of why you need to buy the book not just for the recipes, but also for the great stories and tips Michael tells along the way. I will give a few of Michael's tips, but be sure to read the book for the story of how his grandmother became such a good cook.

The first key to Yia Yia's sauce is using San Marzano tomatoes. San Marzano tomatoes are a type of plum tomato grown in, you guessed it, San Marzano, Italy. According to Michael, "They are the best available; their natural sweetness makes them especially good for tomato sauces." After tasting this sauce, I definitely can't argue.

The second key to this sauce reminds me of my favorite cooking method, smoking - low and slow. High quality ingredients are mixed together in a large pot and left alone for 8+ hours over low heat as the flavors combine to form an amazingly rich, meaty sauce even though there is no noticeable meat in the sauce.

Waiting to Become Yia Yia's Sauce

I'd never purchased beef bones before so I wasn't exactly sure what to get. I wandered around the Westside Market on a slow day before coming across some nice looking bones at Wiencek's Meats. I immediately noticed one set of bones labeled as neck bones and ordered 2 pounds. As they were being wrapped up I noticed leg bones so I ordered 2 pounds of those as well. Rather than freezing one set of bones, I decided to make 2 batches of sauce, one in my new dutch oven, and the other in my new stainless steel pot - the book mentions to always use stainless steel or other non-reactive pans when cooking tomato dishes.

  

Mise en Place

Because I was making 2 batches at once I knew I needed to be organized so I got all the ingredients together and set up each batch on opposite sides of the stove. I split the neck & leg bones up so each pot would receive equal portions and used my scale to make sure that everything was exactly even. The beginning of the recipe goes pretty quickly. First I heated up the olive oil in each pan. Once it was almost smoking hot I added the onions and cooked them until they were almost translucent. Then I threw in a bunch of garlic and some salt and cooked it until it was soft.

  

Pulverizing Tomatoes is a Good Stress Reliever

Next came the fun part, squeezing the tomatoes into each pan. I poured the juice in first to prevent the onion & garlic from browning and then squeezed each tomato into the pot, leaving it in chunks.

  

Finally, I added the beef bones, wine, herbs, and spices and brought the sauce to a simmer.

  

Once it slowly started to bubble, I turned the heat to the lowest possible setting and walked away from the stove for 8 hours. Ok, I may or may not have dipped more than one chunk of bread into the sauce throughout the day. Someone had to taste it to make sure it was worth keeping.

  

Finally reduced

Michael writes that the sauce should reduce by about 1/3. He also mentioned that he and his cousins would get in trouble for dipping bread in the sauce while it was cooking. I can't help but wonder if the sauce actually reduces on its own or if it's from so many tastings throughout the day. I am sure bread dipping helped my pans of sauce reduce.

  

Comparing the Sauces

I was surprised to notice a difference between the two sauces. You can even tell in the picture above, notice how the sauce on the right looks much brighter & vibrant? It tasted that way too. I can only assume it had to do with the amount of meat on the bones or the quality of the tomatoes in each can. It couldn't be the difference in pans, could it? Either way, both pans were delicious. I let the sauce cool before separating it into smaller containers for the freezer. The sauce freezes very well. It's so nice to have such a rich, hearty sauce during the long, cold winter here in Cleveland.

 

Yum!!!

The picture above is my favorite use of Yia Yia's sauce, smothered over the top of a Bluebird Meadows Italian sausage and a piece of Italian bread, all topped with fresh shaved Parmesan cheese. Of course it also tastes great served simply with some Ohio City Pasta, or with spaghetti & meatballs, or straight out of the container with a spoon....

Cost

I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used.  

It cost about $18.36 to make a little more than 2 quarts of Michael Symon's Yia Yia's Sunday Sauce from Live to Cook and it was worth every penny!

San Marzano tomatoes - $9.38
White wine - $2.00
Beef bones from Wiencek's Meats at the Westside Market - $3.98
Miscellaneous (olive oil, onion, garlic, salt, bay leaf, oregano, pepper) - $3

All ingredients except the beef bones came from Heinen's.