Comments on: Giving Up Sunday Gravy: A Lost Food Tradition

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:41:11 +0000

Nonna and all the cugini were from Benevento (Up in the mountains, halfway between Naples and Foggia) Don’t know if chicken was a Benevento thing, but that’s the way I grew up eating it. Mom sometimes threw together a quick pot with just lamb neck, chicken drumsticks and a few sausage. The chops, braciola and meatballs were only for special occasions when there were lots of helpers in the kitchen.

By: MaryB

MaryB — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:20:39 +0000

Hi Steve! I have never used chicken, only pork neck bones, pork ribs, sausage and ground beef. I will be adding bracciole to the next batch if the budget allows. I love making Sunday gravy; for me it is quite relaxing! I also love the responses from dinner guests in my home. They love it too and look forward to the dinner invitation!

By: Denise Santoro Lincoln

Denise Santoro Lincoln — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 23:38:01 +0000

Hi Steve — Sounds like you’ve created a great way to have gravy throughout the year. I’m guessing you have a nice big freezer :-) No one in my family ever put chicken in the gravy. Just pork and beef (including some fried pork skin). Maybe it’s a regional thing. My family is Neapolitan. Where is your family from?

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 27 May 2011 05:56:03 +0000

The only problem with guests is that by the time they arrive, the cook is ready to drop dead from exhaustion! Last month, we had people over for 3pm Sunday dinner. We took out 4 double portion containers. Two minute thaw in the micro, into a pot for about twenty minutes, a pot full of Penne Rigate, some grated Pecorino Romano cheese, steamed Broccoli di Rapa, Salad and Bread. Half an hour – a feast for eight. I never broke a sweat!

By the way, looking through all the other posts, am I the only one that included chicken in my gravy?

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:45:43 +0000

Steve, nice reply! When I make it I try to do it when there are lots of guests in the house. The conversation and “buzz”, kids running in and out, the ladies drinking wine and chatting on the porch while the guys BS each other while a game is on (if not some primo Italian American music from the 60′s) and you have the best communal event ever.

I also do the Tupperware thing on those rare occasions when there’s enough to freeze. After all, I must bottle some for my guests to take away with them. I should incorporate!

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 25 May 2011 15:09:37 +0000

Hey Ralph, and all you others who love Sunday Sauce but don’t like making it: I make it once or twice a year in a H U G E pot. 20 Pork chops, 20 Veal chops, 50 sausage, 5 or 6 Bracciole (I cheat a little by buying the bracciole pre-stuffed and tied at a local market), pounds and pounds of lamb neck (2 inch chunks on the bone) lamb shanks, chicken legs and wings, a whole lot of meatballs and gallons and gallons of crushed tomato and tomato paste. Of course, I start with PLENTY of fresh garlic (no onion) and include oregano, a few bay leaves, some ground fennel seed and a few good pinches of crushed hor pepper. Takes about an hour to fry up all of the meat. Then into the big pot. The tough chops go in the sauce on the bottom, the delicate meatballs sit way up top, everything else have a fun time mingling somewhere in the middle! Once in the sauce, everything cooks on a tiny, tiny flame for about 5 hours. Another 2 hours to cool off. Who can eat all that food? Not me, at least not all at once. I FREEZE EVERYTHING ! ! ! Single and double serving sizes get put into Tupperware, labeled and into my freezer. (I have a big freezer, and I’m not much of an ice cream eater.) Reheated in the micro or a small covered pan with a couple of tablespoons of water and I have “Sunday) sauce a couple of times a week for months and months. DELIZIOSO

By: Ralph

Ralph — Wed, 04 May 2011 10:55:01 +0000

I believe their are “Sunday gravies” in Italy, but they call them ragu or sugo. I saw Lydia Bastianich make an Abrruzese ragu with lamb, and I’ve seen Italian language websites talking about Napolitano ragu. It’s definitely Italian as well as Italian American as far as I’m concerned. Maybe Jim is not from the rural south, as Italy is so highly regional.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:30:35 +0000

Hi, Denise — the Sunday gravy is a 4-time-a-year thing with me. It’s a lot of work and not enough family left to eat it.

By: Denise Santoro Lincoln

Denise Santoro Lincoln — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:51:00 +0000

Hi MaryB — How wonderful that you keep the tradition going strong. You’re right in that nothing can compare to homemade gravy. I made a partial-version recently (i.e., just meatballs and sausage) and then froze half for later use. I was so happy to have it available a month later when I was making baked ziti!

Hi Andy — Do you ever make gravy now or have you given it up?

Hi Joe — I have to agree with you on this. Although we ate gravy every Sunday we also had an enormous salad with it plus eggplant, stuffed artichokes, fresh peppers and lots of other vegetables. Then during the week my mother would make vegetable soups and pastas. So although we indulged, we also ate lots of vegetables and whole grains – and it was all natural!

By: Joe Hard

Joe Hard — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 01:08:53 +0000

Our arteries did just fine because it was real food,not the processed junk that has destroyed all our eating habits today.Funny how my parents and grandparents were raised on fatty meat,lard and fat back(of course many other additions as well) and they did just fine.Empty carbs and high fructose corn syrup has become the norm unfortunately.