Family Sicilian Sauce and Meatballs

I have always considered myself an excellent saucemaker. However, I made this sauce for my Sicilian husband and he absolutely loved it! I used a little more red wine than called for to get a little different flavor. I also made it a meat sauce instead of making meatballs. I added ground beef AND ground pork to the recipe, instead of the brisket. Unbelievable! The flavor of the sauce really stuck to the pasta (I used rigatoni), and the aroma throughout the house was great. People could smell it from outside. Obviously, I can't say enough. One of the best I've ever had!

This was amazing - the whole family felt like we were eating at a fine Italian restaurant. This recipe is not difficult and is SURE to impress others. My kids keep telling me how great it was. I don't understand how another reviewer had ingredients left over (?) she must have skipped a step because everything is used and the instructions are very descriptive.

If you are looking for a great tasting hearty meat sauce, then you have definitely found it. This sauce is easy to make and full of flavor...don't leave out the pork neck bones. Excellent! Mr Gerry...thank you for sharing this one!

Wow. This was great. I scaled the recipe down to make sure we would like it first since I didn't have all ing. on hand and I really wanted to try this recipe. I didn't have brisket and I used lean ground beef in its place. Omitted the bay leaf because we don't like, personal preference and added oregano. Used Italian Sausage I had on hand and took it out of casing. I did go out and get pork neck bones and I'm glad I did because I really think this is what adds to the flavor if using ground beef. This was really good and when I go shopping this weekend I'll pick up the original to recipe and try. Then I'll scale it up to freeze. Great flavor, thanks so much for the post.

Hardy, rich wonderful sauce, we added 1 1/2c extra Pinot noir, also because we were short on time we pressure cooked it for 40 min, then finished simmering when we added the meatballs for 30 in pressure cooker. One of the better sauces we've made from this site

This may be easy for someone with more cooking experience to read between the lines. Steps MUST be missing because I had ingredients I never used. The meatballs wouldn't even stay together... i ended up throwing them out. Sorry... but this was a MESS for me (and a waste of money).

Very very delicious. I'm not sure about the 4 onions...I used one good sized medium onion which was plenty sufficient. Wonderful flavor...my house smelled like a fine Italian restaurant for 2 days!! Thank you!

i just used the sauce part of this recipe, but next time i will try the meatballs. i thought this was excellent! the addition of the neck bones gave it a really good flavor, and i thought the seasoning was quite tasty. i did happen to add some crushed red pepper which made it taste better. it was a tad bland before that addition. paired this with 'the best meatballs' and it was a good meal! i'll be making this again :)

Very, very good sauce. I've been trying to make a good spaghetti sauce for ages and now I have one, thanks.

Okay - overall this sauce came out great. I only used two onions because using four of them seemed like too much, but probably would've been fine had i used four. I also added some oregano and crushed red pepper to the sauce and put a little extra wine and also extra garlic. I doubled the chop meat and meatball ingredients because I like meatballs a little larger than golf balls as suggested - big fan of meatballs made with bread. I put the meatballs in right away (i had them chilling in the fridge for a few hours), then once all the ingredients were in the sauce i dropped them in - if they are a decent size they wont fall apart. I would definitely OMIT the cinnamon - it was very overpowering & my mother, who's been making sauce for 50+ years could taste it right away... someone else told me the sausages tasted like cinnamon as well... p.s. as usual, the leftovers two days later tasted even better!

This is an excellent sauce that's both rich and hearty and certainly deserves to be classified as a good Italian "gravy". The pork bones gave it so much flavor and the deep color of the sauce alone hinted that we were in for a real treat. I don't fry or bake my meatballs as I prefer to roll and just place them in the sauce. This is just our personal preference, but they too were fantastic. My daughter came home from school and immediately commented on how wonderful the house smelled. Within seconds she was dipping bread into the sauce and begging me for a meatball. Great recipe Peter and thanks so much!

great recipe thanks for sharing. Made this last night for company, she took some home. The recipe makes alot and it is time consuming but really worth it. unable to find pork neck bones but don't really think it needed it. I added ground pork to my meatballs as that is how we like them. Next time I will not brown them and put them in raw just to cut down on the time. My husband has stomach issues with Italian sauces but he was okay with this one which is great as we love pasta. Again, thanks for a great recipe.

Wonderful sauce. A little labor intensive, but if you got the time then go for it. I added some red pepper flakes (pizza topping) to the sauce with about an hour left in the cook time. Gave it that little extra kick.

So glad you posted this for all to appreciate! My great grandfather was from Sicily and my great grandmother was from Milan. This is so similar (to the T except for the meatballes) to how we have been raised to make sauce! Very authentic!!! It's the long cooking time that's the key to taking what we call the "green" flavor out of the sauce. Thank you again!

I only cooked the meatballs which are excellent! Didn't have any ingredients to make the sauce today but will definitely do so. The meatballs were so moist and the cheese added a great flavor to them.

this was so easy and my boyfriend loved it!

truly tasty, a hit with all the family

This had a very interesting taste to it. My husband didn't like it, though. Although I found the flavor rather unique, it wasn't really something I would make again. But I appreciate the recipe and trying something new.

Excellent! The meatballs were incredibly tender, and the sauce had great flavor. I wasn't certain what to do with the whole sausage links though. I ended up cooking them as directed, then slicing them into large sections and leaving them in the pot as the sauce simmered. Seemed to work well!

This is very similar to the sauce my dad use to make--wake up to the smell of garlic and onions frying-waiting all day for it to cook--yum. He would never add ground meat to his sauce and I would never either. It's just not the same. The bones from the pork neck bones add a thickness to the sauce that you just don't get any other way. LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!

For the last poster, go to the Recipe Buzz to ask questions on any cooking topic. The cooks are very willing to help!

Even my picky, Italian husband loved this one! The kids say it's a keeper too. Thanks!

This was a great deal of work but worth every second! My family loved it. I've always wanted to try making my own sauce and this was amazing!!

I haven't made this sauce yet, but recognize most of the ingredients as similar to the sauce my Sicilian grandfather passed to my mom. For those of you thinking of trying this sauce, the pork neck bones are essential, as is the cheese in the meatballs. Can't wait to make this version.

This was excellent!!! This makes alot. Great for freezing. Would make again. Thanks for sharing.

I too found the directions somewhat ambiguious and misleading, but stil ended up with a tasty three-meat sauce. Specifically, the recipe only ever addresses using one Italian sausage link in step 2. Later, in step 4 it says to add in browned beef and pork, but does not specify if this is the Italian sausage or pork neck bones...and brisket or meatballs. Remainder of Italian sausage was never directed to be browned. Somewhat confusing. As a meat lover, I solved the dilemma by just throwing all the meat in. Seemed to work out well and yielded a flavorful and sweet three-meat sauce. I prefer my red sauces a little spicy, so I added red pepper flakes to the mix as well. Recipe yield is substantial, and once simmering, I found it overflowing my largest pan with cover. Suggest you use a large pot or cut recipes in half if you aren't feeding a large crowd. Otherwise plan to freeze and/or store leftovers.

Good gravy! Used ground chuck for the meatballs but did put the cubed brisket in. Only a dash of cinnamon is needed. I used serving size adjuster function for this recipe to 12 servings and it made a normal pot of sauce for a family of 5 for our spaghetti dinner. Neck bones are hard to find, but, the marrow leaching is a definite flavor and texture enhancer and does make a difference. I have tried it both ways. The butcher was able to provide me with some pork bones - either neck or not, I have found it didn't matter as long as there were pork bones in the sauce. Great recipe!

The recipe is much like the one that has been passed down in my family for more than 200 years... Although my ancestors didn't have the advantage of having tomatoes and paste come in cans! Its the best gravy!!!

Wow! This was my first time making red gravy and it is worth the time and effort. The long cook time does wonders to soften the meat and pulls together all the ingredients to create a fabulous flavor. The sausage was as soft as butter and the gravy took on a beautiful deep red color with a very smooth consistency. I was heavy handed with the cinnamon, basil and parsley but did not find any one stand out in the end result. Since the recipe yield is huge I will freeze part of it. Only uncertainty I have is with the meatballs. I chopped the meat as the recipe suggested, instead of ground meat. The meatballs mostly fell apart while cooking in the last hour. I would prefer to keep the meatballs together so will grind the brisket for meatballs next time. Does chopped brisket mean ground brisket in this recipe?

I'm going back to my own family recipe. Would never make this again.

I remove some of the sauce - 2 cups and 2 sausage and 2 meatballs and run them in the blender and add back to the pot to thicken the sauce. Remove the bones before serving. Any pork bones would be fine, but neck bones have good amount of marrow and work great. This is AUTHENTIC Sicilian. Nothing like Prego or Ragu!! Yummy!!!!!