Sunday Gravy for Thanksgiving Monday

Along with being Thanksgiving here in Canada last weekend, it was also my Mom's birthday (I almost said which birthday, but then I remembered that Christmas was coming... ).  Seeing that most of us had already had a turkey dinner to host or go to, I decided to go a different way for our Monday meal.  Having had such overwhelming success with the Barbecue Ribs from my new America's Test Kitchen Slowcooker Revolutioncookbook, I decided to give another recipe of theirs a try.  I was having ten adults over, so I needed something that would feed a crowd... pasta it is!  I picked out the Sunday Gravy recipe since it is definitely more special than a regular meat sauce and with about five pounds of meat in it, it feeds a crowd and then some!

While the Sunday Gravy didn't blow me away like the ribs did, it still was a very good sauce and the house smelled fantastic while it cooked away all day.  I will probably make it again, but will add some more spice and maybe brown the meat first anyway... I felt it was missing some depth of flavour.  I served it over penne and topped it with freshly grated Parmesano Reggiano.   I also baked up two loaves of Pesto Swirl Bread which disappeared fast!  My sister Pat brought a delicious Spinach Salad with chevre, strawberries, Mandarin oranges, onion and almonds...

Italian Sunday Gravy

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen

2 onions, minced

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

12 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp dried oregano

1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained

1 (28 oz) can tomato sauce

1/2 cup dry red wine

1 1/2 lbs bone-in country-style pork ribs, trimmed

1 1/2 lbs flank steak

Salt & pepper

1 lb EACH mild and hot Italian sausage

3 tbsp minced fresh basil

In a microwavable bowl, combine onions, garlic, tomato paste, oregano and oil.  Microwave on high for about 5 minutes, stirring once or twice and then transfer to slow cooker.  Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce and wine.  Salt & pepper the pork ribs and beef steak and then place it in the slow cooker, pushing it under the sauce.  Tuck the sausages in the sauce as well and let it cook all day on low (9-11 hours).  Take out the meat and shred the pork (removing bones) and steak into bite size pieces and slice the sausages in two diagonally.  Add the meat back into the sauce and add the basil.  Stir and let warm for about 5 minutes, adding salt & pepper to taste if necessary.  You will have about 16 cups of sauce or enough for 3 pounds of cooked pasta.

My other sister Sue brought this amazing Nanaimo Bar Cheesecake.  I had not even thought of this as a cheesecake until the Thursday before Thanksgiving and had posted a link on my personal Facebook page and added that I had to make it.  Sue had already decided that was what she was going to bring!  How crazy is that?

So now almost a week after last weekend's food-stravaganza I'm just getting back into the whole cooking thing because we had a lot of leftovers!  I hope you all had a great holiday as well, and to my American friends, I hope you can include some of my ideas in your upcoming holiday meals.  Enjoy!