Authentic Italian American Marinara Sauce/ Red Gravy
5.0(11)
If you are Italian, or were lucky enough to grow up with some, this is the red sauce that you knew. you may have called it "gravy", or "red sauce". whatever you called it, you loved it. it is a marinara sauce, and look for my meatball recipe, as this is what you should be cooking them in.
06Stir all together into a mess and continue to cook, if it seems to hot, turn down the heat, you don't want to burn anything.
07Once everything is well mixed and cooked, turn up the heat for about 1 minute. I tell you to do this as you are about to add the balsamic vinegar to "deglaze" and you will want the pan hot.
08Add balsamic, stir quickly while hot steam rises. the vapors should make you eyes water, and nose run, so be careful to remain hygienic. when vapors stop remove from heat.
09Open all the cans of crushed tomato.
10Stir in one can at a time with wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
11Once all cans are in, stir well again so you don't see any oil on the top of sauce. return to heat. Cook on low heat uncovered, stirring whenever you walk into the kitchen for some other reason. You don't need to stir it every hour, but do it whenever you get around to it. although you do need to stir it from time to time.
12Cook for at least five hours. If you want to do this while you go to work, you can transfer everything to a crock pot, but you must start in a big metal pot. Your choice.
13Serve over your favorite pasta, or use to cook my meatball recipe, which is highly recommended ( look at the reviews). doing my meatballs is particularly easy if you have transferred gravy to a crock pot, but if you do you may need to remove some sauce to fit the balls in the sauce.
14Freeze left over sauce, just pour cooled sauce in zip-lock bags and throw in freezer.