Name: Easy Sunday Gravy
Total time: 55 min
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Cuisine: Italian, Europe
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; 1 pound hot Italian sausage; 2 onions, chopped medium; 2 tablespoons tomato paste; 6 garlic cloves, minced; 2 teaspoons sugar; 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano; 1/4 cup red wine; 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomato; 2 cups shredded leftover chuck roast meat; Salt and pepper; 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Why This Recipe Works

Using tender leftover chuck for our Easy Sunday Gravy was a good start, but to approximate Sunday gravy, we needed meatier flavor. We found the answer in the form of hot Italian sausages. Without the benefit of a long cooking time to build a slow, deep backbone of flavor, we turned to potent ingredients like garlic, red wine, tomato paste, and a generous amount of oregano to flavor our Easy Sunday Gravy. Sautéing the onions in the fat rendered from the sausage and preparing the sauce in that same pan helped build additional flavor.

Before You Begin

This recipe will dress 1 pound of pasta; we prefer tubular shapes here.

Instructions

Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add sausage and cook until well browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer sausage to paper towel–lined plate. Slice in half crosswise; reserve.

Cook onions in sausage fat over medium heat until browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Add tomato paste, garlic, sugar, and oregano and cook until tomato paste begins to darken, 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine, scraping up any browned bits, and simmer until reduced to 2 tablespoons, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, chuck roast, reserved sausage, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. Stir in basil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over pasta. (Sunday gravy can be refrigerated in airtight container for 2 days.)