Well, I hope this is Jan's (my Mom). I found a recipe in her golden book hand
written and it was kind of vague. So I
went and looked at Paul Prudhomme’s Chicken Mamou with Pasta and used the ‘quantities’
of that recipe to base this recipe. I’ll
have to send this to Rick my brother and see how close it is to what he would
do. We might adjust it, or just add a
different one for his. It turned out
pretty good, except my Dad said it wasn't as good, it wasn't Jan’s. Everyone else loved it.
Additional note 4/13/2013 – Okay I cooked it
again and this time I changed some things and this time I nailed it. Perfect.
Dad loved it and everyone agreed it was awesome. The weird thing was how damn good it was the
next day. This is the recipe. No worries.
Ingredients
3 Tablespoons of Extra
Virgin Olive oil and 1/4th a stick of butter.
2-3 Yellow Onions,
Diced
2-3 Tablespoons of
Fresh or Jarred Garlic
Salt & Pepper Bouquet
Garni (to Taste)
6 lbs of Meat (I used
the following, but feel free to substitute and try and come up with different
mixes)
- 2 lbs of Jimmy Dean Sausage
- 2 lbs of lean Ground Beef (Hamburger)
- 2 lbs of Hot Italian Sausage – this is the secret ingredient. I
think used Johnsonville. This was
it. This is the secret. Don’t use Colisimo.
1 SW Premium Crushed
Tomatoes (28 oz cans)
1 SW Premium Tomato
Sauce (29 oz)
1 Hunts Tomato Paste
(12 oz)
Fresh Oregano
6 Tb sugar
3 Packages of fresh 8
oz cut up mushrooms or three cans of canned mushrooms.
In a huge pot over high heat add the butter and oil and heat
till hot. Then add the diced onions and
garlic and season. Cook for about 5-7
minutes, until onions get a little translucent and are sweet. Remove them to a bowl.
Add the meats, and start browning. Season. When Brown add the onions back in, and then
add the huge can of Crushed or diced Tomatoes, and then fill the can with water
and add that into the mix. Do the same
with the huge can of Tomato Sauce, adding 1 full can of water. It will feel
runny at this point, no worries, add the can of tomato paste. Add as much oregano as you want. I put a
lot. Fresh leaves I stripped off the
stalk and throw in there. Sprinkle the sugar
over it. Add the onions back into the
pot, add the canned or fresh mushrooms. Bring
to a boil.
Then… let it simmer covered for hours. 1-4 hours is fine. This is it.
That will produce my Mom’s sauce.
The secret is the Hot Italian sausage, the taste permeates everything. You’ll also flat out be amazed the next day,
it tastes totally different and 100% better.
(and it’s great the first time!)
