• >
  • Recipes
  • >
  • Yia Yia's Sunday Sauce

Yia Yia's Sunday Sauce

TOTAL TIME: 8 hr 20 min
Prep: 10 min
Inactive Prep: --
Cook: 8 hr 10 min
YIELD: 8 cups
LEVEL: Easy

ingredients

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 large Spanish onion, finely diced
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt, or more as needed
  • 6 cloves garlic, sliced
  • Two 28-ounce cans San Marzano tomatoes, with their juice
  • 2 pounds meaty beef bones
recipe tools

    • COMMENT ON THIS PROJECT

        

    Sign in

    All fields are required.

    E-mail Address:

    Password:

    Remember me on this computer

    Signing in

    Please enter your email address and we will send your password

    E-mail Address

    Your password has been sent and should arrive in your mailbox very soon.

    Not a member?

    Sign up for My Cooking Channel to share photos, show off your style, and connect to an enthusiastic and helpful community.

    It's free and easy.

  • Print Recipe

Directions

What makes this sauce so good is the long, slow cooking time, which allows it to develop a complex flavor. It shouldn't simmer; there should be just a bubble rising to the surface every now and then. Meaty beef bones add more depth and complexity. (If you have beef stock, you can add two cups of it in place of the beef bones.) This sauce is chunky with abundant tomato and sliced garlic. Depending on what you're using this for, it can be served as is (over a very thick hearty pasta or as part of a braising liquid). But if you were to use it for an angel hair or as a sauce for sauteed veal, you would probably want to puree it in a blender until it's uniformly smooth. This sauce freezes well, so you can make big batches, portion it into smaller containers, and freeze it when you need it.
Heat the oil in a 4-quart saucepan or large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, 2 minutes. Add the salt and garlic and cook until everything is soft but not browned, about 3 minutes.

Squeeze the tomatoes one by one into the pan, pulverizing them by hand, and pour in their juice, too. Add the bones, wine, oregano, red pepper flakes, if using, black pepper and bay leaf. Bring the sauce to a simmer, and then reduce the heat to its lowest possible setting, and continue to cook for 8 hours. The sauce should reduce by about one-third.

Taste for seasoning and add more salt if necessary. Remove the bones and bay leaf. If not using right away, let the sauce cool, then cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 2 months.

COMMENT ON THIS PROJECT

    

Sign in

All fields are required.

E-mail Address:

Password:

Remember me on this computer

Signing in

Please enter your email address and we will send your password

E-mail Address

Your password has been sent and should arrive in your mailbox very soon.

Not a member?

Sign up for My Cooking Channel to share photos, show off your style, and connect to an enthusiastic and helpful community.

It's free and easy.

Review This Recipe

You must be logged in to review this recipe.

or Sign Up to Review

4

Newest Ratings and Reviews

Read all 3 reviews

  • on February 15, 2013

    Flag

    OMG!! The best!! I used oxtails instead of the bones, and I've had rave reviews.....everyone thinks there's meat in this sauce, but........not - just the flavor of the oxtails!! This is a really great recipe!!

    people found this review Helpful.
    Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No

  • on January 12, 2013

    Flag

    This Sauce is so good you will want to take a bath in it! Made it with the braised beef and root vegtables for New Years Day dinner. I had 8 people and everyone had 2 servings and loved it. I added extra carrot and celery. Fabulous! Also made the Baklava for desert, not enough stars in the heaven to rate this whole meal. Thanks Michael!

    people found this review Helpful.
    Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No

  • on December 01, 2012

    Flag

    I never write reviews but since this took so long to make I thought I would. I followed the recipe exactly even to the point of crushing the whole tomatoes by hand. I now know why on the show he used diced tomatoes. The mess of crushing them by hand is too much. It went everywhere! Great flavor but not incredible. I used this to make his other recipe Italian Braised Beef with Root Vegetables which had no taste. Anyhow back to Yia Yia's Sunday Sauce...worth the while if the flaws are worked out. The tomatoes when crushed by hand remain pretty chunky and though I thought 3 hours would cook them down it didn't. Way too chunky for me. I don't enjoy biting on a canned tomato, I don't know about you. Also this dish is very very sour. I like a slight tang but this was overpowering.
    I gave it 3 stars which is pretty generous considering the labor and time this took.

    people found this review Helpful.
    Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No
Advertisement

On TV

*ALL TIMES EASTERN
ON AIR
NOW
TONIGHT
10:00
PM

what's hot

Road Trip with G. Garvin
Road Trip with G. Garvin Host: G. Garvin

Get Cooking Channel on your TV.

Learn How