Homemade Italian pasta sauce recipe (For you Midori : )

So here it is, my families recipe for Sunday Gravy. And yes, pasta sauces with meat in them are usually called "gravy", because the meat drippings are the base of the sauces. This is what gives a yummy tomato sauce it's best tasting flavor, you know! And the term is just Italian-American slang, to call it Sunday Gravy, because after Sunday's mass, it's typical to enjoy a big Sunday dinner with aunties and uncles and grandma and grandpa and cousins, and mom and dad and the entire family....every Sunday! Ha ha ha : )

1/2 pound spicy Italian sausage
1 small pork roast
1 pound and a half of meatballs
1 medium sized onion
1/2 cup of olive oil
2 garlic cloves diced and chopped
red pepper flakes (the kind I used in the pasta soup I blogged about last week) you can get that at Costco in Japan for cheap!
basil, just a pinch
1 (six ounce) can of tomato paste
1 (28 ounce) can peeled and crushed tomatoes
1 (28) ounce can of water...just use the same tin as the tomatoes came in
salt and pepper to taste

Fry up your meats in 1/4 of the olive oil in frying pan. Now you can use any meat you have handy, there are no set rules. In Japan Italian sausage is hard to come by, so I usually just use pork and also add the meatballs as well. You can fry up a tiny pork roast or if you don't have the pork roast, you could use 3 or 4 pork chops instead. But and I do say *but*....adding pork to the gravy is what I suggest! Strongly suggest because while it does make it a pinch oily it makes the best flavored sauce ever! Secrets in the fried pork drippings really. So what I do is, and this is what I do since I live in Japan and can't get sausage, I fry up a small pork roast and my meatballs and get my meatballs all browned and a bit crusty on the outside. I would have liked to add sausage as well, but can't since I can't get them in Japan, sigh but at least I use the pork and meatballs though.

When the meats are all browned and cooked, transfer the meat to a plate or platter or something like that.Add the other half of the 1/4 cup of olive oil to the meat drippings in the pan and when the oil and drippings are hot, add your onion and garlic and seasonings until limp.

Stir in the tomato paste.Next add the tomatoes. Add your 28 ounces of water. You can adjust the water depending on how thick or thin you want the sauce. So you don't necessarily need 28 ounces, but no more then 28 ounces.Let the sauce boil and then add your seasonings. Put the meat into the sauce, lower the heat, to a low to slight medium heat. Cover it with a lid and let it boil for at least 1 hour. Obviously stir it every once in a while though.

Serve over pasta. I wish it was homemade pasta like how I grew up, but in Japan, I usually just buy premade noodles, sigh, ha ha ha. Enjoy! : )