There are plenty of Maryland Blue Crabs down on the Jersey Shore, as well as plenty of Italian-Americans. The two go together, and this Crab Sauce for pasta is a specialty of Jersey Italians who love seafood, along with their Brooklyn and New York neighbors. They all love it! So will you.
RECIPE
12 Hard Shell Blue Crabs
12 tablespoons Olive Oil
12 Cloves Garlic
1 for each Crab, peeled and chopped
1 Small Onion, peeled and chopped fine
1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
1 – 28 oz. can whole San Marzano Tomatoes
1 – 28 oz. can Crushed Tomatoes
1- 16 oz. can Tomato Puree
½ teaspoon dry Basil
¼ cup chopped fresh Italian Parsley
1 pound Lump Crab-Meat, fresh frozen or canned
1 pound imported Italian Spaghetti or Linguine
Put olive oil in a large pot and heat to high.
Place the Crabs in the pot and sauté at high heat for 10 minutes.
After browning the crabs, remove from pan and set aside.
Put onions in pan and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.
Add the garlic and red pepper to pan and cook on low heat for 3 minutes.
Add whole tomatoes to pan and cook on high heat for 4 minutes whole stirring with a wooden spoon. Add crushed tomatoes and tomato puree.
Add the Crabs back to the pot. Cook for 90 minutes on low heat.
Remove the crabs from pan and let cool on the side.
Remove all the meat from the crabs and discard the shells.
Add crab-meat to sauce with your extra pound of lump crab-meat and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.
Cook pasta according to directions on package.
Drain pasta and put back in the pot it cooked in with 8 tablespoons of reserved pasta cooking water.
Sprinkle pasta with a little olive oil and mix.
Add 2 cups of crab sauce and half the parsley to pasta and mix.
Plate the pasta with sauce on 4 plates in equal portions and top with some more sauce and some parsley.
Notes: Do not serve with cheese! Italians never have cheese with Seafood Pasta. This is enough sauce for 2 to 3 pound of pasta, or about 12 portions, so after you make this Pasta with Crab Sauce with 1 pound of pasta, you still have plenty left over for another day.
Awesome SUNDAY GRAVY From a Great ITALIAN-AMERICAN COOK
GIANNI
Our Pal Gianni makes an awesome Sunday Gravy and we just love his passion. This recipe is for the Gravy that his Mom and Aunt Fran would make when Gianni was growing up in New Jersey where they make along with New York the Best Sunday Sauce Gravy to be found on the planet ..
SUNDAY SAUCE alla CLEMENZA
From The GODFATHER
This Sunday Sauce video is from our friend Daniel Bellino, author of Sunday Sauce –
When Italian-Americans Cook … We love Daniel’s book, his Sunday Sauce (Gravy) recipe, and especially Daniel’s great passion and love for Italian-American food and the rituals within … Daniel just like our buddy Gianni is “The Real Deal,” and these guys are both Italian-Americans from Jersey, one of the strongest Italian enclaves in the country. Bravo Daniele ! Bravo Gianni !
CARLA’S SUNDAY GRAVY NAPOLITAN
Carla makes an Awesome Sunday Gravy ..
She’s so Sweet, we just Love her.
Her and her awesome Gravy Napolitan ..
Brava Carla !!!
RAGU NAPOLITANA
The ORIGINAL SUNDAY SAUCE
The HISTORY of SUNDAY SAUCE GRAVY
RAGU NAPOLITAN
“THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S CALLED GRAVY” !!!
This girl just cracks us up .. And she’s from Jersey .. We swear, we didn’t plan this, but we realize most of the best Sunday Sauce gravy recipes come from New Jersey, more than anywhere else in the country, even Brooklyn and the rest of New York .. Well I guess Jersey Wins Top Prize for The Best SUNDAY GRAVY in All of America ..
LEARN How to Make SUNDAY SAUCE alla CLEMENZA
From THE GODFATHER
Cousin’s Antony & Daniel make an awesome SUNDAY SAUCE with Sausage, Meatballs. and Pork Spare Ribs .. We just love it .. Here they make this Gravy at Tony’s father’s house in Lodi, New Jersey which was at one time 100% Italian, mostly from Sicily and Napoli .. Tony & Daniel’s grandfather and grandmother were from Lercara Friddi Sicily, the same town that one Charles “Lucky” Lucciano was from, as well as another Jersey Boy named one Francis Albert Sinatra (Frank Sinatra) …
Excerpted from SUNDAY SAUCE – When Italian-American Cook
Of all the fine traditions of the Italian-American enclave in the United State, the Sunday afternoon ritual of making and eating a Sunday Sauce, a.k.a. “Gravy” is Italian-America’s most Time-Honored of all. Mamma, Grandma (Nonna) will make her celebrated “Sunday Sauce” and all is glorious. Sunday Sauce? What is it? Well, first off, Sunday Sauce, or as some call it, Gravy or simply “Sauce,” is without question thee number-1 undisputed “Supreme Dish” of our great Italian-American Cuisine and the Italian-American enclave as a whole, “It doesn’t get any better than a Sunday Sauce.” Ok, now, to be more specific for those who may not know about Sunday Sauce, there are a number of variations on the theme. Most Sunday Sauces are made with Italian Sausages, Braciole, and Meatballs. Some people make their versions with; Beef or Pork Neck, while others make their Gravy (Sunday Sauce) with just Sausage and Meatballs, like Pete Clemenza, or the most popular version of; Sausages, Meatballs, and Braciole. Some may throw some Chicken Thighs or a Veal Shank into this mix. Sunday Sauces can be made with any combination of these aforementioned meats. The meats are slowly simmered for several hours in a “Sauce” made with tomatoes, minced onions, and garlic. I generally like to make my Sunday Sauce Gravy with Sausages, Meatballs, and Pork Ribs. Other times I’ll make it with Sausage, Meatballs, and Braciole. An old tradition in some families is that mother or Grandma would start the Sauce early on a Sunday morning, get all the ingredients in the pot and start the Gravy simmering away for a couple hours on top of the stove, then put it in the oven for a couple hours while everyone goes to Church. When you get back home, the Sauce would be ready, “ready to be devoured that is!”
Our family would usually start our Sunday meal with the most traditional Italian-American-Antipasto of roast peppers, Salami, Olives, Celery, and Provolone. After that, it’s on to the Main Event of Maccheroni and Sunday Sauce, a dish which is something so Blissfully and Pleasurably Sublime, that it is almost “Sinful.” Yes it is.
When a meal centered around a Sunday Sauce is announced, one can have visions of Blissful Ecstasy at thoughts of eating Pasta laden with Italian Sausages, Savory Meatballs, Beef Braciola, and succulent Pork Ribs. All this has been slowly simmered to culinary perfection. Yes just the thoughts can enrapture one into a delightful frenzy of the “Most Blissful Feelings” of smelling, seeing, and consuming all the ingredients, the Sausages, Meatballs and Gravy. Yes a Sunday Sauce can and does have such effects on one’s mind, body, and soul. And, I do not want to sound prejudice, but this is pure fact, it is the Male of the Italian-American species who Love The Sunday Sauce in all its form, far more than the female sex. True! Meatballs too! And Italian-American men and boys Love and hold oh-so-dear, their Meatballs, Sunday Sauce, Sausage & Peppers, and Meatball Parm Sandwiches.
FRANK SINATRA tells Sid Mark, step-by-step HOW He Makes TOMATO SAUCE
“You begin with a skillet and you use a light kind of olive oil and put in about 2 tbsp. full and put in 3 whole cloves of garlic. I usually puncture the cloves with a fork so it will exude the flavor I want. When the garlic is tanned or light brown take it out of the oil and throw it away. Keep the oil.”“For 4 people you can take 2 cans of the oval shaped tomato and you put each can in a blender and count about a “slow four” to grind it up and put it in a saucepan…do that with both cans. Add a pinch of salt and a little bit of black pepper and little bit of oregano…maybe ½ tsp. full. Add the oil. I used to watch my dad do it. He’d just take his fingers and he’d take so much and throw it in the pot. And you let it simmer.” …“Now…VERY IMPORTANT because this is what you don’t find in restaurants because they can’t take the time to do it. You take a good sized tsbp. And whatever oil or foreign matter that comes to the top; just keep skimming it until you have a pure red sauce. Low flame and cook for about ½ hr. and just let it sit there until you are ready to turn on your water for your pasta.”“You want to put a couple of bay leaves and fresh basil is wonderful…at the last minute.”“So you’ve got in the sauce olive oil, garlic, pepper, salt, oregano, a couple of basil leaves and, if you wish, a teaspoon – tablespoon. Of finely chopped parsley and that’s the way to make a simple pasta sauce.”
“Basta!”
FRANK & AVA
FRANK SINATRA’S SPAGHETTI SAUCE
Recipe :
1/2 of a cup of Olive Oil
1 medium Onion finely diced
4 cloves of Garlic minced
1-28-ounce can Italian style tomatoes
1-28-ounce can of tomato purée
2 tablespoons of fresh parsley chopped
2 teaspoons of dried thyme
1 teaspoon each of Slat & Black Pepper
black pepper
1 pound of dried pasta
Extra chopped parsley for serving
red pepper flakes for serving, optional
Italian grated cheese blend, optional
Place the Olive Oil and diced Onions in a medium sized Pot. Cook on low heat for 5 minutes,
Add the Garlic and cook for 2 minutes on low heat as you stir with a wooden spoon.
Add the Salt, Black Pepper & Thyme and cook for 2 minutes, low heat.
Add all the Tomatoes and chopped fresh Parsley. Turn heat to high and cook until the sauce starts to bubble.
Turn the heat down to low, and let simmer for 40 minutes. Be sure to stir the Sauce with a wooden spoon as the sauce cooks, scrapping the bottom of the pot so the sauce doesn’t stick or burn.
After 40 minutes, turn the heat off.
Serve this Tomato Sauce with your favorite pasta.
Note : To make Pasta with Meatballs, make the Meatball recipe below.
SINATRA MEATBALLS Recipe
1 – pound of ground Beef
1 – of a pound ground Pork
1 cup of Italian Bread Crumbs
1/3 of a cup each grated Parmesan& Pecorino Romano Cheese
4 teaspoon of chopped Parsley
1 clove of Garlic, minced
3 large Eggs
1/2 teaspoon Salt & 1 teaspoon Black Pepper
Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
Form the meat mixture into 3 inch in diameter Meatballs.
Place in a 375 degree oven for 12 minutes.
Remove the Meatballs from the oven and place in above Tomato Sauce, at the point when you have just put the Tomatoes in the pot.
On high-heat cook until the Sauce starts to boil (bubble). Low heat to low and cook for 40 to 45 minutes on low heat.
After 45 minutes turn heat off.
Cook Spaghetti, Rigatoni, or whatever pasta you like.
Drain the pasta in a colander. Place the pasta back into the pot it cooked in. Add some Tomato Sauce and mix.
Place some pasta on each persons plate. Add 2 or 3 Meatballs to the place. Add some Tomato Sauce over the Pasta and Meatballs and serve.
Place grated Pecorino, and or grated Parmigiano Cheese on the table.
Cooking Italian 