FROM BRENDA BUFALINO, DANCER, CHOREOGRAPHER, FILMMAKER & TEACHER
“This sauce is excellent as a vegetarian sauce- the pork bone is added for flavor. Sugar is not needed. The red pepper supplies the sweetness. This would be the same recipe for meat sauce without the zucchini and eggplant. The eggplant gives the sauce a thick texture.
This is not my family recipe. The Buff’s recipe cooked down all day. They cooked their garlic, onion and carrots in a cheese cloth bag which they took out when the tomatoes were cooked down. They also used paste, and whole tomatoes. Of course Grandpa Buff grew the tomatoes, dried the paste on plywood boards covered with cheese cloth, and grew the basil. The pasta was also made in the kitchen and dried on wooden racks. I loved the Buff’s recipe, but I like to taste the chunks and prefer a sauce with texture.”
You will find the recipes for 3 sauces here if you look closely.
SERVES:
2-4
PREP TIME:
30 MIN
TOTAL TIME:
1 HR 30 MIN
INGREDIENTS
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium eggplant, peeled and chopped
1 medium zucchini, cut into chunks
1 red pepper, diced
1 piece of pork, something on a bone (optional)
1 pint mushrooms
2 28-ounce cans of organic diced tomatoes
Pinch hot pepper flakes (optional)
Pinch of oregano
Bunch of fresh basil
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Prepare the eggplant by pressing peeled slices between paper towels to release water. Sauté in olive oil 10 cloves of garlic and onion. Add salt and pepper. When garlic and onion have just turned cream color (not brown) add chopped eggplant. Stir till soft. As the eggplant absorbs the oil and flavor add more oil and more garlic.
Lightly sauté mushrooms, diced red peppers, zucchini chunks, add a little more salt and pepper and a pinch of oregano, and pork (optional). Don’t cook vegetables through, just sauté to bring out the flavor.
Add 1 can of organic tomatoes. Cook for 15 minutes. Add 2nd can of tomatoes. Stir often. After twenty minutes add a nice handful of fresh basil, salt and pepper to taste, and if desired hot pepper flakes. Continue to simmer until the vegetables have started to breakdown for another 20 minutes. Take out the pork bone before serving.
