Sugo with Mama Basile
In this cooking video, we welcome my mum, Marie ‘Mama’ Basile, into the kitchen to show us how she makes her delicious, tasty pasta sauce, otherwise known as sugo. This is the famous Italian sauce that goes with just about everything, but in this video, we’re pairing it with a traditional pasta dish.
Ingredients
2 x 700ml bottles Passata sauce (homemade or from the supermarket)
2 medium brown onions, chopped
Half teaspoon bi-carbonate soda
Salt and pepper, to season
3-5 pieces pork on the bone (or pork belly)
3-5 pieces ox tail (or another beef piece on the bone)
3-5 pieces lamb neck (or shanks)
You need at least one of each to really flavour the sauce, but then you can add as much of these depending on how many people you’re serving, and how much meat they might like to eat, with the pasta!
Method
Place some olive oil in a large frying and heat up.
Fry (or seal) the meat in the frying pan, until it’s nice and brown all over.
Once sealed, the meat can go straight into a larger pot (where it’ll cook with the sauce, so be sure to have a large pot!)
In the same pan where you cooked the meat, fry the onions until nice and brown.
Once all the meat is sealed and in the big pot, pour both bottles of Passata into the pot with meat.
Rinse the bottles of sauce with water and place into the pot with meat.
Add some salt and pepper.
When the sauce boils, add bi-carbonate soda and stir well.
Reduce to a simmer and leave on the heat for at least one hour. Be sure to continue stirring throughout the one hour timeframe to ensure the sauce doesn’t ‘stick’ to the pot (you’ll notice the sauce thickening over the hour).
After an hour, put your pot on for the pasta and then serve with the meat on top, and a good European sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
