Saturday, August 14, 2010

Grandma’s Kitchen Round 2

Ask and you will receive. In my last blog I promised to post more of Grandma’s recipes if there was any interest. Well, there was. Mary Beth said that she would love to read my Grandma's Homemade Pasta Sauce recipe. Sharon C. wanted something sweet and Jamie wanted the recipe for Grandma’s ravioli. Here you go ladies:

Grandma 'Noni's Pasta Sauce©

3 lbs ground beef
1 ½ lbs chop suey pork (cut up)
1 chicken (quartered)
1-cup oil
I large garlic clove (chopped)
1 large onion (chopped)
1 medium onion
4 whole cloves
¾ tbsp basil
1 tbsp parsley
¾ tbsp oreganosalt and pepper
4 – 15 oz cans tomato paste
4 quarts tomato juice
1 tbsp baking soda

Put oil in a pot and add chicken and brown. Remove chicken from pan, add pork and brown. Put ground beef into a separate pan and cook until dark and crispy (stir often).

Add ground beef, large chopped onion and tomato paste into pot with browned chicken and pork. Then add garlic and stir in completely. Add tomato juice and spices.

Take medium onion and make 4 slits in the side of it; stick cloves into slits. Put this onion in sauce (remove when sauce is done).

Cook sauce for 2 hours, stirring often (burns easily).

Note: If you have an old cookie sheet put it under the pot. This makes heat go around entire pot evenly.

When done remove chicken and onion with cloves. Then add baking soda. Put in containers and freeze.

Grandma 'Noni's Ravioli With Meat©

9 cups flour
1 ½ cups water
18 eggs (room temperature)

Mix eggs slightly in water. Create a well in the mound of flour. Add egg/water mixture to the well. Mix carefully. Knead into a smooth ball. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes.
Knead again and reshape. Slice into approximately 12 – 16 slices to fit pasta cutter machine.

Run slices through machine 3 times on #8 or until smooth. Flour strips to prevent sticking. Then run through at #5. Flour strips again and run through at #3.

Lay thin pasta strips down and add desired amount of ravioli meat. Cover with fold of dough, press out air, seal and cut.

Freeze individually on wax papered cookie sheet. When frozen, put in plastic freezer bags.

To cook: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook ravioli for 20 – 25 minutes.

Grandma 'Noni's Ravioli Meat Filling©

5 lbs ground beef
2 lbs ground pork or veal
1 boiled chicken (ground)
salt and pepper (to taste)
½ tsp cinnamon2 tsp crushed garlic
¼ tsp cloves
2 cups chicken broth
¾ cup breadcrumbs
½ to 1 cup Romano cheese (grated)
5 eggs
2 pkgs chopped spinach

Brown the meats with onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Drain well. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Mixture should be rather moist.

Cover and refrigerate. Moisture will be absorbed. Makes enough filling for approximately 100 ravioli.

Grandma Working Her Culinary Magic

Grandma 'Noni's Lemon “Moist” Cake©

1 pkg lemon Jell-O
1 cup boiling water
4 eggs
¾ cup oil
1 pkg yellow cake mix (not pudding type)
dash of salt
2 cups powdered sugar
½ cup real lemon concentrate
whipping cream (optional)

Dissolve the Jell-O in a small bowl of boiling water. Let cool! Break eggs in a large bowl and beat lightly. Add oil and salt. Then add the cooled dissolved Jell-O. Add cake mix to mixture and beat with mixer for 2 minutes.

Pour into a 9” X 13” pan and bake at 350° for 30 to 45 minutes. When done, remove cake from oven and while still hot, pierce cake all over with a fork.

Mix together the powdered sugar and lemon juice concentrate. Pour over cake. The mixture will soak into the cake and form a glaze when cold. Cake need not be frosted. If desired, top with whipping cream when serving.

It should be noted that facebook friend Peter will be taking a crack at making Grandma’s cheese bread this evening. I can’t wait to hear how it turns out.

Enough girly stuff for now. It’s time to order a pizza and watch a couple of football games. And two or three baseball games. Until next time…from the booth.

6 comments:

Leplume said...

Hahaha! "Girly stuff" cracked me up! And holy buckets, your Grandma was cooking for a mob, wasn't she? I have to figure out how to break down that pasta sauce recipe for two! I don't need 40lbs of sauce! But, it sounds amazing! I can almost taste it just reading your blog!

Paul E. Vagnoni said...

Grandma was indeed cooking for a mob! Hey, wait a second. Was that a poke at my Italian heritage?

Leplume said...

Now, would I do that? (she says while innocently batting her eye lashes) ...hehehehe...hey, I'm Polish! We have more jokes about us than you EYE-talians ever will! (as she quickly ducks out of Paul's blog before he smacks her one)

I was going to say whacks her but that would have been another mob reference. Hahah! Oh, I crack myself up!

Paul E. Vagnoni said...

Mary Beth, you're just like butter…on a roll!! Ya nut!

Greg Turco said...

I liked Grama's recipes. How big was her family? She must have cooked once or twice a month.

Paul E. Vagnoni said...

Greg, Grandma and Grandpa's children - Emil, Helen, John, Joe and David. Their grandchildren - John Dean, Paul, Michael, Susan, Mark, Teri, Joey, Dan, Annie, Melissa, Melinda, Michelle and Mallory.