"Noodles And Gravy"

Appallingly Authentic

Unless you're from South Philly or know someone who is, you probably call this dish something more traditional, like spaghetti. But back where the Romano family that I talk about in Entertaining Guests come from, pasta is "noodles" and tomato sauce is "gravy." Go figure. You want light understated sauce on al dente pasta. You better stop reading right now. You want to put some meat on your family's bones? Come on in. This recipe uses two pounds of spaghetti, so it will serve a family of four. Bigger families mean bigger pots and proportionally more food.

Chop the onion and garlic finely and saute them in olive oil until the garlic starts to get brown. If you're making meat balls, do this step in the same pan you've used for cooking them and make sure you scrape up all the bits of meat that adhere to the pan.

Add the tomatoes and tomato paste to the onion and garlic, and season to taste with salt, pepper, basil and oregano. Cooking texts will tell you that adding the herbs this early will cause them to lose most of their flavor. True. Tough. That's the way they do it back home.

Taste the mixture in the pot. Sometimes the tomatoes will be too heavily acidic, and you will want to add sugar. This is personal preference.

Now bring the sauce to the simmer (careful: don't scorch the tomatoes), partially cover it and let it cook for four hours. Check it and stir it occasionally. If it gets too thick, add some water. Save the tomato paste can to do this with. If you're having a little bit of vino while you cook, you can use it instead of water.

When the gravy is almost done, cook up the noodles in plenty of boiling salted water, with a little bit of olive oil added to prevent sticking. Cook it up good, until you're sure it's not going to give your family stomach aches.