A few weeks back I posted a recipe for my version of tomato sauce using Jersey tomatoes.  At the same time, one of our neighbors posted something on Facebook that she and her husband and extended family were all making large amounts of sauce.  I was interested and commented about it and then that afternoon they came over with a freshly pressed jar of their family recipe for tomato sauce.  I was very excited to receive the sauce as I thought it was very cool that a family has a tradition of making sauce and preserving the vegetables of summer together.  So, I was excited to try it and as such, I used that sauce for this dish…it was very tasty btw.  However, if you made the sauce from a few weeks ago, you can certainly use that or simply take a good quality can of tomatoes and crush them and simmer them slowly over a low flame with some garlic, olive oil, salt, basil, and red pepper flake and you will have a great sauce in a matter of minutes.  Either way, you will need about a quart or so of tomato sauce as the meatballs are sort of braised for about a half hour or so in the sauce.

Also, in the pizza extravaganza post, I outlined a general recipe for making your own Italian sausage.  I used this recipe for the start of the Italian sausage meatballs.  If you don’t wish to make your own sausage per that recipe, you can certainly use store bought Italian sausage…just take the meat out of the casings and combine it all together with the rest of the ingredients and go from there.

Broccoli rabe is one of my more favorite vegetables.  It’s delicate yet firm and has a bit of a bitter taste.  I flash cooked it in a bit of water first and then added it to the sauce at the very end to finish.

You can go a number of different ways with the dish from here.  I simply served it with a bit of bread and we ate it as is.  However, tossing the sauce with some pasta would be great and it certainly would make a great Italian sandwich with a few roasted peppers and possibly some provolone cheese on a toasted piece of Italian bread or a bun.  Actually you could also make a pizza out of it too though the sauce would need to be thickened more than is pictured.  At any rate, I think you can see that there are a lot of options for this versatile dish.

As for the tomato sauce itself that I used here…thanks again (you know who you are).  I have your jar ready to roll; I simply haven’t gotten it back to you but will do so soon.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as my wife and I did!  Recipe follows after the jump…

Ingredients:

1 Quart of tomato sauce (homemade is best)

4 Cloves fresh garlic, thinly sliced

Handful of basil, torn

1 Pound Italian sausage (homemade is best)

Handful of loose parsley leaves, chopped

¼ Cup Parmesan Reggiano, grated

½ Cup fresh coarse bread crumbs (if you can’t make your own, just skip this)

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Pinch of nutmeg

Coarse sea salt to taste

Olive oil (up to around ½ Cup)

Instructions:

• Make the meatballs by combining the Italian sausage with 2 tablespoons of the freshly chopped parsley, the Parmesan Reggiano, bread crumbs, and a touch of sea salt. Take enough meat to fit in the palm of your hand and slowly roll into a ball.  Set aside and continue making meatballs of all approximately the same size until you run out.
• Heat a heavy pan over medium high heat for a couple of minutes. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  Carefully place meatballs in the pan and cook for a few minutes on each side until the meatballs are all deeply browned.  Once finished remove meatballs from the pan.
• Reduce heat to medium and add garlic. Cook garlic for a minute or less (carefully stirring to avoid scorching it as it will burn easily).  Once the garlic is fragrant and slightly browned, immediately add the quart of tomato sauce to the pan.
• Take a wooden spoon and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen the brown bits that remained from browning the Italian sausage. Allow the sauce to come to a strong simmer.
• Once simmering, add the Italian sausage meatballs back to the pan. Bring back to a vigorous simmer and then reduce heat to low and cover.  Allow to simmer for around a half hour or so.
• While the meatballs finish cooking, heat another large skillet. Meanwhile, wash the broccoli rabe and grab a glass of water to have handy.  Add a bit of olive oil to the pan and then add the broccoli rabe (note:  the water and oil will splatter some, so be careful).
• Move the broccoli rabe in the pan, add a dash of salt and a dash of red pepper flake. If the pan appears dry and the broccoli looks like it’s browning too much, add a splash of the water and allow to finish cooking.  It will take about 3 minutes of total cooking time from when you place it in the hot pan and when it should be removed.
• Set aside. Taste it and add a bit of salt if needed.
• Once the sauce and meatballs have simmered for around a half an hour, flip the meatballs over. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning by adding more salt and red pepper flakes to taste.  Add a dash of the nutmeg.
• Turn the heat off. Add the broccoli rabe and stir to combine.  Tear the basil leaves and place in sauce to combine.  Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the top of everything.

Serve while hot in any manner you’d like.  Also, this sauce can be made ahead and simply reheated when you’d like.  The only caveat would be to add the cooked broccoli rabe to the dish to finish cooking when you reheat the sauce so that it stays just cooked through (there’s nothing worse than soggy, overcooked broccoli or broccoli rabe!).