Mary Reiter's Christmas Eve Gravy
List of Ingredients
The following was submitted by a friend of mine. Please note that it is an Italian tradition to eat only seafood on Christmas Eve.
MARY REITER'S CHRISTMAS GRAVY
Spaghetti Sauce for Seven Fish Feast
Sauce
* Olive oil
* 4 cloves of garlic (saute first in oil)
* add 5 29-oz cans of pureed tomato (feel free to adjust the amount on
this one. Just picture mom saying "just add enough of this and just a
pinch of that." I remember the days of using tomato paste and adding
water. She used to use three cans of water per can.)
* wine (mom always used whatever was under the sink in the big green
gallon jugs but I always use a slug of any red wine. Cabernet Sauvignon
is nice and heavy and a good choice. I think she just used Italian red
table wine.)
* oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, Italian seasoning, onion flakes,
pinch of sugar, salt &
pepper (wait to add the seasonings and not too much of each. The main
flavor comes from the calamari. Mom always added the seasonings after
she simmered the sauce forever. We always used to come in the kitchen
and say how good it smelled when it was just the tomato, wine and
garlic. This always puzzled her.)
* mushrooms (slice and add the last hour with the shrimp. I would say
about a pound of mushrooms.)
* 8 lbs uncleaned calamari ( I always buy the cleaned calamari. A lot
of the fish markets sell the 2.5 lb boxes of cleaned. I use 5 lbs of
cleaned. Mom had built in timing when to add the calamari. About
halfway through. Use tentacles.)
* 5 lbs shrimp (Mom used the medium size. I always use the small to
medium and buy when it goes on sale and I buy up to 10 lbs. The smaller
shrimp have more flavor than the really big ones. I sometimes clean it
before putting it in. It doesn't change the flavor! Brenton has a hard
time taking the shells off. Don't cook too long.)
* Clams (Mom used to buy a couple of clams, mussels & scallops to put in
the sauce with the fried smelt and the crab dip to make a 7 fish feast.
Hmmm. That makes a 6 fish feast.)
* Vermicelli (She used 1 1/4 pounds if it was a big crowd.)
The crab dip she always made was with one pound of cream cheese, add one
can of crab meat, mix and top with cocktail sauce. Garnish with
crackers.
I just figured out what the seventh fish was. She would buy the canned
sardines and she was the only one who would get near them. Ugh!
Recipe
|
|
member logon
