Tomato gravy

Does anyone have a recipe for tomato gravy? It sounds so good but I can't find it in my cookbooks.

quote:

Originally posted by silver queen

Does anyone have a recipe for tomato gravy? It sounds so good but I can't find it in my cookbooks.

Are you talking about an Italian sauce made with tomatoes? Many Italians call their sauce gravy.

I was very confused when I moved to Boston and people were talking about putting "gravy" on spaghetti. Ewwwww! Until I realized "gravy" in Boston is tomato sauce.

Is this the type of tomato gravy you're looking for.
Friends of mine used to fux this dish all the time. I remember they sometimes would saute some onions (sometimes bell peppers) with the bacon/fatback. It was mostly served over meatloaf and mashed potatoes. They never measured anything but I think this is a good starting point to perfecting the gravy to your taste.


Tomato Gravy
4 slices of bacon (or fatback/ham trimmings)
1 16 oz. can of diced tomatos
1/4 c. plain flour
1 c. whole milk
pinch of sugar
salt and pepper to taste
buttermilk bisquits

render meat until very crisp. Remove and drain. Sautee onions/veggies if desired in drippings and remove. Add flour to drippings and cook to create a roux (light or dark). Add tomatos, milk, (add veggies (and bacon - if desired)), salt and pepper.

Serve warm.

Tomato gravy sounds a bit like what Mom used to make and called creamed tomatoes. It was good over mashed potatoes and meatloaf also. I made smothered cabbage the other night from a recipe I found after the question was raised here about smothered cabbage, and it was very good and I think could be adapted to become tomato gravy. Worth a try The base was:

5 TBSP butter
2 TBSP flour
1 cup milk
Salt and pepper

Make the roux, add the milk gradually and bring to boil. At that point, you could add the can of diced tomatoes leaving out the salt but maybe add some pepper, and simmer until thickened to desired consistency.

Sounds good to me.

Donna

Help!

My wife made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner last night. She started with ready made sauce (I know, I know) and added fresh mushrooms and tomatoes. The sauce looks great but when you put it on the pasta you end up with a puddle of water. I hate that!

I am sure the excess water comes from the mushrooms and tomatoes. Does it just need to simmer longer to reduce the sauce or is there another way to thicken it?

Thanks,

Cakes

Gravy is indeed what many Northeast Italian Americans call tomato sauce. It is much closer to a ragu than to a marinara. Meaning that it should be simmered for a very long time until it is quite thick, and it should contain meat. Often a lot of meat: meatballs, sausage, pork on the bone (a really important ingredient as it adds depth and meatiness to the taste), little bracioles sometime, chicken sometimes. I like chicken; it sweetens the sauce and it tastes wonderful.

It should be brick red, thick as mortar, and the little puddles of fat on top should be almost black. Some traditionalists will take the meat out and serve it as a second course after eating the sauce with pasta.
Man I want some now!

Tomato Gravy Swamp Gravy

Fried Catfish with Swamp Gravy

Catfish, cleaned and dressed
Salt
Black pepper
Cornmeal
Grease

Wash the fish. Cover in cold water. In a brown paper bag or a gallon size zip lock freezer bag, mix cornmeal, salt and pepper. Heat grease until it sizzles when water is sprinkled in it. Then add one or two fish to the bag of meal at one time. Shake until covered completely. Remove fish from bag and drop slowly into hot grease. Fry until golden brown on both sides.



Swamp Gravy

2 large potatoes, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 14 oz can whole kernel Corn
1 28 oz can of crushed red tomatoes
1 14 oz can cut okra
1 28 oz can water (use the tomato can to measure)

Pour grease in which you used to fry Catfish up into old coffee can and set aside for the next time you fry fish. Put frying pan back on the burner. Heat on high. Add all the ingredients to the drippings in the bottom of the frying pan. Add water. Stirring constantly until vegetables are done and liquid is thickened.

Good Eatin' -- Southern Style




'Course, it don't make no nevermind as to what kind 'o fish you have, as long as you have a mess of 'em.

quote:

Originally posted by silver queen

Does anyone have a recipe for tomato gravy? It sounds so good but I can't find it in my cookbooks.

I'm assuming the tomato gravy is the Southern type, not Italian Tomato sauce. There are three recipes in a cookbook available from Lodge Mfg. Co., the maker of the castiron ware. The name escapes me right now, but it is something like "A Skillet Full... ." The cookbook is worth having.

How about some Sawmill Gravy?

quote:

Originally posted by Cakes

Help!

My wife made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner last night. She started with ready made sauce (I know, I know) and added fresh mushrooms and tomatoes. The sauce looks great but when you put it on the pasta you end up with a puddle of water. I hate that!

I am sure the excess water comes from the mushrooms and tomatoes. Does it just need to simmer longer to reduce the sauce or is there another way to thicken it?

You are correct that both mushrooms and tomatoes tend to give out a lot of liquid when they cook, so I suggest frying the mushrooms separately, and when they have cooked off their liquid add the tomatoes and cook them until they have given off their water and thickened and reduced, then add the lot to the prepared sauce. Make sure you drain the pasta well too.

quote:

Originally posted by Scarlett

Is this the type of tomato gravy you're looking for.
Friends of mine used to fux this dish all the time. I remember they sometimes would saute some onions (sometimes bell peppers) with the bacon/fatback. It was mostly served over meatloaf and mashed potatoes. They never measured anything but I think this is a good starting point to perfecting the gravy to your taste.


Tomato Gravy
4 slices of bacon (or fatback/ham trimmings)
1 16 oz. can of diced tomatos
1/4 c. plain flour
1 c. whole milk
pinch of sugar
salt and pepper to taste
buttermilk bisquits

render meat until very crisp. Remove and drain. Sautee onions/veggies if desired in drippings and remove. Add flour to drippings and cook to create a roux (light or dark). Add tomatos, milk, (add veggies (and bacon - if desired)), salt and pepper.

Serve warm.

This is the way I make mine pretty much. If having over rice I like to add a little okra.

Cakes, adding a can of tomato paste will help, also.

In an earlier post there was a reference to "Sawmill Gravy"
I remember my mother calling a type of gravy she made 'sawmill gravy' - I don't remember what it was like.

Is it the same as milk gravy?

Thanks

Hi all,

I solved the watery spagetti sauce by reducing it for about an hour. The strange thing is that the water doesn't show up until it runs off the pasta.

Cakes

A little while back, the Philadelphia Inquirer has a feature on tomato sauces, all called "gravy." Everyone from outside the area was confused. Sara Moulton, the other day, had a Newark, NJ lady on her show talking about "gravy." What they mean are the tomato-based sauces; the local term is "gravy."

quote:

Originally posted by GordonW

A little while back, the Philadelphia Inquirer has a feature on tomato sauces, all called "gravy." Everyone from outside the area was confused. Sara Moulton, the other day, had a Newark, NJ lady on her show talking about "gravy." What they mean are the tomato-based sauces; the local term is "gravy."

In fact, it's sauce in which meats have been cooked. For a good Sunday gravy sausage or meatballs or, say, rump roast -- or perhaps all three -- will be cooked in the sauce. The meat is served after the pasta.

quote:

Originally posted by Scarlett


In an earlier post there was a reference to "Sawmill Gravy"
I remember my mother calling a type of gravy she made 'sawmill gravy' - I don't remember what it was like.

Is it the same as milk gravy?

Thanks

Sawmill Gravy is made from the grease from whatever meat you fried (usually bacon, salt pork, or sausage), made into a roux with flour, and thinned with milk (or in hard times, water). It's really no different from a milk gravy, or the basis of sausage gravy and biscuits. The difference is generallly that it was made with leftover grease without meat and used to stretch out the meal during hard times, served with cornbread or biscuits, or eaten with grits.