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Pour the olive oil into the pan, drop in the onions and shallots, and set over medium high heat.
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Stir for a minute or two, until the onions begin to sizzle.
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Drop the garlic into a hot spot and spread it out to caramelize for a minute, then stir with the onions.
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Stir in the carrot and celery, and get them cooking; drop in the bay leaves and cook the soffritto for another 4 minutes, until it is starting to dry out.
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Lower the heat if necessary to prevent burning.
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Push the vegetables to the side and drop the tomato paste into a hot spot.
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Toast it for a minute or more, then blend it into the soffritto.
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Pour in the milled tomatoes and juices, and stir; slosh the tomato container with a cup of hot broth or water and stir that in too.
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Bring the sauce to a boil quickly, and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes or more, stirring frequently, until it has just begun to thicken.
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Pour in 4 cups of the hot broth, stir it in, and note now the level of the liquid in the pan: this is about the level that the sugo should be at the very end of cooking, after the meatballs have been removed.
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Stir in another quart of the broth, and bring to a lively boil.
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For turkey meatballs, submerge the cinnamon stick in the sauce.
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For sausage meatballs, stir in the orange zest, fresh thyme leaves, and up to 1/2 teaspoon of peperoncino, to taste.
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Cover the pot and adjust the heat to maintain a steady but gentle bubbling all over the surface of the sugo.
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Let it cook for at least an hour or longer, checking the pot every 20 minutes or so.
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It should be reducing steadily.
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If its barely dropping, or not at all, raise the heat and set the cover ajar to speed its concentration.
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If its dropping extremely fast, lower the heat to slow the evaporation.
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Add hot broth or water if needed to keep the sauce at the level you want.
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Make either the turkey or sausage meatballs while the sugo cooks, following the directions at the end of this recipe.
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Have the sugo at a gentle simmer over low heat when the meatballs are fried and ready to go into the saucepan.
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Have hot broth or water on hand if needed.
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Drop the meatballs in one at a time; fit as many as you can in the bottom of the pan in one layer, but leave enough space to roll them around.
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Drop the rest of the meatballs in to make a second layer.
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Add hot broth or water if necessary so the meatballs are all covered with liquid.
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Stir gently to mix the broth with the sugodont break the meatballs!
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Cover the pan and raise the heat slightly to bring the sugo back to a simmer.
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Set the cover ajar and adjust heat to maintain steady simmering (but no threat of burning the meat on the bottom), and cook the meatballs for 35 to 40 minutes.
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Turn off the heat and let the meatballs cool in the sugo and absorb more of its flavor (unless you need them right away).
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30
When cool, remove them to a big bowl.
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If the sauce is thin (probably well above the 2-quart mark), return it to a boil gradually and cook it uncovered to thicken.
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Stir frequently as it thickens; reduce it to the 2-quart level, or to whatever consistency you likethats the most important guideline.
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Taste the sauce during this final cooking, and add salt, if needed, or adjust the other seasonings.
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Serve sauce and meatballs right away if you want.
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Otherwise, pack the meatballs in containers with enough sugo to cover and the rest of the sauce in separate containers.
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Portion them, for convenience, in the amounts youll use in different dishes.
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Store in the refrigerator for 4 days, or for several months in the freezer.
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Frying meatballs before adding them to the sauce adds another layer of flavor and creates a crust that holds the meat together so the ball doesnt break apart in the sauce.
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But it is not essential, and unfried meatballs can be quite good providing they have lots of sauce to cook in, so increase the sauce by a third (or decrease the meatballs by a third) if you choose the unfried method.
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40
As a topping for a big bowl of dressed pasta (ziti, rigatoni, spaghetti)
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As a meat course with vegetables, following a first course of dressed pasta
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With fresh pasta (tagliatelle, pappardelle)
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In baked pasta, such as cavatappi-and-meatball torta (page 196; 2 cups of sugo and 6 meatballs needed)
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As a topping for polenta
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45
Gnocchi
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In a risotto, using the sauce and broken-up meatballs
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In a fresh-pasta Lasagna with Sausage Meatballs and Sugo (page 206; 4 cups of sugo and 12 meatballs needed)
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As a filling and sauce for ravioli
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49
In a sandwich
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50
Sugo, or gravy, is a long-cooking sauce that has a big component of meat in it, which releases its flavors as it cooks and transforms the sauce into a more complex and flavorful gravy.
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51
This is the base in which I cook meatballs.
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Here I give you two different recipes for meatballs, one made from turkey meat and the other made from sausage meat.
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Both are quite easy to make.
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The common denominator in both is the sugo, and the base for a good sugo is a soffrittothat essential Italian technique of cooking vegetables and aromatics in fat or olive oil slowly over low heat.
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Italian cuisine uses a soffritto as the start of many dishessoups, braised meats, and pasta sauces.
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For this sugo the soffritto is made of onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and shallots.
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It is the first thing that goes into the pot with the olive oil.
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The sugo can be cooked to the halfway point (which it reaches after about 30 minutes of cooking) in advance.
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Then, when you are ready with the meatballs, add them to the unfinished sugo and continue to cook together until done.
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You can also make the meatballs in advance, freeze them, and when you are ready proceed with the final cooking in the sauce.
