Italian Charity Event Workday 2
Here we are in the second week of the charity event preparation. This week our team is going to make un-creamed Bolognese and marinara tomato sauces. Everyone knows and loves these sauces. We are going to make them in a traditional way with my touch. When you make any sauce it is about adding layers of flavor at every chance possible. For these sauces we will start both by making a stock. For the Bolognese we will make a beef stock and for the marinara we will make a seafood stock. Why seafood stock for the marinara? Marinara in Italian means “from the sea.” When I make these sauces at home, we do a couple of things differently such as adding a little spicy heat and using plain crushed tomatoes. We don’t spice up these sauces for larger crowds because not everyone enjoys spicy heat. We use the same techniques for making these sauces, but we use a very flavorful pasta sauce instead of starting with raw tomatoes.
Bolognese Ingredients
6 number 10 cans* Al Dente pasta sauce or crushed tomatoes
1 cup of Italian seasoning
1 cup of chopped garlic
2 gallons of red wine
1 container of Minor’s beef base
2 gallons water
10 lbs. ground beef
10 lbs. sweet Italian sausage
5 lbs. ground pork
2 diced onions
1 cup of basil with chiffonade cut
1 number 10 can* of tomato paste
Marinara Ingredients
6 number 10 cans* Al Dente pasta sauce or crushed tomatoes
1 cup of Italian seasoning
1 cup of chopped garlic
2 gallons of white wine
1 container of Minor’s shrimp base
2 gallons or water
2 diced onions
1 cup of basil with chiffonade cut
1 number 10 can* of tomato paste
Bolognese Preparation (Time: 1 hour plus 1 hour cook time)
In a large soup pot, add water, red wine, beef base and mix thoroughly.
Simmering beef stock with red wine.
On a cutting board, dice the onions using the Tearless Onion technique
Diced onions
In a large sauté pan, add half the ground beef, 1/3 of the chopped onions and 1/4 cup of garlic.
Beef, onions and garlic mixture.
Cook the beef mixture until brown without any raw meat visible.
Cooked beef mixture
After cooking the beef mixture, pour the finished mixture into a collander with a pan underneath to catch the grease.
Drained meat mixture
Add the strained meat to the beef base.
Repeat the cooking technique for all the meats. Since we had limited stove space and very large soup pots, we used an alternate technique to cook some of the meat.
Using the oven and hotel pan, stir the meat mixture, then cook for 10 minutes, then stir and break up the mixture.
In a large mixing bowl, add 1/4 cup of garlic, 2 cans of Al Dente or crushed tomatoes, 1/4 cup of Italian seasoning and 1/3 gallon of red wine. Mix thoroughly.
Al Dente, garlic, red wine and Italian seasoning mixed thoroughly
Pour tomato mixture into hotels pans and fill them about half full, then roast them in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Roasting the tomatoes adds a layer of flavor to the sauce as well as it releases the caramelized flavor into the sauce.
Roasted tomato mixture.
All the cans of Al Dente produce four hotel pans for roasting.
Roasted pans of tomatoes
Once the pans cool enough to handle, pour them into the meat stock mixture.
Roasted tomatoes, beef stock and meats combined
With a whisk, add all of the tomato paste to combine thoroughly. The tomato paste will thicken the sauce to the proper consistency.
Take your fresh basil and chiffonade until you have about a cup
Cutting the basil
Add the basil to the pot.
Bolognese ready to simmer for an hour
After Bolognese simmers for an hour, then remove from the heat and put into 5 gallon buckets. Since we need to store this for several weeks, we put it in food grade plastic buckets and froze it. When the sauce is made for smaller crowds heavy cream is added to adhere to a more traditional sauce.
Using a small sauce pot, begin to fill the 5 gallon bucket
We made 15 gallons of each sauce.
All of the sauces in buckets ready for storage
Marinara Preparation (Time 45 mins plus 1 hour cook time)
In a large soup pot, add water, shrimp base and 1 gallon of white wine.
Seafood stock with white wine
In sauté pan, cook the onions until light brown. Then add them to the seafood stock.
Chopped onions ready for cooking
Just like the Bolognese, in a large mixing bowl, mix two cans of Al Dente, 1/3 of gallon of white wine, 1/4 cup garlic and 1/4 cup of Italian seasoning.
Tomato and white wine mixture
Pour tomato and white wine mixture into hotel pans and roast it in a 375 degrees oven for 25-30 minutes or until it begins to turn brown on the edges.
Roasted tomatoes and white wine mixture
Let tomato and white wine mixture cool and add it to the seafood stock and onions.
Seafood stock, sautéed onions, roasted tomatoes and white wine
Add your tomato paste and basil and let it simmer for an hour.
Finished marinara
Let marinara cool, then using pot in similar fashion to Bolognese sauce, transfer to food safe buckets for storage.
Transferring the Marinara
Hope this inspires you to support this cause and make some sauce from scratch!
You can order these sauces here
Bon Appetit!
* Number 10 cans hold 3 quarts by volume.
