yum, I made this. The recipe makes a BIG pot, so I cut it in half. Slipped the spinach in there, too--perfect!

I just got my Sopranos Family Cookbook. The sauce for the ziti is by Uncle June and it's called Sunday Gravy and if they think I'm doing all that for pasta sauce, they've got another thing comin.

Uncle Junior's Sunday Gravy

Makes about 8 cups
For the Sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound meaty pork neck bones or spareribs
1 pound veal stew meat or 2 veal shoulder chops
1 pound Italian-style plain or fennel pork sausages
4 garlic cloves
1\4 cup tomato paste
Three 28- to 35-ounce cans Italian peeled tomatoes
2 cups water
Salt and freshly ground pepper
6 fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces

For the Meatballs
1 pound ground beef or a combination of beef and pork
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs, preferably homemade
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon very finely minced garlic
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

To Serve
1 pound shells or rigatoni, cooked and still hot Freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano

* * *
To make the sauce, heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Pat the pork dry and put the pieces in the pot. Cook, turning occasionally, for about 15 minutes, or until nicely browned on all sides. Transfer the pork to a plate. Brown the veal in the same way and add it to the plate.

Place the sausages in the pot and brown on all sides. Set the sausages aside with the pork.

Drain off most of the fat from the pot. Add the garlic and cook for about two minutes or until golden. Remove and discard the garlic. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.

With a food mill, puree the tomatoes, with their juice, into the pot. Or, for a chunkier sauce, just chop up the tomatoes and add them. Add the water and salt and pepper to taste. Add the pork, veal, and sausages and basil and bring the sauce to a simmer. Partially cover the pot and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 2 hours. If the sauce becomes too thick, add a little more water.

Meanwhile, make the meatballs:

Combine all the ingredients except the oil in a large bowl. Mix together thoroughly. Rinse your hands with cool water and lightly shape the mixture into 2-inch balls. (Note: If you are making meatballs for lasagne or baked ziti, shape the meat into tiny balls the size of a small grape.)
Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet. Add the meatballs and brown them well on all sides. (They will finish cooking later.) Transfer the meatballs to a plate.
After two hours, add the meatballs and cook for 30 minutes or until the sauce is thick and the meats very tender.
To serve, remove the meats from the sauce and set aside. Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce. Sprinkle with cheese. Serve the meats as a second course, or reserve them for another day.

:worried: That is not gravy :worried:

I have one word for you: Ragu.

Cuz that's a damn lot of work for some sauce! The meatballs sound divine, however!

that's why it's SUNDAY gravy--'cause it takes a whole day.

I used Newman's Own Tomato & Basil in my ziti and it turned out just fine.

Man, it sure got dark early that evening.

If it helps, consider that that mischievous apostrophe represents letters that are missing -- left out:

the man's -- the man-his
the woman's -- the woman-hers
the wombat's -- the wombat-his
the wombats -- quite a few of 'em

And somewhere in English's less than systematic linguistic construction, all possessive pronouns, unlike possessive nouns, use no apostrophe at all, permitting thereby ready distinction between possessive pronoun and a couple of kinds of contractions that are soundalikes:

He/she goes to his/her
It goes to its vice it's for "it is"
We doesn't give a problem, as we say our
They goes to their, distinguished readily from they're (At least for anyone who stayed awake during English class in elementary school. Sometimes I have to wonder, given the semiliteracy and solecism I've seen.)

Summed up, English nouns take a possessive-case apostrophe, pronouns never do.

In other languages, like German, this rule is different, in that they refrain from using a possessive-case apostrophe at all.