Mmmmm....Joey's Meat Sauce

For my dirty-minded readers (and oh how I adore you), that's not a metaphor. I'm actually talking about meat sauce.

Or if you're Sicilian like Joey Lupo in Speak Easy, or like my mother's family, you might call it gravy. In the book, there is a scene where Joey cooks pasta with gravy for Tiny and her sisters--one of my favorite scenes to write.

Aside from THOSE scenes. ;)

Anyway, I'm making it today for my family, and thought I'd share the recipe with you.

A little history first! My great-grandmother's name was Josephine, and she came with her husband and two young children from Carini, Sicily in 1902. My grandmother, Virginia, wasn't born until 1921, one of eleven siblings. (Sometimes it's very strange to me that Tiny is "older" than my own grandmother...)

Anyway, I guess the recipe came from the old country with her, but no one ever wrote it down. Much later, like maybe during the 60s or 70s, my mother told me that some of her aunt/uncles/cousins wanted the recipe, but no one who knew it would talk.

Through trial and error and memory, they put it together, but there was one special ingredient no one could pinpoint--and still nobody who knew it would talk.

Anyway, below is the one they came up with...WARNING: Your house will smell so good while this sauce is simmering, you might have the entire neighborhood floating to your door on the scent.

Joey's Meat Sauce (Bolognese)
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 lb. bulk Italian sausage
1 lb. ground beef (optional)
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 medium can tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
dried basil
dried oregeno
3-4 peppercorns
Italian seasoning
< 1 Tbsp cinnamon (I use a full Tbsp, but I love this flavor in the sauce...it was the guess at the secret ingredient)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 bay leaf
1/4 red wine (and since it's open, you might as well drink it while you cook, right?)

1) Brown the sausage in a frying pan, remove from heat and drain. Do the same for the beef, if you're using it.

2) In a large nonstick pot (I <3 my Le Creuset Dutch Oven), heat the oil and saute the garlic and onion. Then add the meat and all cans of tomatoes to the pot.

3) This next step cracks me up because you can tell that nobody really knew how much water to add, and even since then, no one has actually measured it: Fill each tomato can with water but not quite all the way to the top and pour them in.

Really precise, I know. But cooking is an art, not a science, right??

4) This one's even more precise: Cover the top of the sauce with basil, oregeno (less) and Italian seasonings (less). My best guess is maybe 1 Tbsp of basil and just 2 tsp of the other two. But this is a matter of taste!

5) Add the peppercorns, cinnamon, sugar, bay leaf, and wine.

6) Pour yourself a nice big glass of wine and stir until the lumps are gone over medium heat. Bring to a gentle boil and cover. Turn the heat to low, just enough to keep it simmering.

7) Simmer 1-2 hours over low heat. Take the cover off the last 20 minutes (and lock your doors). remove the bay leaf.

I like this sauce with both long and short pasta. My mother always called it simply "Mostaccioli" when she made it and served it with short tubular paste that had lines on it and slanted ends. Just thinking of it makes me think of childhood!

Oh, my mother did manage to finagle the secret ingredient out of an old great aunt, who was probably going senile and didn't realize she was giving it away.

It was nutmeg.

I was there when she told some of her family, and laughed my culo off at the room full of Italians hitting themselves on the head with one hand. "It was nutmeg! NUTMEG!"

I stick with cinnamon, but someday I might try a pinch of nutmeg instead. :)

Buon appetito!

Flapper Friday: Condom Crazy

This is one of those history lessons we didn't get in school.

A lovely reader who just finished an ARC of SPEAK EASY emailed me about a scene where Enzo retrieves a condom from his coat pocket. (It is a favorite scene of mine.)

She was curious about the accuracy of this--did such a thing exist in the 1920s?

Why, yes!

I admit that when I was writing the scene, I looked it up to make sure (that's the downside of writing hot scenes in historical settings--you have to stop and look things up...more on that another time).

But here are Five Fun Things about Condom History.

1) According to Salon.com, "The oldest condoms ever found were dug up in the cesspit — or big toilet — of Dudley Castle, an English ruin, in 1985. Made of fish and animal intestine, the condoms were most likely dropped into the cesspit sometime in the mid 17th century."

Animal skin condom c. 1900

Fascinating. And yet disgusting.

2) The first rubber condoms were produced in the mid-19th century, and they only covered the tip--men had to be measured by a doctor for a proper fit, and even then they'd fall off during use (go figure). Pretty soon rubber manufacturers figured out that full-length one-size-fits-all condoms would sell like mad in pharmacies.

Genius!

3) Condom use got a big boost during World War I because they prevented soldier deaths from  STD's like syphilis. However, the U.S. military, under pressure from "purity advocates," was the only force not to supply its troops with condoms. Way to go, Uncle Sam!

4) In 1918, condoms began to be publicly, legally sold to Americans for the first time in forty-five years. Through the 1920s, catchy names and slick packaging became an increasingly important marketing technique for many consumer items, including condoms.

I like to think Enzo used Three Sheik. ;)

5) Margaret Sanger held the First American Birth Control Conference in November 1921 in New York City. Condom sales doubled worldwide in the 1920s!

Yay Margaret!

So, yes...we may not like to think about our great-grandparents in terms of pre-marital sex or Three Ramses condoms, but there it is!

Have a safe weekend. ;)

Cheers!

Tempt Me Tuesday: Get in THE MOOD

Since my cover reveal was so much fun last week, I thought I'd share some more pictures that will put you in the proper mood for SPEAK EASY. (This is me trying to tempt you...)

Best viewed with a cocktail and the Great Gatsby soundtrack.

Booth at Club 23

Several fun things happen in stairwells...

...as well as underground tunnels.

What's better than a man in a three-piece suit at a speakeasy?

Um, this.

The hair. The eyes. THE LIPS. Meet Enzo DiFiore.

OK, the modern room can go, but the man? He stays.

As promised, there IS a gorgeous boy in a kitchen (meet Joey)...although he's dressed in the scene.  (Boo, I know.)

My cover girl is the perfect Tiny O'Mara.

The clothes...the clothes. There are suits...

and a chemise...

and headbands...

and dresses...

and shoes...

and a step-in...

and more dresses!

Here's how they kept those stockings rolled.

And there is kissing. Even when they shouldn't...especially when they shouldn't. 

Intrigued? Come back soon for a sneak peak at chapter one!

Cheers,
Melanie

Tempt Me Tuesday: THIS PICTURE

I came across this photo over the weekend.

It reminds me so much of a character in SPEAK EASY (a gorgeous Italian boy who's good in the... kitchen) I wanted to share it with you.

You're welcome.

Go enjoy the day.