Pork Neck Bone Gravy (Sunday Sugo) recipe - from the Our Great Family Cookbook Family Cookbook (2024)

Category:

Category:

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

About 4 pounds meaty pork neck bones cleaned, dried well, and seasoned with salt right before cooking
Two 28 oz. or 35 oz cans of crushed tomatoes (Cento, Red Pack, Hunts, Muir Glen, Tuttoroso, Luigi Vitello, etc.)
1 six oz. can of tomato paste
1 Pecorino Romano or Parmesan rind (if available)
½ cup dry white wine
1 onion, carrot, and rib of celery pulsed for a few seconds in a food processor with a few garlic cloves
Olive oil

Directions:

Directions:

In a large Dutch oven heat 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat for a couple minutes. Add a few pork neck bones to the Dutch oven making sure not to overcrowd pan. Brown neck bones on all sides and remove to a bowl. Repeat with the rest of the neck bones until all done, adding more olive oil as needed. Do not skimp on this step. It is very important to brown the bones well.
Add the tomato paste to the empty Dutch oven and fry that for a minute or to while stirring with a spoon. Add pulsed vegetables and a couple pinches of salt and cook for a couple of minutes. Add wine and stir while scraping any bits on bottom of pan with spoon. Add back the browned neck bones and any juices. Stir to coat and put the lid on. Turn heat to low and sweat bones for about 20 minutes.
Remove lid and add the crushed tomatoes. Fill the empty cans with water and add to the pot. Add Cheese rind. Stir well and bring to a simmer. Let simmer on low for about 4 hours stirring every half hour or so. Taste every once in awhile and adjust seasoning if needed. Don’t over salt too early though because sauce continues to reduce over time.
After 4 hours, remove bones with tongs and put aside to cool. Let sauce continue to simmer.
After about 30 minutes, remove the neck bone meat with your fingers and add to the simmering sauce. Try not to add any fatty/grizzled pieces of meat to the sauce.
Continue to cook about another hour or until desired doneness. Adjust seasoning if necessary and serve with al dente penne or rigatoni. Sprinkle with grated Romano cheese.
***To make a full blown Sunday sauce you may want to add another can of tomatoes or 2 in the beginning (BIG Dutch oven needed). For a Sunday sauce, brown up a pound of sweet sausage or hot sausage and add to the pot around the same time you remove the neck bones (You can do this browning step with the initial browning of the neck bones so that flavor stays in the pot). Also, add a batch of either cooked or fried meatballs to the sauce at around the same time you remove the neck bones after cooking. If using braciole, brown well on all sides (again, in the beginning with the neck bones if desired) and add to the sauce in the final 2 hours or so.