Spaghetti Sauce

Yes and no.  Are you adventurous?  I don't cook so much by measurements and while I'm very willing to share, it's a pinch of this, a dash of that, taste, stir, add.......taste again.

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glenmar

Yes and no.  Are you adventurous?  I don't cook so much by measurements and while I'm very willing to share, it's a pinch of this, a dash of that, taste, stir, add.......taste again.

My recipe is probably like Glenda's.   I have made it on several occasions for friends and family and they always rave about it.  Now, I will say my secret is partially to make tons and tons of it, and most everyone agrees that the stuff I make on the campfire is their fav.  Since I have made this while camping out and I am fortunate to have a fire pit at home as well, I often make it on the fire in a huge stock pot.

I use as many fresh herbs and veggies as possible which is harder to get in certain seasons.  I also use 3 different types of ground meat.  My family like it with lots of juice, I personally prefer it to be thicker.

2 -4 lbs ground beef (I use lean)

2-4 lbs ground pork

2 packages of ground italian sausage( Jimmy Dean make a good one) Regular sausage can also be used.

2 very large red onions

1 large bulb garlic

some garlic pepper :)

alot of basil and oregano (i much prefer fresh if you can find it)

2 large bell peppers

1 large container of fresh mushrooms

2 large cans of tomato sauce

2 large cans of whole tomatoes (I have started using the new italian seasoned tomatoes)

(This is so much more yummy if you have home grown canned tomatoes and sauce but since I dont can, I usually have to use store bought)

I  chop and saute' onions, garlic and bell pepper for several minutes then add the meat to brown it.   I do this on a medium to med/low heat, I do not rush my sauce, lol! 

After the meat is browned and tender and mixed with the onions and garlic I usually add a chopped handful of fresh basil and fresh oregano.  Now there are many therories about this but I put my basil and oregano in both now and at the very end.   This is also when I add my mushrooms. I like them sliced thick so you know there is a mushroom in the sauce. 

Then I add my sauces and let it simmer for at least an hour, the longer the better.  I quite often will start my sauce 3-4 hours before it is time to serve it.  I just let it simmer and stir occasionally.  About 15 min before serving (just about the time I put on my pasta) I throw in another handful of chopped fresh basil and oregano.

This will make enough to feed an army....:)  If you dont have an army it freezes very well and I recently used the left over sauce for lasagna.  It made 2 medium throw away aluminum pans.  I baked one and froze the other.

Now for an added treat my favorite way to do garlic bread

Wrap 2 large bulbs of garlic in foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes til tender.  Let cool to touch and squeeze the softened garlic out into a container of "I cant believe its not butter" butter.  I mix that together very well and spread on Italian or French bread. Then I bake it in foil til hot at about 300.  This makes yummy garlic bread with no salty taste.   If you have butter left over be sure to refrigerate it for future use.  This is also very good on fresh corn or brocolli.

Happy eating!!!

GREAT idea for the garlic bread and I'm so sorry I lost track of this thread.

My recipe for spegetti is actually a simple one.

I too prefer to use fresh herbs....basil, rosemary, oregano, a smidgen of thyme and also of parsley.  I use a couple LARGE garlic cloves, an onion and sautee those first in a bit of extra virgin olive oil, then add a couple lbs of lean ground beef, then I add in the fresh chopped herbs.  When good and browned, drain and put in a large pot, then dump in a couple large cans of either crushed or whole tomatoes and a couple large cans of tomato sauce.  You want to simmer for at least an hour on like a low medium heat, taste, stir, add a little bit of this  (seasonings) to make it more to your taste.  If you want a thick sauce and it's not thick enough, add tomato paste, but, give it at least another 30 minutes to simmer, otherwise you get kind of a tinny taste from the paste.  I like to simmer speg sauce for hours, but that's your call.

The topper is of course fresh grated parmasan cheese!  And I'm gonna start making Gingers garlic spread.

LOL, funny how two gals from opposite ends of the world make Sgetti almost the same way, :)  I never used a recipe just knew when I was young that Chef Boyardee wasnt cutting it for me, lol!

Once you try the bread you will not ever want to go back to any other way, I promise.   A vegitarian friend gave me the tip and I have never gone back to Garlic powder.

I like a much more plain sauce...

I put a bit of oil, some onions and some garlic in a pot for a few minutes to soften, then add tomatoes --  I use whole tomatoes and blend them, then add crushed tomatoes to thicken it a bit.  Add other spices, oregano, etc.  Cook for as long as you can, then add basil to taste.  my friend uses a lot more basil than i do, but I don't like it too sweet.  DH doesn't like mushrooms though I do but I normally leave them out.

I don't really like meat in my sauce so I do meatballs instead. :)  I use turkey meat, bread crumbs, a bit of egg, and same spices for those.

ETA - I use a garlic press and just spread that on bread with some butter for garlic butter.  I might try roasting it first though.  I roast garlic in oil for a dipping oil for bread -- yummy!

Nicole, I had never tried meatballs.  The ones I have eaten we alway a bit dry.  Do you just drop the balls in the sauce or do you bake or fry them first???

I bake them most of the way, and then finish cooking in the sauce.  I find you have to let them cook for a very, very long time if you only cook in sauce, and they are more fragile when it's raw meat so stirring makes it more into a meat sauce than meatballs.  I've tried pan frying them but they get dark on the outside before the insides are fully cooked and for some reason those ones stuck to the sauce pan more although it might have been coincidence. 

they definitely taste the best when they've been in the sauce as long as possible but they have to be browned at least a little to hold up to stirring.  baking seems to work well for me. 

Ginger, I suspect that our respective ages have more to do with how we cook than our geographic locations!

It's funny tho...my Mom has ALWAYS been a precise measurer.  Yet HER mom cooked much the way I do.  I was only 18 when Gramma passed away and after my grampa died when I was 8 we didn't spend much time at her house...she always came to us.  So why I take after her cooking style is anyone's guess.  Strangely, I even do cranberries the same way she did, and not the cooked, super sweet ones.

So.....the weather moved away from beef stew/chili kind of meals after yesterday, so tomorrow will be spegetti sauce (need to get some ready anyhow since DH has a b'day coming up and his b'day dinner is always lasagna.  Will be sure to do the garlic bread your way.....

 I typically don't measure stuff out when cooking, I go by sight, smell and taste. The sauce my SO likes the best is roughly made by doing the following:

Sautee one small carrot, 1/2 small/medium onion, 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper, 1 clove of garlic in 2 TB of extra virgin olive oil. Brown 1 lbs. of lean ground beef. Add the veggies and 1 can of crushed tomatoes into a blender and blend until smooth (my SO loves the taste but doesn't want to come across any veggie chunks). Add this mixture, 1 other can of crushed tomatoes, 1 can tomato paste and the ground beef into a large enough sauce pan with lid. The seasonings I use are a LOT of oregano, basil, thyme and a touch of black pepper. Simmer for as short as it takes to make pasta, or for better flavor simmer for a few hours. 

glenmar

Ginger, I suspect that our respective ages have more to do with how we cook than our geographic locations!

 Ok so the carrot in sgetti sauce is a new one for me....

Since we are talking about pasta.....anyone have a good Alfredo recipe.  I am very fond of Shrimp Fettacine Alfredo and still cant quite get it right

Spaghetti with a delicious tomato-based sauce is my all-time favorite meal, so reading this thread right now is making me very hungry!! 

I only had one grandparent growing up -- my father's mother, who came from Italy when she was a young girl.  She made the most delicious sauce, but she was NOT typical in terms of affection for and intimacy with her grandchildren.  So, despite all my requests for her to write down her recipe, she never would.  She died several years ago, so it's lost now.

I've tried various recipes over the years -- quite similar to those posted here -- and I used to think I developed one that was pretty darn good.  Then my husband, who fancies himself an amateur chef (rightly so), attempted a recipe from a Giada DiLaurentis cookbook.  The first time he made it, I thought I was in my grandmother's house.  It smelled exactly the same as it simmered, and it was nearly identical in taste.  The two ingredients it had that I had never tried were a carrot and a stalk of celery (sauteed with the onion & garlic, then pureed with the sauce in a food processor).  I don't know if that's the "secret ingredient" or what --- I think the carrot cuts the acidity of the tomato sauce. 

Needless to say, I rarely make my recipe any more.  His is far better!

tacran

The two ingredients it had that I had never tried were a carrot and a stalk of celery (sauteed with the onion & garlic, then pureed with the sauce in a food processor).  I don't know if that's the "secret ingredient" or what --- I think the carrot cuts the acidity of the tomato sauce.