Gem's Best Spaghetti & Meat Sauce
Source of Recipe
Gem's Own
List of Ingredients
Ground Beef
Pure virgin olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Red Louisiana hot sauce
Basil
Rosemary
Parsley
Onions, chopped
Green bell pepper, chopped
Mushrooms
Garlic cloves, minced or pressed
Can whole tomatoes, chopped and undrained
Tomato sauce
See Notes below before beginning.
Recipe
Break up ground meat into fine pieces. Add olive oil to skillet. Heat skillet to medium and add ground meat and a several drops or dashes of hot sauce. Salt and pepper ground beef well. Stir and cook until ground beef is no longer pink. Continue to stir and simmer, uncovered, until most of the liquid evaporates. Do not allow the ground meat to get crispy. Keep at a very low simmer, uncovered.
Add basil, rosemary, parsley, onions, bell pepper, mushrooms and garlic. Stir in well and simmer until the onions and bell pepper are tender.
Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato sauce. Stir in well and simmer, uncovered, until the liquids are reduced by almost half. This makes a thicker meat sauce yet still has plenty of tomatoes and tomato sauce. I'd rather thicken my sauce by cooking it down rather than adding tomato paste which provides thickness but not much flavor.
Notes:
You will notice I have not given the amounts of any of the ingredients. This is because I usually make my "best" Spaghetti sauce without measuring anything. And it depends on how much ground beef and other ingredients I have on hand to begin with. Cooking without having to go by a recipe and measuring everything is so much easier and more fun. It usually turns out a little different each time, so you learn to adjust it to your own liking.
If I have some ground pork or ground veal, I'll add some of that to my ground beef. I like lots of meat in my meat sauce so I'll usually use about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of ground meat, a 28 ounce can of tomatoes and an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce. You can always add more tomatoes or tomato sauce later if needed. I usually do when I store or freeze what I don't use initially. I will use fresh chopped basil, rosemary and parsley if I have it; if not, I'll use the dried variety. The best way to store fresh herbs is to chop and freeze them covered with water in an ice cube tray, then transfer the ice cubes into freezer bags. (Label them!) I will use fresh sliced mushrooms if I have them. I usually have mushrooms that I quartered and dried myself in a dehydrator and stored in an airtight jar. I heat a few dried mushrooms in a cup of very hot water for about 20 minutes and then dump the mushrooms and water into the skillet with the ground meat. As a last resort, I'll use canned mushrooms. I usually have slices of green bell pepper stored in plastic freezer bags in my freezer. I like to chop my whole can tomatoes while still in the can. That way I get a course chop instead of using diced can tomatoes.
Now, you could have just added a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce to some cooked ground beef - but I promise you it will not compare with adding all your own fresh ingredients.
Besides, where is the fun in just using something from a jar ????
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