Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

There are a lot of ways to make this and they range across a wide spectrum in terms of degree of difficulty. The easiest way is to cook a 1 pound box of spaghetti according to the directions on the package, drain it, and serve with a sauce you prepare by browning a pound. of ground beef in a frying pan, stirring in a 24 ounce jar of ready-made spaghetti sauce, and heating until it is good and hot.

 

If you would like to rise to the challenge of making home-made spaghetti sauce, there are countless recipes and variations. What follows is a fairly simple method that uses ingredients you can easily keep on hand in your pantry and freezer for the moment the mood strikes you, such as a day when you are lucky enough to be stuck at home in a snowstorm. The leftover sauce freezes very well, so you can enjoy it later without any extra planning. This recipe will make enough sauce for 2 to 3 pounds of pasta. Figure on 1 pound of pasta to make 4 main course servings. Spaghetti is the classic choice, and sturdy shapes such as fettuccine and penne are also excellent vehicles for this meaty sauce.

 

SERVES 8 TO 10

 

Ingredients: 

3 tablespoons olive oil

 

2 pounds Italian style sausage; this is the big variable in flavor depending on what you choose. Try mixing hot and sweet sausage. Turkey or chicken sausage is perfectly acceptable. Alternatively, you can skip the sausage and use 2 pounds of ground beef, or even combine ground beef and sausage.

 

1 onion, chopped

8 cloves of garlic, chopped

 

2 28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes

2 tablespoons dried basil

1 tablespoon dried oregano

½ tablespoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

1 pound spaghetti, or another hearty shape of pasta

 

. . . . . . . .

 

Instructions: 

▪ Remove the sausage meat from the casing that holds it in shape, discarding the casing. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the sausage meat, crumbling it into small pieces. Cook on medium heat, stirring and continuing to break it up into small pieces, until all of it is browned. Use a slotted spoon to move the cooked sausage to another bowl, first letting the fat drip off so you end up with a bowl of the browned meat and as little grease as possible.

 

▪ If you are using ground beef add it to a clean frying pan and cook, stirring to break it up, until it is browned all over. If there is a significant amount of fat resulting from this, spoon it out and discard it.

 

▪ Put the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, heavy pot and add the onions and garlic. Cook on low heat a few minutes until the onions are translucent.

 

▪ Now add the meats to the pot with the onions and garlic, and then add the rest of the ingredients. Partially cover the pot and let the sauce cook barely at a simmer for a couple of hours. Check periodically to make sure it is not burning, and also taste the sauce from time to time and adjust the seasonings to your liking.

 

▪ To cook the pasta, fill a large pot with 4 quarts of cold water, cover it, and bring to a full boil.

 

▪ Add salt to taste to the boiling water. Add the pasta all at once, stir it to get it uniformly cooking, and set a timer for the recommended time on the package. A minute or so before the end time, taste a piece of it for doneness. You’re looking for just a bit of resistance as you bite into it; not too hard and not too soft, but “al dente” or “to the tooth”.

 

▪ When the pasta is done, drain it and set it aside. Typically individual tastes vary on the proportions of pasta to a heavy meat sauce, so you may want to offer the pasta and the sauce in separate serving bowls and let people help themselves.