recipe post

[ghini]

This is the old family recipe for meat sauce. I'm posting it here so I won't forget it. Enjoy.


3 cups onions, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup carrots, shredded
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (or 3 tablespoons dried)
1 T chopped fresh oregano (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 T chopped fresh basil (or 1 teaspoon dried)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 T salt
3 T olive oil
1 lb ground beef (other ground meats work well, including venison)
30 oz Crushed stewed tomatoes (1 big can)
30 oz tomato sauce (1 big can)
6 oz tomato paste (1 can)

Optional: 1-2 T red pepper and/or 1/2 cup red wine

A note about the meat: you don't drain it when cooking it. So fatty ground beef will produce a sauce with more fat in it. This is delicious. :) However, if you want a healthier sauce, use leaner ground beef, venison, etc.

Put chopped onions and olive oil in a large pot and cook over medium heat until onions begin to clear.

Add ground beef and continue cooking until beef is browned.

Add celery and carrots and cook for a few more minutes

Add remaining ingredients and simmer over medium-low heat for at least 1 hour.

Filthy hippies: This can be made vegan by subbing TVP or tofu for the meat. Just add it at the last step, and up the olive oil by a tablespoon or two.

This freezes extremely well. An old family trick is to freeze it in a muffin pan sprayed with a tiny bit of nonstick spray. Once frozen, pop out the pucks of sauce and put them in freezer bags. Then you have individual servings of sauce for when you need it.

Comments

[nemesisxiii.livejournal.com]

man...looks good...i'll have to give it a whirl next time i cook some meat sauce....and the Filthy Hippy part made me laugh!

[wuxiadaddy.livejournal.com]

The spirits of you ancestors will never forgive you but I thank you for your sacrifice.

[tigress666.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's a very good one :). It's one of my regular recipes now I use for my rp group up here. I've even saved it to my computer now. And dang, I wish I had known about that freezing trick (I just froze some last week to use for my next gaming group).

[tigress666.livejournal.com]

Oh, and heh, I actually do drain the meat (you hadn't said anything one way or the other when you gave it to me so I figured you did. I did try it once without draining and htere was such a layer of fat on top of the sauce I figured that must be wrong).

I honestly like it better drained of hte grease (yes, I realize it also gets rid of some of that olive oil).

[uglor.livejournal.com]

I've been making it with ground venison recently, which has virtually no fat, so no draining required.

[billings.livejournal.com]

This looks real good. Celery and carrots is something I hadn't thought of before - I usually stick to mushrooms and peppers.

[uglor.livejournal.com]

Carrots add sweetness and color. Celery adds taste and crunch.

Mushrooms are nasty. Always.