Saturday, September 18, 2010

Saucy

I'm not a foodie. I think that the perfect food is meatloaf, and a close second might be burgers with barbecue sauce. I don't rave about food.

Nevertheless, there is one food that I raved about so much that I actually asked my sister in law, who is a nice person but occasionally a Bit Intense, how she made it. That food was spaghetti sauce. I've tried making spaghetti sauce from scratch, but it never seemed quite right to me. Even when I put lots of spices, and lots of tomatoes, into it, the result was disappointing. Where was the punch, the umph that her sauce had. So, I asked. Which is when I found that the key ingredient in making her spaghetti sauce so impressive had nothing to do with tomatoes or spices. It was: meat. In her case, ground beef, sausage, and veal. I was startled. I don't even like veal, but for sauce that tasted like that -- well.

So I made a batch of it - and she was right. It tasted wonderful. Thick. Lots of 'mouth feel'. No bland drizzle-it-on-the-noodles sauce, this was good stuff. I always smiled when we would go to the freezer and get one of the packets we'd made. So much so that, finally, we ran out. Can't have that. Today, I'll be making more.

Here's the recipe, including my step-by-step (I'm not an extemporaneous cook) notes. You should make some. Really.

29 oz can Italian tomatoes.......3/4 lb ground beef
3/4 lb Italian sausage....... 3/4 lb ground veal
1/4 cup olive oil....... 10 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp fennel seeds....... 2 cubes beef boullion
2 cups boiling water....... 3 tbsp flour
28 oz can tomato puree....... 1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar ....... 1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chili powder ....... 1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil....... 1 cup chopped parsley
8 oz tomato sauce

Open Italian tomatoes and blend on the food processor until smooth.
Prepare meats for use -
ground beef
ground Italian sausage (removed from casings)
ground veal
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in dutch oven on low heat.
Add 8-10 minced garlic cloves and 1 tsp fennel seeds
Cook, stirring, till they begin to turn color.
Immediately add meats to dutch oven.
Cook, stirring frequently.

While the meat is cooking, put two cubes of beef bouillon into a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup
Add 2 cups boiling water, stirring to dissolve the cubes.

When the meat loses its redness, stir in 3 tbsp flour and the bouillon.
Allow to thicken about a minute.
Add the processed tomatoes and stir.
Add the tomato puree and stir.
Add: 1 cup finely chopped parsley
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp crushed chili pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil


Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower heat. Stire in tomato sauce. Simmer, uncovered, for at least four hours.

This recipe makes enough for 2 lbs of spaghetti and tastes best the second day. It freezes well.


4 comments:

Angie said...

I don't know how I feel about veal - and I'm not even sure if I can buy that at my mega-grocery store.

Cerulean Bill said...

I just put it in because I like what I get out. Its likely that just the ground beef and sausage would be sufficient to give a good flavor, though. I suppose if I were a dedicated cook, I'd try making some with and some without, but I'm not; plus, I don't think my palate is up to distinguishing them.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'mega-grocery store'; fwiw, I got this stuff at the local Giant Foods.

Wendster said...

first: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!! A spaghetti sauce recipe!!!!!!!!!!! I have been wanting an excellent recipe ever since they quit making my seasoning packet about fifteen years ago. I used to be FAMOUS, I tell you, for my spaghetti, thanks to that seasoning packet and the sinful deliciousness of BACON. But not since they quit making that PACKET. Dang it!
But THIS recipe ... this could be IT. I could be IN again. And no one can take a RECIPE off of the shelf! So my title couldn't be taken away again. Yes!
Questions: What does fwiw mean? And what is a dutch oven? Like ... the ACTUAL dutch oven that you bury in the ground? THAT dutch oven? Because I don't have one. Could a crock pot do after using a frying pan for the garlic, fennel, and meats?
And ... might I suggest to EVERYONE that we NOT use the three tbsp of flour. Those of us who are allergic to flour cannot eat this wonderful spaghetti sauce if it has flour in it .... instead, replace it with 3 tbsp of corn starch, dissolved into the hot water. It thickens things very nicely and no one has an allergic reaction to it. Same with anything you normally add flour to. Even bread. lol. Make it with cornstarch .... not flour. ha. Hey ... it could happen.

Cerulean Bill said...

a) FWIW - For What It's Worth
b) No, this dutch oven is, I think, a misnomer. It's a pot with lid; the pot is about twelve inches across and six inches high.
c) I'd imagine a crock pot could easily be substituted.
d) Sure, cornstarch should work. It's just adding thickening, not flavor, after all.