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.