A delicious classic
As a kid, I don't really remember being a fan of spaghetti. My earliest memories consist of a big frying pan with browned ground beef and some sort of red, jarred sauce on top of spaghetti noodles. No offense to my mom (who is a great cook!), but it wasn't terribly inspiring. It was the late 1970's or early 1980's, though, and I don't think pasta had really "taken off", at least not in my house. We were more of a meat and potatoes family.
As a teenager, I went to a friend's house and was served an entirely different sort of spaghetti sauce. I remember thinking how amazing it was, served with homemade Caesar salad (another thing we never really ate!) and crusty rolls with lots of butter. I think that was the first time I realized I actually did like pasta, at least when it was made like that!
Lorraine was kind enough to share her awesome recipe with me years later, and I continue to make it to this day.
Lorraine's Spaghetti Sauce
Just an all around good spaghetti sauce recipe. It's hard to improve on this one!
Recipe shared with permission from Lorraine Acheson. (Thank you so much, Lorraine!)
Yield: 6- 8 servings
1 lb ground beef
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 large carrot, diced (optional)
1 – 8 oz pkg sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 medium diced zucchini (optional)
1 – 28 oz can diced tomatoes (you can use No Salt Added if you are sensitive to salt and/or use crushed tomatoes or passata if your family prefers no chunks)
1 – 6 oz can tomato paste
short dash dried chile peppers (I omit this but if you like a little kick, it really adds to the flavor)
a sprinkle of sugar
dash of lemon juice
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried parsley
Heat the olive oil in the pan and add the onion, garlic and celery, as well as the carrot, mushrooms and/or zucchini if you're using them. Cook on low heat until softened, about 5 - 10 minutes.
Add the ground beef and brown it.
Add a can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato paste to the ground beef and veggies. I also added about half a can of water to rinse out the tomato paste. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low heat for about an hour. Alternatively, you could put this in the slow cooker once you've cooked the vegetables and browned the ground beef. Cook on Low for 8 hours.
Serving Suggestions
We love this served with Caesar or garden salad and garlic bread.
Verdict
As with lasagne, this sauce is superb on Day 2 but it smells so good once it's finished cooking that it rarely lasts that long around here. Or at least, there is never usually enough for more than one person to enjoy the next day!
For Dad, we had to add some extra canned tomatoes so that there was enough liquid to puree it nicely and keep it from being dry, but it was delicious.
Comments