I grew up in the kitchen. My family has always been heavily into cooking and I found myself fascinated by the entire process of creating a feast from every-day looking ingredients. However, as an adult, I have moved away from many of my family’s too-ornate ingredients. So I recently developed the best spaghetti sauce I have ever, I kid you not, eaten. My wife agreed that it was tops for her as well. So let me tell you what I did to make this killer spaghetti. Oh, and fear not, it is as easy as pie, although it cooks all day. Don’t sweat it, your house will smell lovely for the entire day!
First off, you need to have either a crock pot or a nice, tough soup pot that can take some slow cooking. Once you have made sure you have one of these, read on and get ready to shock your tastebuds. Another thing: I have a family of five, so this recipe feeds everybody nicely.
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef, thawed completely
1 half yellow onion, minced
1 green pepper, chopped roughly (not with anger… just evenly and in chunks)
3 large cloves of minced garlic (2 tablespoons pre-minced)
24 oz tomato sauce (just plain, you don’t need spiced or Italian)
1 can (about 10-14 oz) of chopped canned tomato
Olive Oil (we like Extra Virgin and we really like Kirkland Signature. It’s fruity!)
Salt (sea salt or Kosher is the best!)
Pepper
So here is what you do. Pour about one tablespoon of olive oil into a nice, heavy skillet. I like my cast iron skillet for this. Heat it up and toss the garlic and onion in there. Let it sizzle and stir it for about a minute. Then add your thawed ground beef and hack that flesh into smaller bits! Don’t make it too fine, one likes chunks in one’s sauce. Get the meat all brown, adding the green pepper about three or four minutes into the process. Once the meat is cooked, add the tomato sauce and tomatoes. Get it all nice and hot, then taste it, adding pepper and salt to taste.
Now you are ready to let the sauce slow cook! Carefully spoon or pour the hot mixture into your crock pot or heavy soup pot. Turn the heat on this pot to low. Now here is a key point: add at least a tablespoon of good, extra virgin olive oil. Stir this in well and then cover your pot and leave it for the day. If you are doing this slow-cooking on a stove, check your sauce regularly to make sure it is not burning on the bottom. If it is, lower the heat.
Finally, come dinner time, all you have to do is cook up your favorite long, thin pasta. We prefer whole grain angel hair. It cooks fast, sauce sticks well to it, and it is good for you! Serve lightly steamed broccoli or asparagus on the side, along with some artisan bread, and you will have a killer meal! Oh, and watch out to not overcook your pasta!