I LOVE to cook.
I mean, I really love to cook. A couple of years ago, I took over family Thanksgiving (that wasn't actually intentional), and it's a lot of fun....most of the time. Better now that my mother's kitchen has venting outside (fewer fire alarms with the turkey).
Point it, I love to cook. And I love to cook from scratch. I don't always get to cook the way I'd like to (since I'm a student on a student's budget), but I have a couple of good recipes I always fall back on, along with new ones to experiment with.
Today, instead of studying for the MPRE next weekend, I decided to make a new batch of spaghetti sauce from scratch. It's something easy to make in bulk and still tastes really good after being frozen. I just ate the last of my sauce a couple of days ago. Spaghetti really is my go to meal when I don't have the time, energy, or ingredients to cook something else.
And since I love love love my spaghetti sauce, I thought I'd share my recipe with you (keep in mind, I don't use any measurements, I do it all by taste and feel).
First of all, I can't cut onions. Like, I have a serious sensitivity/allergy to onions. Even my friends know about it. Whenever we have dinner parties, I always wind up fleeing the kitchen when someone is chopping onions. So I make great use of onion powder. Not as good, I know, but you gotta work with what you got. Therefore, instead starting with onions (or green peppers, which I hate), I start with mushrooms (my great love)!
I discovered drunk mushrooms last year when I was making alfredo and too late realized I had no cream for my sauce. It was a white wine based sauce with cheese and cream. I generally added mushrooms to the sauce as well (again, because I love them). On this occasion, my guest didn't eat meat, so we were just doing mushroom alfredo. Anyway, no cream meant no sauce and I had no idea what to make for dinner. I decided to throw the mushrooms in my alfredo base (minus cream and cheese) and see what happened. They. Were. Amazing!! Take forever to sauté, but totally worth it.
So, I melt some butter (enough to coat the mushrooms) in a big pot, add some garlic, throw in the mushrooms (more is more in this case, in my opinion), let them sauté in the butter for a few minutes (basically until they start turning brown), then I pour in some wine. I also add some salt, pepper, and onion powder. The amount of wine varies based on how many mushrooms you want. The idea is to pour enough white wine to come just short of covering the mushrooms. Bring the wine up to a boil then turn it to a soft simmer. I tend to leave the mushrooms for about half an hour, stirring occasionally. The wine should reduce a bit and the mushrooms should shrink and continue to turn brown.
Now comes the pick and choose part (granted, most of this recipe is pick and choose). I use a large can or crushed tomatoes, two or three small cans of tomato paste, one can of rotel, and two small cans of tomato sauce. If you like chunkier sauce, you can swap out the crushed tomatoes for diced or ever added extra tomatoes. I like smooth tomatoes, hence my choices.
Add all of the tomato stuff to the mushrooms. Stir it all in. Make sure the heat is on low, at this point, we just very lightly simmering for flavor. Then thrown in a couple dashes of oregano, basil, thyme, red chili flakes, parsley, and a couple of bay leaves. All the herbs can be dried or fresh, depending on what you have on hand or want to get. I also tend to throw in about a cup of sugar at this point as well as some more onion powder (depending on how it tastes). Then I put a lid on the pot and leave it alone for another half hour, at least. You can't really burn the sauce at such a low heat, it can really simmer for quite a while.
In the meantime, if you like meat in your sauce (and I absolutely do), it's time to brown some ground beef. Due to my budget, I tend to use about a pound of ground beef, sometimes more. It's plenty of meat in the sauce for a meal, but more isn't necessarily bad either, if you like really meaty sauce. Once the meat is browned, drain the oil and add it to the tomato sauce at the end of the half hour.
At this point, you also need to start adding salt to taste. Sometimes easier before you add the meat. The salt really brings out all the flavors you've been letting simmer in the sauce. Keep adding sauce until you like the flavor. Depending on what kind of flavors you like, you can also add more herbs or more onion powder. Today, I had to add extra onion powder because I hadn't added enough in the beginning.
Once you get the meat in there, I like to let it simmer some more (again covered), at least half an hour but more is okay. Today, I let mine simmer for at least an hour, and then left it on the heat since I was done super early. I'm going to let it cool before I throw it in the freezer, and I'll reheat a bit closer to dinnertime....well, soon, since it's almost six o'clock.
That is my spaghetti sauce! Based on my mom's recipe, but I've experimented over the years and added the mushrooms recently. This is a sauce of meat and mushroom lovers, but you really can alter however you want. If you like onions, peppers, etc, just throw them in when you cook the mushrooms, either in butter or wine (never can go wrong with white wine in sauces, even if it is a red sauce).
The more the make, the more you can customize it. I love it! Hope you enjoy it, too!
So that was my day, what did you do?
Ingredients you will need:
Ground Beef
Mushrooms
Garlic
Crushed Tomatoes
Rotel
Tomato Paste
Tomato Sauce
Basil
Oregano
Thyme
Onion Powder
Red Chili Flakes
Bay Leaves
Sugar
Salt
Pepper
