Papa's Favorite Spaghetti Sauce
INGREDIENTS:
2-12 oz. cans of tomato paste
1 or 2 package[s]
of dried porcini mushrooms
5 cups of warm
water
2 cups red wine
2 medium yellow
onions diced fairly small
5 or 6 good size
cloves of garlic
½ to ¾ of a bell
pepper – green is best, red OK – diced same size as the onion
½ bunch of
Italian parsley, chopped fine
4 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. mixed
Italian seasonings
2 Tbs. dried
basil (or ½ cup fresh chopped fine)
1 Tbs. dried
oregano (or ¼ cut fresh chopped fine)
¼ tsp black
pepper
Dash of nutmeg
Salt as needed
(there is quite a bit in the tomato paste)
Ground beef –use 1 – 1.5 lbs if you are not adding meatballs/sausage, about ¾ to 1 lb. if
you are.
5 or 6 Italian
sausages if desired
Preparation:
Place
tomato paste, 3 cups of the water and the wine in the pot and stir it up to
dissolve the paste. Add all the dry ingredients except salt. Add the chopped
parsley too. Put garlic through a press or dice it finely and add to pot. Use the olive oil and saute the onions and bell peppers.
Soak
the mushrooms in the other cup of water until soft, then chop them up a little
and add them and the water to the pot.
Saute
the onions in the olive oil in a large skillet until translucent. It’s O.K. to
brown them slightly, but not too much, because they get bitter. Add the bell
pepper to the onions after the onions have sauteed for a couple of minutes.
Add
onion/pepper mix to pot and brown the ground beef in the skillet breaking it up
as it cooks. The beef should be browned, not just cooked through. Add to pot
with a slotted spoon so you do not get excess grease in the sauce.
Brown
the meatballs in the same skillet. Get them pretty brown, as that will add
flavor to the sauce. Add to sauce.
Cut
sausage in half, so not too long, and brown them in same skillet. Add to sauce.
Drain
fat from skillet and deglaze with a little water or wine – add to sauce.
The sauce should
simmer over as low a heat as you can make it and still get it to simmer. It
should simmer for at least 2 hours, preferably 4. Check it periodically to make
sure it is not too thick – add water if necessary.
MEATBALLS:
Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
1 lb. ground Italian Sausage
1 small yellow onion chopped fine
1 Tbs. mixed
Italian seasoning
1/8 to ¼ cup
finely chopped Italian parsley
2 lg eggs
1/4 grated parmesan
¼ tsp black
pepper
½ tsp salt
1 tsp garlic
powder
1/3 Cup Panko or cracker
crumbs (more if needed)
Preparation:
Mix
everything but the breadcrumbs in a mixing bowl. Use your hands. If you are
squeamish, use latex gloves, but you will not get it mixed up right with a
spoon. After the mixture is uniform add breadcrumbs and mix with your hands
adding more until consistency is OK for rolling into balls. Make balls about 1½
inch's in diameter, again using your hands. I brown the meatballs in a frying pan and finish them in the oven. I usually cook them for 20 minutes on 350. If you cook the meatballs all the way on the stove top don't finish them in the oven. I just usually cook a lot of meatballs and this speeds things up. Cut a meatball in half to see if it is cooked.
This is one time baking and cooking at the same time saved me.
I would have forgot the meatballs in the oven...if I wasn't making cupcakes. Unfortunately I overcooked the meatballs when they where sitting in the oven while it preheated for the cupcakes. They were very dry but tasted good when I put them in the spaghetti sauce.
I had to buy the Italian spice, Basil and Oregano. I tried to use Pesto and skip those ingredients and it didn't work. I will put a tablespoon of Pesto in my meatball mixture if I happen to have some in the refrigerator.
