My Favorite Spaghetti Sauce

I write this as I am slowly entering a spaghetti-induced coma. Spaghetti is undoubtedly one of my great loves in life. My sauce recipe is chunky, meaty, and luscious. I don't think I've ever had a "bad" spaghetti but I do recommend avoiding store-bought sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil or butter

• 1/2 lb. Italian sausage (225 g)

• 1/2 lb. lean ground beef (225 g)

• 1 medium sized onion, diced

• 3/4 cup carrot, finely diced

• 1/2 cup green/red bell pepper, diced

• 1/2 cup diced celery

• 1-2 cups fresh or canned mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch thick

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning

• 1 Tbsp. dried parsley

• 1 1/2 tsp. dried basil

• 1 Tbsp. sugar

• 1 tsp. salt

• 1 tsp. black pepper

• 2 bay leaves

• Two 14-15 oz. (400 mL) cans tomato sauce (or 1.25 680 mL cans tomato sauce)

• One 14 oz. (400 mL) can diced tomatoes

• One 5.5 oz. (156 mL) can tomato paste

• 12 oz. (340 g) spaghetti noodles

• Salt for cooking noodles

• 1-2 tablespoons butter (for noodles)

Garlic bread:

• 2-4 pieces bread

• 1-4 Tbsp. melted butter

• Garlic powder

• Italian seasoning (optional)

• Sprinkle of mozzarella or Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat a medium-large pot on medium heat and add in olive oil or butter.

2. Fry the sausage and ground beef. This process takes about 10 minutes. Break the meat into smaller pieces as you fry.

3. Halfway through the cooking process, scoop or strain out some of the oil in the bottom of the pan to make the cooked meat less soggy.

4. Continue frying until the meat gets brown and crispy (see picture below).
   

5. In the same pan, lower the heat to low-medium and toss in onion, celery, and carrot, cover and cook for ~10 minutes until they are soft, stirring occasionally.

6. Then add in diced bell pepper, mushrooms, garlic, and a little more olive oil/butter. Cook uncovered on medium heat for another 5 minutes.

7. To the saucepan, add in the seasonings, bay leaves, chopped/diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste.

8. Mix the ingredients together and scrape off any stuff stuck on the bottom of the pan and stir it into the sauce (this is called de-glazing), cover the pan, and let simmer for 1-2 hours.

9. Near the end of the sauce simmering process, bring a pot of water with 1 Tbsp. salt to a boil. Add noodles and cook until they are soft (test one to try). Strain and mix in 1-2 tbsp. of butter so the noodles don't stick together.

10. To make garlic bread, brush butter on one side of each piece of bread. Lightly sprinkle on a layer of garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and cheese (if using). Set on second highest oven rack and broil for 2-5 minutes until brown and crispy (but not burnt!)

11. Take bay leaves out of the spaghetti sauce before serving over noodles or mixing into noodles (recommended).

12. Serving size: 4-5 people (or one Rachel).

The mise en place (getting all ingredients ready before cooking.)

Adding the meats to a pan with olive oil.

Halfway through the cooking process, pour out most of the grease (seen on the right side of the pot) and continue cooking the meat.

Let the meat get nice and crispy after draining the grease! You can let yours get crispier than mine did if you prefer!

Then add the carrots, celery, and onion and cook.

After the carrots, onion, and celery have browned.

Then add in the bell pepper (I used red this time) and mushrooms + ~ 1 Tbsp. more olive oil.

After the mushrooms and bell peppers have cooked a bit.

Then add in all the tomato paste and sauce, plus the spices and bay leaves.

Mix everything together, cover, and let simmer 1-2 hours.

Near the end of the simmering time, boil the noodles.

What the sauce looked like after simmering. Oh my gooood.

And definitely make garlic bread! Here I have two pieces of whole wheat bread that I spread some melted butter, garlic powder, and italian seasoning on before broiling.

Garlic bread after broiling.

I recommend mixing the sauce and noodles together because the overall flavor is just so much better.