meat sauce for pasta
This is a big, brassy American pasta sauce that has nothing much to do with authentic, more subtle Neopolitan ragú sauces. It's more of a tomato sauce stew of Italian ingredients that I like. I make more authentic scratch sauces when I have the fresh ingredients (especially in tomato and basil season in August), but this family spaghetti dinner sauce tastes great, is easy to assemble, and freezes very well. I make a large batch and then freeze the leftovers in quart containers for quick weeknight meals.
Makes: About 14 servings
Time: About 4 hours, largely unattended
- 2 26 ounce (737 g) jars of Classico Tomato &s Basil
pasta sauce - 1 14.5 ounce (411 g) can of Del Monte diced tomatoes
- 1 28 ounce (800 g) can of Rienzi crushed and peeled tomatoes
- 1 28 ounce (800 g) can of Rienzi peeled plum tomatoes
- 1 12 ounce (340 g can of Contadina tomato paste
- 28 ounces (800 g) of pre-cooked meatballs, frozen
- 1 dozen white mushrooms, whole
- 2 sticks (10 ounces (283 g) Margherita pepperoni, thick-sliced diagonally
- .75 cup rough-chopped fresh basil
- 2 medium-sized green or red sweet peppers, chopped into pieces about 1 inch (2.4cm) square
- 2 tablespoons of minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons of dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon of Kosher salt
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 2 14 ounce (400 g ) cans of Sclafani artichoke hearts, quartered
- Assemble all ingredients into a large (2 gallon) cooking pot or a small stock pot.
- Use the red wine to wash out the sauce jars and cans before pouring it into the pot.
- Simmer in the covered pot on very low heat for a minimum of 3 hours, and ideally 3 or 4 hours.
- I start the sauce at medium heat, bring it almost to a boil, then turn the heat down until the sauce just bubbles a few times a minute, but does not actively boil.
- Stir at least once an hour to redistribute the ingredients, particularly those near the bottom.
- Serve over your favorite pasta.
Electric ranges are ideal for this kind of slow cooking. We have a gas range, and I use a metal protective plate under the pot to keep the inside bottom of the pot from scorching. A large slow cooker also works very well. You may have to scale down the ingredients to fit your slow cooker.
