Cooking For Engineers

[MissLinda]

How do you make it?

[kgb1001001]

There are as many different variations on meat sauce as there are cooks. They are all somehow derived from the original bolognese ragu which is a complex sauce based on both several types of meat and a base of Mirepoix (carrots, onion and celery) that is simmered for hours. Mario Batali has a Bolognese Ragu recipe that's pretty good, but I actually think that the one in Lynne Rosetto Kasper's The Splendid Table is better. This will be close to the sauce you get at most Italian-American restaurants.

Americans have greatly simplified this down, usually by omitting most of the mirepoix vegetables except the onion, vastly increasing the amount of tomato in the sauce, and dropping all the meats down to one (hamburger). There are dozens of recipes on the net for this simplified version, often called "spaghetti sauce".

Here's the one we make -- we prepare this in double batches, and then freeze what's left over, as it will keep for 1-2 months in the freezer in quart ziploc bags.

Spaghetti Sauce

1 medium onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 15oz can tomato sauce (we prefer hunt's)
1 15oz can petite diced tomatoes
1 12oz can tomato paste
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons dried parsley or 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon salt (or less to taste)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon black pepper (or less to taste)
1 pound ground beef (93% lean is best)

Brown the ground beef with the onion. Drain any fat, and then add the garlic and cook for about a minute over medium heat (do not let the garlic burn). Add the other ingredients and bring barely to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 30-60 minutes.

[futurebird]

The simple and quick way of making meat sauce is to start with the meat. This should be ground chuck beef or for slightly less fat ground lean beef.

You can use any amount of beef you like depending on how much you like meat and how low you want to keep the fat. For two people 1/4 pound is the minimum, since less than that won't change the taste much, and 1 pound is as high as I've gone.

You want equal amounts of meat and fresh mushrooms. You will cook them together first. the browned mushrooms take on the beef taste and help give the sauce a chunky appearance. Cut the mushrooms in 1/8th inch slices. If you like mushrooms find the smallest button mushrooms (less than 1/2 in in diameter) and use them whole. Rinse any dirt off of the mushrooms after you cut them since you'll get more of the dirt off that way.

Put the meat in a large frying pan on high. The pan should be large enough for the other things you plan to add. Put salt and pepper on the meat. You must put the salt and pepper on while the meat is still red or it won't seep in to the meat enough. Stir the meat and break it up into meat chunks that are the size you like best. Before it is all grey add the mushrooms.

Cover the pan so the mushrooms steam until they are darker in color and less firm. Stir it more. When both the mushrooms and meat have a brown color turn off the heat.

Grab a can of tomato paste. Put it in. Fill the can with water and swish out the rest of the paste. Add the water too. Mix everything. turn the heat on low and cover.

If it seems sticky, add more water. Otherwise just stir.

At this point you can start tasting it since everything in the pan is cooked.

When the sauce stops tasting "bitter" and starts tasting "yummy" it's done. This happens because the tomato past is bitter at first, but as it cooks the sugars break down and becomes more sweet.

This could take as long as 1 hour.

Enjoy!

[Domestic Goddess]

Cindi's Spaghetti Sauce with Ground Beef

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 c. finely chopped onion
1/2 c. finely chopped green bell pepper
1/2 Tbsp. salt
several dashes of black pepper
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 - 2 Tbsp. dried, parsley flakes
2 tsp. dried, crushed basil
1/2 tsp. dried, crushed oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
several dashes of paprika
7 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
1 (12 oz.) can tomato paste
1 (4 oz.) can sliced mushrooms, drained

In a Dutch oven, brown the ground beef, onion, and green peppers; drain off fat.
Add the remaining ingredients.
Cook over low heat, until heated through.

[kgb1001001]

Did you really mean 56 oz of Tomato Sauce? In other words, this recipe is for a half gallon of sauce?

[GaryProtein]

It looks like almost three quarts to me when you add all the ingredients.

[kgb1001001]

Yeah, the overall ingredients were similar to the sauce we make (of which I've seen a lot of variants on the internet) but this one just seemed like it would make a whole lot of underseasoned sauce.

[cheekier]

The recipes posted here remind me a bit of standard-issue cafeteria red-meat sauce, apologies all around.

I’ve retyped this from Marcella Hazan’s “The Classic Italian Cookbook: The Art of Italian Cooking and the Italian Art of Eating”. I’ve included some of her important preliminary comments. This Bolognese-style meat sauce recipe has much more depth of flavor than most doctored-up “from the jar”-type recipes.

(My comments: She uses a mirepoix, but doesn’t call it out as such, and her directions don’t call for cooking them as long as other recipes do. I will often add a small amount of beef stock (perhaps ½ cup, more or less) after the tomatoes to add another dimension to the recipe. I also prefer using ground veal to beef for a more delicate meat, but that just may be my imagination.)

Marcella’s important points:
A. The meat must be sautéed just barely long enough to lose its raw color. It must not brown or it will lose delicacy.

B. The meat must be cooked in milk before the tomatoes are added. This keeps the meat creamier and sweeter tasting.

C. The sauce must be cooked at the merest simmer for a long, long time. The minimum is 3.5 hours; 5 is better.

For 6 servings, or 2.25 to 2.5 cups

2 tablespoons chopped yellow onion
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped celery
2 tablespoons chopped carrot
3/4 pound ground beef, preferably chuck or meat from the neck
Salt
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups canned Italian tomatoes, roughly chopped, with their juice

1. An earthenware pot should be your first choice for making ragù. If you don’t have one available, use a heavy enameled cast-iron casserole, the deepest one you have (to keep the ragù from reducing too quickly.) Put in the chopped onion with all the oil and butter, and sauté briefly over medium heat until just translucent. Add the celery and carrot and cook gently for 2 minutes.

2. Add the ground beef, crumbling it in the pot with a fork. Add 1 teaspoon salt, stir, and cook ONLY until the meat has lost its raw, red color. Add the wine, turn the heat up to medium high, and cook, stirring occasionally, until all the wine has evaporated.

3. Turn the heat down to medium, add the milk and the nutmeg, and cook until the milk has evaporated. Stir frequently.

4. When the milk has evaporated, add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly. When the tomatoes have started to bubble, turn the heat down until the sauce cooks at the laziest simmer, just an occasional bubble. Cook, uncovered, for a minimum of 3.5 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Taste and correct for salt. (If you cannot watch the sauce for such a long stretch, you can turn off the heat and resume cooking it later on. But do finish cooking it in one day.)

NOTE: Ragù can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or frozen. Reheat until it simmers for about 15 minutes before using.

[gfairbairn]

To me...this is one of the more easy, simple, and good things you can make... Me personally, not a big fan of the pasta sauces that take 4 or 5 hours....i like my simple little recipe that takes 40-45 minutes....

1 lb ground chuck
1 16 oz can tomato sauce
1 16 oz can diced tomotoes
salt
pepper
4 medium cloves of garlic....crushed and diced
1/8 cup fresh oregano (if using dried, use about 1 Tbsp)
1/8 cup fresh basil (if using dried, use about 1 Tbsp)
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/4 fresh grated parmesan
2 shallots, diced
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 large green pepper, diced

Brown the ground chuck seasoned with the salt and pepper with the shallots, garlic, onion, and green peppers. Drain off most of the fat, but not all of it. Combine the rest of the ingredients (except cheese) and cook on slow simmer for about 30 minutes...add some olive oil and the cheese, cook for 15 more minutes.

[Guest]

Hi MissLinda,

Just browsing the site, spied your post, and thought now there's something I can help with!

There are obviously a million different pasta sauce recipes involving meat. The one I did recently, which is kind of like a 'lite' ragu, uses sausage meat, which is cooked relatively slowly, then just combined with a luscious tomato sauce.

If that's of interest, I put the recipe over on my pasta site here: http://www.pasta-recipes-made-easy.com/pasta-with-meat-sauce.html

Alternatively, you really can't beat an authentic bolognese sauce. This really isn't difficult, and I find the real Italian version preferable to the jar versions, which are always too heavy on the toms, and not enough focus on the flesh

This bolognese recipe should do the trick: http://www.pasta-recipes-made-easy.com/spaghetti-bolognese-recipe.html

Hope that gives a little 'food for thought'. Ciao!

Matt.

[Domestic Goddess]

[natdelvboy]

[Jenn007]

I dont' think the meat is what makes much of a difference in this recipe but rather the sweetness of the tomatoes and the good balance of fresh herbs. I'm also quite surprised that nobody uses black olives!

[karikat]

[derma roller]

This is fabulous -- thanks to all that share -- I'll be sharing as well. Makes me hungry just reading the different recipes