Spaghetti sauce is one of the first thing my mom taught us how to make when I was a teenager. I have added some must-have ingredients to her recipe, mainly from cooking with friend’s over the years, but the base is still the same.

From time to time, when my boys were younger, I have added ingredients such as grated carrots and zucchini to “hide”more vegetables in the mix, but now I just dice them up and add them in plain sight 🙂

Ingredients

I make my own tomato sauce from Italian tomatoes that i buy at the farmer market every fall. I can it in 1l mason jar but you can substitute with store bought. Just check how much salt has been added!

• 2l tomato sauce
• 2 cans of tomato paste (5.5ml)
• 1 can of diced tomato or 3 large tomatoes peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 bottle of chili sauce
• 2 pounds of ground beef
• 1 large sweet Vidalia onion chopped
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1 large green pepper chopped
• 3 celery branches chopped
• 1 zucchini chopped
• dozen mushrooms quartered
• Half a bag of spinach chopped
• 2 cups of sliced mushrooms
• 2 tsp each garlic salt, celery salt, onion powder
• 1tbsp each of fresh basil, oregano, parsley and thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
• 1 tsp of crushed chili pepper or to taste
• half a jar of green or black olive cut in half (optional)
• 1 tbsp of crushed chili pepper (optional)

The first step is to decide whether you will make meatballs or not. I usually take half the meat and form it into meatballs that I bake in a cookie sheet at 375C for about 15minutes. I drain the fat from it before adding them to the sauce. The other option is to brown them in the pot before cooking anything else but this requires more supervision 🙂

Sprinkle about a 2 tsp olive oil in a thick Dutch oven (I use my large Creuset pot for this recipe). Caramelize the onion a few minutes or until golden. Add the garlic and all the other vegetables. Sautéed until soft and remove from the pot.

Add the ground meat (not the meatballs) to the pot and cook until browned. Return the vegetables and add the tomato sauce, the paste, the chili sauce and the tomatoes. Stir until well mixed. Add the spices and bring to boil. Reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for 40 minutes. Add the meatballs, the herbs and the optional ingredients if using and cook for another 20 minutes. Adjust the seasoning to taste and voila!!! This recipe will make a large batch, enough for several family supper or a couple of meals and some sauce to make a lasagna 🙂 Serve with spaghettini noodles. parmesan and crusty bread…..yummy!!!