Midnight meat sauce recipe

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 01/09/2015 at 11:27 • Filed to: Foodlopnik

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Last night I !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , because I'm the type of food nerd who does that kind of thing. This is the simpler of my two meat sauces. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and I figured I'd make a separate post rather than bury it in a reply in a post that was made in the wee hours of this morning.

Here's my best guess at the actual recipe. Stuff like basic sauces and soups I usually just go off the top of my head. I have a fancier, more time-consuming and more-authentic ragu bolognese that I make, but this is my relatively quick version.

1 to 1.25 lbs ground beef (I like 80/20 ground chuck, you can go leaner if you like)
1 medium size yellow onion, small dice
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 28-oz can of whole peeled tomatoes (San Marzano if you can get them, otherwise Muir Glen organic)
3 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp dried oregano
8 oz red wine
1/2 a small package fresh basil, finely chopped
1/2 of basil package chiffonade*
2 bay leaves
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper
1 tbsp fish sauce or oyster sauce**
Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano for grating (get the real stuff—US-made "parmesan" cheese is garbage, and I say this as a proud Wisconsinite who loves most of the cheese made here)
Your choice of pasta—I recommend something a little substantial that'll hold up to the sauce like nice big rigatoni, fettuccine or tagliatelle

Bring a pot up to temp over medium heat and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Add onions, season with a little salt, sautee until translucent.

Add ground beef and begin to brown. Once beef has browned some but not all the way, add the garlic and tomato paste. Continue to brown the meat.

Once the meat is browned, add the wine, oregano, basil and bay leaves and simmer.

While this is going on, time to prep the tomatoes. Canned whole peeled tomatoes you crush yourself are way better than canned diced tomatoes. I use a kitchen shears to cut the slightly hard ends off each tomato, then I squeeze the hell out of the tomato in my hands. Over the pot, of course. Make sure your hands are thoroughly washed before doing this. Add the liquid from the tomato can, and simmer over medium-low heat for at least 30 minutes.

At about the 15 minute mark, take a quick taste and add salt & pepper to taste. Go easy on it at first, you can always add more, but you can't subtract. Check the seasoning again at the 30 minute mark.

Cook your pasta while the sauce is simmering, serve sauce over pasta along with grated cheese and basil chiffonade.

(Make sure not to serve the bay leaves. Throw those out.)

If you want to get slightly more fancy (and dirty another pot), reserve some of the pasta water before you drain it. Put some of the sauce in a sautee pan, a bit of the pasta water, and a serving of pasta. Toss it a few times to coat the pasta and heat through. The starch in the pasta water helps the sauce adhere to the pasta.

* - Chiffonade:

** - Regarding fish sauce and oyster sauce: these are Asian ingredients, but according to some food nerd blogs I read they kinda sorta function like anchovies in Italian cooking. In Italian cooking you would often take anchovies and mash them up when you sautee your onions. Either way, the anchovies/fish sauce/oyster sauce doesn't make the final result taste fishy, just more savory. I didn't have fish sauce or anchovies around the house last night but I did have oyster sauce, so I added a tbsp, and it was tasty. If you want to add this, just add it when you add the other liquids before simmering. Or you can add a couple anchovies to your onions.

Hmm...it sounds pretty detailed when I type it out. But I promise, it's not that complicated. Like I said, I just do this through habit without really thinking about it.

505Turbeaux > Textured Soy Protein 01/09/2015 at 11:30

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before midnight meat sauce

after

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein 01/09/2015 at 11:39

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I'm so hungry now.

Saracen > Textured Soy Protein 01/09/2015 at 11:42

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I make almost the exact same recipe. So good. The variation I use is that I also throw some chopped up sundried tomatoes...the type you buy suspended in olive oil. I drain the sundried tomato-infused olive oil out and brown the onions and meat with it. SO GOOD.

Svend > Textured Soy Protein 01/10/2015 at 18:57

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I love Italian food and making it also. I've never put fish/oyster sauce or anchovies in though I may have to give it a try. A touch of thyme works really well.

Very nice with conchiglioni but quite often I've just used what pasta I had to hand.