Old Family Spaghetti Recipes!

[Hisgirl]

I had a horrible disgusting jar of sauce last night, and it was one of the more expensive varieties. I was being lazy and didn't want to cook my sauce all day.

We have a very old recipe that I have tweaked that I wanted to share here. Please also share any good old sauce recipes you might have so we can tweak and add to our own! Or if you have an ingredient I haven't thought of I can add to this recipe! This is seriously insanely good! I usually double the recipe and it makes plenty to freeze. This is good for about 4 big servings.

1 pound ground sirloin or ground beef

1 medium sweet onion finely chopped

1 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp extra olive oil for adding while cooking

3 minced cloves of garlic (add more if you want!)

2 15oz cans of tomato sauce or one 30 oz container of crushed tomatoes - (crushed is my preference)

1 small can tomato paste

½ cup dry red wine (or more) (I use one small bottle of red wine - the kind in a 4 pack from grocery)

1 cup of beef stock low salt version and add water as needed

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Several good shakes of grated parmesan cheese - probably 1/3 cup

1 Tbsp oregano, 1 Tbsp basil, 2 teaspoons rosemary, 1-2 Tbsp parsley,

Several leaves of fresh basil if you have it -added at the last 20 minutes of cooking or so

1 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt or more as needed (taste)

2 shakes tabasco sauce

2 bay leaf -bay leaf is important! don't skip this

Brown ground beef with the onion in the olive oil. Add the minced garlic. Stir, brown beef.

Remove excess grease. Add the rest of ingredients EXCEPT PARM CHEESE, FRESH BASIL LEAVES AND EXTRA OLIVE OIL, cover and cook on low for at least two hours. Stir and add water or wine to keep a rich thick consistency. I cook mine all day.

Toward the end of cooking, add the parmesan cheese shakes, the basil leaves and a good splash of olive oil Stir occasionally. The longer this cooks the better. Cover it the first half of cooking, then uncover to allow more moisture to escape and thicken it up.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Sounds good! I love homemade sauce.
Ours is little simpler. And we don't measure.

We brown several cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil (we buy the ones already chopped, in water or oil).
Then we add two to three cans of Pastene Ground Peeled tomatoes
We season with seasoned salt, fresh ground pepper, basil, Italian seasoning, and lots of parsley
We cook it for an hour or two, often adding meatballs, sausage or chicken to simmer. (You must have a round screen over the top to catch the splashes!)
Then serve with hot pasta and garlic bread!

Now I want some!

 

[Wishing on a star]

Sorry... I am being a bit of a debbie downer here, but I don't think that recipe sounds good to me.
Worcestershire and Bay leaves???
Hhhhhmmmm...
I guess I enjoy a simpler Marinara!

 

[Hisgirl]

Sorry... I am being a bit of a debbie downer here, but I don't think that recipe sounds good to me.
Worcestershire and Bay leaves???
Hhhhhmmmm...
I guess I enjoy a simpler Marinara!

Worchestershire isn't really a flavor that you can taste. It has so many unique ingredients and just adds a touch of something. As far as how it tastes, every person who has ever had it, took a bite, stopped and said "This is the best sauce I've ever had!" Even picky children who hate spaghetti ask for more which is odd to me.

 

[mjkacmom]

No recipe, I sauté a chopped onion in olive oil, then add chopped fresh garlic, after 5 minutes add a squirt of tomato paste (about a tbsp). Stir for a few minutes, add about 4 28 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes, plus some water. I salt and pepper and add dried Italian herbs in the winter, fresh in the summer but then add at the end. I simmer it for s few hours partially covered. If adding sausage meatballs or baciole, add that in the last hour, sometimes I’ll buy a neck bone or something similar and throw it in at the beginning. I do not like ground beef in my sauce.

 

[QueenIsabella]

That's cute that you follow a recipe! Kidding, kidding--I've been making sauce since I was a kid.

I would never put in Worcestershire Sauce, but to each his own. Bay leaves help to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes. I buy ground bay leaves online--much easier to deal with than "bat wings", as we call whole bay leaves.

 

[DLgal]

Sorry... I am being a bit of a debbie downer here, but I don't think that recipe sounds good to me.
Worcestershire and Bay leaves???
Hhhhhmmmm...
I guess I enjoy a simpler Marinara!

I'm with you. I can't imagine putting in tobasco, rosemary, or grated cheese in either. Yuck.

I like it simple. My favorite jar sauce is Mezetta brand Delicate Marinara. It has 6 ingredients. Tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and basil.

 

[wenrob]

Sorry... I am being a bit of a debbie downer here, but I don't think that recipe sounds good to me.
Worcestershire and Bay leaves???
Hhhhhmmmm...
I guess I enjoy a simpler Marinara!

She posted a recipe for meat sauce not marinara. Worcestershire adds depth and Bay Leaves are a pretty common addition to soups, stews and sauces.

I recently saved a pressure cooker recipe very similar to this that I plan to try soon. Oddly she left out sugar but I’m thinking it must be a typo.

I just kind of throw stuff in the pot until it tastes yummy, no real recipe.

I had a friend who’s family was Italian and her mom invited me to have some pasta with them. I was so excited to get authentic sauce. It was literally just a can of tomato sauce heated on the stove, nothing else. It was awful.

 

[disykat]

Sounds yummy. I love red sauce and, although I usually default to my no recipe standard, love a good new recipe to mix it up a bit on occasion.

 

[momz]

I had a horrible disgusting jar of sauce last night, and it was one of the more expensive varieties. I was being lazy and didn't want to cook my sauce all day.

We have a very old recipe that I have tweaked that I wanted to share here. Please also share any good old sauce recipes you might have so we can tweak and add to our own! Or if you have an ingredient I haven't thought of I can add to this recipe! This is seriously insanely good! I usually double the recipe and it makes plenty to freeze. This is good for about 4 big servings.

1 pound ground sirloin or ground beef

1 medium sweet onion finely chopped

1 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp extra olive oil for adding while cooking

3 minced cloves of garlic (add more if you want!)

2 15oz cans of tomato sauce or one 30 oz container of crushed tomatoes - (crushed is my preference)

1 small can tomato paste

½ cup dry red wine (or more) (I use one small bottle of red wine - the kind in a 4 pack from grocery)

1 cup of beef stock low salt version and add water as needed

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Several good shakes of grated parmesan cheese - probably 1/3 cup

1 Tbsp oregano, 1 Tbsp basil, 2 teaspoons rosemary, 1-2 Tbsp parsley,

Several leaves of fresh basil if you have it -added at the last 20 minutes of cooking or so

1 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt or more as needed (taste)

2 shakes tobacco sauce

2 bay leaf -bay leaf is important! don't skip this

Brown ground beef with the onion in the olive oil. Add the minced garlic. Stir, brown beef.

Remove excess grease. Add the rest of ingredients EXCEPT PARM CHEESE, FRESH BASIL LEAVES AND EXTRA OLIVE OIL, cover and cook on low for at least two hours. Stir and add water or wine to keep a rich thick consistency. I cook mine all day.

Toward the end of cooking, add the parmesan cheese shakes, the basil leaves and a good splash of olive oil Stir occasionally. The longer this cooks the better. Cover it the first half of cooking, then uncover to allow more moisture to escape and thicken it up.

I think this sounds wonderful. But I have to ask. What is tobacco sauce?

 

[wenrob]

I think this sounds wonderful. But I have to ask. What is tobacco sauce?

I’m guessing tobasco sauce got auto corrected to tobacco. (My iPad just tried to do the same thing, lol)

 

[momz]

She posted a recipe for meat sauce not marinara. Worcestershire adds depth and Bay Leaves are a pretty common addition to soups, stews and sauces.

I recently saved a pressure cooker recipe very similar to this that I plan to try soon. Oddly she left out sugar but I’m thinking it must be a typo.

I just kind of throw stuff in the pot until it tastes yummy, no real recipe.

I had a friend who’s family was Italian and her mom invited me to have some pasta with them. I was so excited to get authentic sauce. It was literally just a can of tomato sauce heated on the stove, nothing else. It was awful.

Is tomato sauce authentic italian anyway? When I visited Italy (many moons ago), we were served a white seafood sauce, may have been a clam sauce, but it's been too long for me to remember. We had other foods too, but the pasta sauce was nothing like what was in that jar that my momma poured over hers, lol.

I'm certainly not the authority on authentic Italian, but I always wonder about restaurants that say they serve "authentic" cuisine, no matter the ethnicity.

 

[mjkacmom]

That's cute that you follow a recipe! Kidding, kidding--I've been making sauce since I was a kid.

I would never put in Worcestershire Sauce, but to each his own. Bay leaves help to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes. I buy ground bay leaves online--much easier to deal with than "bat wings", as we call whole bay leaves.

Actually, it seems like Worcestershire sauce seems to be making a comeback (at least on cooking shows) as an easy way to add some depth of flavor. Many of the ingredients seems like they would pair well with a tomato sauce.

 

[wenrob]

Is tomato sauce authentic italian anyway? When I visited Italy (many moons ago), we were served a white seafood sauce, may have been a clam sauce, but it's been too long for me to remember. We had other foods too, but the pasta sauce was nothing like what was in that jar that my momma poured over hers, lol.

I'm certainly not the authority on authentic Italian, but I always wonder about restaurants that say they serve "authentic" cuisine, no matter the ethnicity.

Spaghetti sauce is more of an Americanized thing to my understanding. I’ve never been to Italy but most Italians I’ve known serve more of a marinara.

 

[Imzadi]

Worchestershire isn't really a flavor that you can taste. It has so many unique ingredients and just adds a touch of something.

I have never added Worcestershire sauce to spaghettin sauce, but I do add it to other sauces, especially beef stroganoff - wouldn't make any without it. It adds, what I call a "bottom note," deepening the beefy flavor. So, I can see it adding something to a tomato meat sauce.

I also hadn't thought to add in beef broth. But, I have been wanting to make a spaghetti meat sauce that is Weight Watchers friendly, which means replacing the ground beef with ground chicken. But, the thought of a spaghetti sauce without the beefy taste seems just awful!

So, maybe adding beef broth & the Worcestershire sauce would add in the beef flavor it needs.

 

[Wishing on a star]

I know a restaurant that serves their signature steak that is basted and served with a butter/worcestershire.
I actually liked that, to prepare a meat.

 

[Hisgirl]

That's cute that you follow a recipe! Kidding, kidding--I've been making sauce since I was a kid.

I would never put in Worcestershire Sauce, but to each his own. Bay leaves help to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes. I buy ground bay leaves online--much easier to deal with than "bat wings", as we call whole bay leaves.

LOL...actually I never use recipes. I had to pay close attention to what I did because people keep asking for a recipe. This recipe 'per se' has been in my family for generations but I've changed it so much, it's a new recipe I guess. My way is always a handful of this, a couple pinches of that, oooOh, I think I'll use that this time....stuff like that. I was just wanting to hear what interesting things people put in their sauces.

 

[Hisgirl]

She posted a recipe for meat sauce not marinara. Worcestershire adds depth and Bay Leaves are a pretty common addition to soups, stews and sauces.

I recently saved a pressure cooker recipe very similar to this that I plan to try soon. Oddly she left out sugar but I’m thinking it must be a typo.

I just kind of throw stuff in the pot until it tastes yummy, no real recipe.

I had a friend who’s family was Italian and her mom invited me to have some pasta with them. I was so excited to get authentic sauce. It was literally just a can of tomato sauce heated on the stove, nothing else. It was awful.

Sugar!!! I forgot to add the sugar!! It helps smoothe out that acid! Edited the recipe now, thanks!!

 

[Hisgirl]

Someone mentioned the grated cheese. I got that idea from an Italian who ran the best restaurant I'd eaten at in a while. The sauce was so amazing and I asked him what made it so GOOD. He smiled and said his Italian grandmother always added parmesean cheese towards the end of the simmering and I've added it since then.

 

[lorimay]

I make my moms Italian sauce she made while I was growing up, the only thing I have changed through the years is now instead of crushed tomatoes, I use the San Marzano tomatoes, they make a big taste difference to me.