My Mamas Meat Sauce Recipes

Steps:

• Brown beef in a saucepot or large, deep skillet over medium heat; drain.
• Add garlic and saute until just turning white.
• Add onion, celery, and mushrooms. Saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
• Add tomatoes with juice and tomato sauce. Stir to combine. Add tomato paste and mix together. Stir in herbs and bay leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add a pinch of brown sugar, if desired.
• Bring sauce to a simmer; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, prepare pasta according to package instructions.
• Before serving, remove bay leaves and taste; adjust seasoning as desired. Serve over hot pasta, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Place a large saute pan over medium-high heat and add the beef and sausage. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the onions, garlic and dried oregano and cook until they are softened and the meat is cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and toast for 30 seconds, then add the tomatoes and cook until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
• Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add the ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, 1/3 cup Parmesan, fresh basil and oregano, salt and pepper and stir to combine.
• Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Arrange a layer of noodles over the sauce and top with a third of the ricotta filling. Spoon over a layer of sauce and top with another layer of noodles. Continue with 2 more layers of ricotta, sauce and noodles, ending with a top layer of noodles. Spoon a thin layer of the remaining sauce over the top, sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan over the noodles and cover with aluminum foil.
• Bake for 45 minutes, then uncover and cook until the cheese is golden and the lasagna is bubbling, another 15 to 20 minutes. Let stand for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Steps:

• Spray a large saucepan with 4 sprays of olive oil spray. Add half the garlic and half the onion and a pinch of red chili flakes and cook over medium heat until tender, about 2 minutes. Add half the chicken stock, tomato puree and diced tomatoes and simmer over low heat for an hour.
• Preheat the broiler. Meanwhile, using the tip of a knife, score the eggplant deeply and sprinkle with salt. Place the eggplant cut-side up and cook under the broiler until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Remove the eggplant from the broiler and place on a plate and microwave on high until tender, about 2 minutes. Let cool.
• In a large bowl, add the meats and mix gently to incorporate. Place the egg white, remaining chicken stock, onion, garlic and parsley in the beaker of a blender and blend until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add the mixture to the bowl with the meats, add the cheese and crumble the kamut in with your fingers. Sprinkle with salt and chili flakes.
• Scoop the eggplant pulp out of its skin and let any excess water drip off. Measure out 1/2 cup of the pulp, and then lightly chop and add to the meat mixture, folding in to incorporate. With the use of a tablespoon, measure out 16 even heaping mounds on to a clean work surface and then form into balls with your hands.
• Spray a large nonstick saute pan with 4 sprays of olive oil spray and heat over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add half of the meatballs and cook until lightly browned on one side, about 1 minute. Roll the meatballs on the other side and brown evenly, about 2 minutes. Remove the browned meatballs from the pan and then spray the pan with 4 more sprays and repeat the browning with the rest of the meatballs. Add the meatballs to the sauce and simmer very slowly for an hour.
• Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts of water to a simmer and then add 1 tablespoon of salt. Drop the pasta in the water and cook per manufacturer's instructions. Place 4 meatballs each on 4 plates, and then add the spaghetti to the remaining sauce in the pan with 1/2 cup of the pasta water and cook until the sauce holds well on the pasta. Evenly distribute the pasta to each of the 4 plates.

Steps:

• Season meat with salt and pepper. Top each slice of meat with a slice of prosciutto. In a medium bowl, moisten bread crumbs with milk. Add grated cheese, onion, parsley, arugula, salt and pepper to the crumbs and combine well. Spread a thin layer of stuffing down the center of each beef slice and roll tightly. Fasten rolled meat with plain toothpicks.
• Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add oil to a hot pan along with garlic. Set meat into pan and brown on all sides, 6 minutes. Remove the meat from the pan. Add butter to the pan. Add mushrooms to the melted butter. Saute mushrooms 5 minutes. Add flour to the pan and cook 2 minutes. Whisk wine into the flour and mushrooms and scrape up pan drippings. Reduce wine 1 minute, then whisk in beef broth and tomato paste. Set meat back into sauce and reduce heat to medium low. Partially cover pan with a cover left ajar an inch. Simmer meat in sauce 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer beef rolls to a platter, removing toothpicks. Pour pan gravy down over the beef rolls and serve.

Steps:

• Sauté onions in oil.
• Add beef and brown before stirring in all seasonings.
• Add tomatoes, paste, and cloves.
• Stir and add alcohol if using.
• Cover and let cook on a low fire for 2 hours or more.

Steps:

• Cut celery and onion (and bell pepper if used) as fine as you prefer.
• If you like chunky style sauce make the pieces bigger, I like mine chopped fairly small.
• In a large skillet, heat 1-2 tblspn of oil, when oil is hot (not smoking) add celery and stirfry.
• As celery begins to clarify, add onion (and bell pepper, if used) and stirfry until it begins to glaze, add chopped garlic, stir for a short time (don't let anything begin to brown).
• If using meat, add ground beef or stew beef and brown, stirring regularly, adjust heat to make sure nothing burns.
• Salt and black pepper to taste.
• Transfer to a larger pot (if you have a good sized pot that you can brown in, you can just start with that instead of using the skillet.).
• Stir in tomato paste and cook until the color darkens.
• Stir in tomatos and tomato sauce.
• Add spices (Italian seasoning or individual spices) to taste.
• Add 3 Bay Leaves.
• Stir in mushrooms and/or black olives and crushed red pepper, if desired.
• Stir in 1-2 cans of water (I use the tomato paste, tomato and tomato paste cans to get the leavings out of them.).
• Adjust heat to simmer.
• Let cook for at least 1 hour, longer if you can, and stir regularly.
• Check spice to taste and add what you want.
• You can cook this for a little while or for a longer time.
• I prefer at least 2 hours to give all the spices a chance to blend well.
• But it can be cooked for as little as a half hour.
• If you want it to cook for a long time, monitor the thickness and add water as needed.
• Don't forget to remove the Bay Leaves before serving.
• Some people like to add a pinch of sugar to cut the acidity, but I believe that the Bay Leaves accomplish this and have never used sugar.
• When done, serve over or mix with the cooked pasta of your choice.
• Add grated parmissan if desired.
• Also individuals can add crushed red pepper to their own servings, for those who like it a little spicier.
• If making a baked dish such as Lasagna, Ziti, etc.
• you may want to make the sauce a little thinner (add water) to start with.

Steps:

• In large saucepan or Dutch oven (at least 6 quarts), brown ground beef until no longer pink; drain.
• Add remaining ingredients and bring to boil.
• Reduce heat; simmer for 2-3 hours (the longer the better for my own tastes), stirring occasionally.
• If sauce tastes a little on the acidic side (from tomato sauce/paste), add the sugar.
• Serve over pasta!