A Hearty Italian Meat Sauce Recipe:

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Being an Italian American I love most things Italian, especially the food of Italy. Any Italian cook worth their salt needs a good authentic pasta meat sauce. If you do not have one then you need to start looking for another heritage. The following recipe is my own recipe that was created over time.  Its very hearty and I usually serve it over a thin spaghetti pasta.  A nice store bought pasta is Barilla.

Ingredients:

1 lb. of coarsely ground beef chuck,
1/2 pound of mild Italian ground sausage,
1 large onion, coarsely chopped,
3 garlic cloves, finely minced,
2 (15 ounce) cans of diced tomatoes including the liquid,
1 (15 ounce) can of tomato sauce,
1 (6 ounce) can of tomato paste,
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped,
5 medium sized mushrooms sliced,
1 (4 ounce) can of sliced black olives,
1/4 cup of a good red wine,
1/4 cup of beef stock,
1 tablespoon of Italian Seasoning,
1 teaspoon of oregano,
1/2 teaspoon of basil,
1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper,
1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes,
1 teaspoon of sugar.

Directions:

Place the chuck, sausage, chopped onion and garlic in large skillet or Dutch oven and brown the meat over a medium heat. Once the meat has been browned you will want to add in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, chopped bell peppers, sliced mushrooms, sliced black olives, red wine, beef stock and all of the seasonings with the exception of the sugar.

Bring the sauce to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and allow the sauce to simmer gently for three to four hours. It is best to cook the sauce this long since it allows the flavors to mix together nicely and the sauce thickens to the proper consistency.  You want the sauce to end up somewhat thick so you have a nice and hearty sauce.  If the sauce becomes too thick you can add either some more water or wine, but do not add more then another 1/4 cup of the wine. Towards the end you will want to taste the sauce and play with the seasonings to get the taste that you like.   Just remember to add a little at a time and then to taste your sauce since you can always add more seasonings but you can not remove them.   You will also want to add in the sugar at this time. The sugar is added to reduce the acidity of the tomatoes, not to sweeten the sauce.

When the sauce it close to being done you will want to place your spaghetti pasta in a large pot and then cook your pasta as per the directions on the box.  When the pasta is done, drain the pasta into a colander, but do not rinse the pasta. You do not rinse off the pasta since this will rinse off the starch and if you do this then your sauce will not stick to the pasta.  If you want, you can add some butter to the pasta.

Your next and last step is my favorite step.  Now you get to sit down and serve your spaghetti dinner to your guests and enjoy their reactions.  I suggest serving a nice red wine, possibly a Merlot with your dinner.  This should be the same wine that you put in your sauce.