Meat Sauce
For decades, this has been my go-to meat sauce for any kind of pasta, from lasagne to rigatoni and beyond. Simple and simply perfect.
Calories: 224kcal
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons (28 ml) olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion diced small
- 8 garlic cloves chopped
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 pounds (907 grams) 85% lean ground beef (see note 1 below)
- 1 28- ounce 794-gram can crushed tomatoes
- 1 28- ounce 794-gram can tomato puree
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon chili flakes
Instructions
- In a 5-quart pot with a heavy bottom, heat the olive oil over medium-high.
- Add the onion, garlic, and salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about five minutes.
- Add the beef and the sausage, if using, and cook, stirring and breaking up from time to time, until cooked through and lightly browned in spots.
- Stir in the crushed tomatoes and tomato puree, the pepper, and the chili flakes.
- Raise heat to high and bring to a boil. (Be careful for splatters.)
- Cover and lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer for 20 minutes, stirring a couple of times throughout the process to ensure the bottom doesn't scorch.
Notes
- You can substitute sweet Italian sausage meat or ground pork for up to a pound of the beef. If you’re using sausage and there’s a lot of excess fat in the pot, remove it before adding the tomatoes.
- Stir half of this batch into a pound of any type of cooked pasta. It's especially at home with hearty shapes like rigatoni rigate and fettuccine. Or use the whole batch to make a big batch of lasagna or baked ziti for a party.
- Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for up to a year.
Nutrition
Serving: 1/2 cup | Calories: 224kcal | Carbohydrates: 45g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 527mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 25g