This is one of my favorite things to make. It's a family recipe handed down from my great grandmother on my mom's side. My mom watched my grandmother make it and I wated my mother make it. That said, I experimented with this recipe a bit, and it's not completely true to the family recipe. That I'll post on another day.Also, one of the most important ingredients in this recipe is the Italian sausage. Surprisingly, I have found that the Jewel brand is pretty reliable. I'm not a fan of the Dominick's and as I found out this time the Johnsonville isn't that great. I won't be using it again. Here's what I did this weekend:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion diced
1 stalk of celery diced
1 large carrot diced
4 cloves or garlic diced
1 pound of lean ground beef
1 package of Italian sausage
1 29-ounce can of plain tomato sauce
2+ cups of dry red wine
1 Tbsp: Oregano, rosemary, red pepper flake, basil, thyme salt and pepper.
1 bay leaf
Sugar to taste
Heat dutch oven or stock pot with oil. Add diced veggies, except for garlic and cook until transparent. Add garlic and cook for about a minute. If veggies are stick at all add a little red wine to deglaze the pan. Add ground beef and Italian sausage until brown. Again, if necessary deglaze with red wine.
Add tomato sauce and red wine. Let cook for a few minutes and add spices. Cook with lid on for at least an hour, remove lid and let cook for at least another hour or however long you want. Be sure to taste the sauce throughout the cooking process and add spices accordingly. As it cooks up the acid from the tomatoes will increase, add sugar to counteract. All my spices are estimates on the cautious side. Add more as it cooks up and to taste. Add a little grated Parmesan before serving.
I like to serve this sauce with a thin spaghetti or vermicelli, but you can use just about any type of pasta. I hate the way this picture turned out as well, the presentation sucks, but I 'm posting it anyway. The lighting sucks in my kitchen, does anybody have any tips of how to take picture of food?
1 comment:
Some thoughts on lighting, which may help the images. If it's not too bad out take the food outside to get natural light, and somehow create a dark background to contrast (dark paper or cloth that it's sitting on and is draped behind it). In lieu of that get a natural light lightbulb and have Rory hold it over the food while you photograph :) Try different angles for lighting...
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