Kittencal's Delicious Meaty Pasta Sauce

Kittencalskitchen's Note:

I don't think you will find a better meat sauce than this one! a good tomato sauce needs time to "ripen" so I strongly suggest to make this sauce a few day ahead and refrigerate just warm in a saucepan before using you will see that the flavors strongly intensify after refrigeration time --if you want a creamy sauce just add in 1/4 cup or more of heavy whipping cream the last 30 minutes of cooking time, this may be doubled if desired but keep the ground beef amount at one pound, this also freezes well... you will *love* this!

• Total Time: 2 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1/3 cup olive oil (or use enough sauce to coat the bottom of your skillet)
• 3 teaspoons dried basil
• 3 teaspoons oregano
• 1 -2 teaspoon dried chili pepper flakes (or to taste)
• 1 large bay leaf
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped tablespoons (or to taste, I like lots of garlic!)
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1/2 lb Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cups good-quality beef broth
• 3/4 lb button mushroom (or use a couple cans whole drained mushrooms, but fresh is better!)
• 1 -2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (or to taste)
• 1 tablespoon salt (or to taste a good tomato sauce needs lots of salt)
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• fresh grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. In a Dutch oven heat oil, then add in the basil, oregano, chili flakes, bay leaf and onion; saute, stirring with a wooden spoon for about 4 minutes (this will release the flavors in the spices).
2. Add in garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add in tomato paste and cook stirring with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes.
4. Add in ground beef and sausage meat; cook until well browned (about 10 minutes) drain any fat.
5. Add in the wine and simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring.
6. Add in crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth, mushrooms, sugar, 2 tablespoons salt, Worcestershire sauce; bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer partially covered for about 2 hours (or you can simmer for longer on low heat).
7. Season with black pepper.
8. Remove the bay leaf and serve over hot cooked pasta then sprinkle with lots grated Parmesan cheese.

Reviews

[the6-sranch]

Wow!!! This was soooo good!!! EVERYONE loved this! I've made so many sauce recipes, searching for a good one, and this is the first one I've ever made that meets my expectations. Actually, it surpassed them. It's by far the best that I've tried, so 5 stars are not enough! Just wanted to mention that I've made this without the ground beef and sausage, and it comes out just as delicious! Oh yeah...and if you have kids, you may want to reduce the red pepper flakes to 1/2 tsp. 1 tsp. was a little too spicy for mine...they still ate it though!!;)

[Jen in Victoria, BC]

I really liked the consistency of the sauce, as well as the way the meat was cooked into the sauce. However, despite all the herbs, I found this sauce lacking in flavour.

[7Seven]

First of all, I am surprise that this recipe only garnered this few reviews as this is hands down the BEST pasta sauce. Like Dolores, I have also tried Jo Mama's World Famous and I found it to be bland and I needed to double the spices to get some flavour in it. However, I made ZERO changes to this recipe; followed it to the 'T' and it's perfect. This will be the only way I will cook pasta sauce. Thank you, Kitten, because of you my search for the perfect pasta sauce has come to an end.