Today is Nate’s day off and we are going to see Spider Man tonight at the I-Max, double score! I’m not sure who I’m more excited to see Andrew Garfield or Emma Stone. Who doesn’t love Emma Stone? Even though she has become more and more glammed up recently, I still like the girl-next-door look about her. All that is keeping me from tonight is…well…my job!
On Friday I had a raging craving for homemade spaghetti sauce. I think I even dreamed about it the night before. So as soon as I got off work, I drove to the store and picked up some ingredients. I haven’t cooked much…at all… since I’ve been pregnant. Nothing is appetizing right now unless I’m craving it. So it made sense to me to make a HUGE batch of sauce. That way, I could freeze a ton of leftovers to later on.
Everyone has their own spaghetti sauce recipe that they love and I have made several sauces that were all fine, but wasn’t what I was looking for. I finally nailed it! I’ve got MY spaghetti sauce recipe. I couldn’t stop eating spoonfuls of it out of the pot while it was simmering it was so stinkin’ good!
When I was adding the ingredients and popping the wine cork I couldn’t help but sneak a swig. BIG MISTAKE…it was so delicious! I had to force Nate to drink the rest of the bottle so I wouldn’t be tempted to have 10 more swigs that my blob would not appreciate. (I know, I’m a terrible wife for forcing my husband to drink some wine 🙂
**This recipe makes about 12 cups of sauce, so feel free to half this recipe!
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 large carrots, finely chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 lb ground sausage (I mix 1 package of hot and sweet sausage)
2 cups of red wine
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chiffonade
2 6 oz tomato paste
2 28 oz whole peeled Roma tomatoes, crushed
2-4 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
-In a large stock pot or sauce pan, heat olive oil over medium heat and add the carrot, celery, garlic, and onion. Add a pinch of salt and fresh cracked pepper. Cook and stir occasionally until the onions are translucent.
-Add the ground sausage to the same pot and break it up with a wooden spoon. Cook and stir together with the veggies until the meat is cooked through.
-Pour in the red wine and stir together with the meat and veggies. Scrape the bottom of the pot with the back of your spoon and let the wine cook for 1 minute. Then add the tomato paste, whole-peeled tomatoes, parsley, and basil. Stir together and bring to a simmer.
-Reduce the heat to medium-low or low and simmer for at least 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally. **The longer you simmer the better, I simmered for 1.5 hours.
FYI about Whole-peeled Roma Tomatoes – When shopping for a can of whole-peeled roma tomatoes it is easy to be fooled. Some cans say “Whole-peeled Roma shaped Tomatoes”…which of course means, the tomatoes are not roma. Feel free to buy these as well because they are cheaper, but just know they aren’t roma tomatoes. Also, do not take the common short cut of buying diced tomatoes. They actually add more chemicals to the can to “preserve” the diced shape. So when you add it to the sauce, the tomatoes don’t melt into the sauce like whole-peeled does. Tricksters. How do I crush and squeeze my whole tomatoes? I dump the can(s) into a bowl and reach my hand into the juice and squeeze each tomato submerged in the tomato juice. I find if you do it this way, juice doesn’t squirt everywhere.
This Carolina Girl 