World Class Spaghetti Sauce

Saturday, February 23, 2008– World Class Spaghetti Sauce

When I was growing up my dad made some spaghetti sauce that was better than anything I ever got at school or in a restaurant, so spaghetti was always one of our favorite meals. When I went away to college, and then the Army, I severely missed daddy’s spaghetti sauce and never found a suitable replacement. I gave up long ago eating spaghetti in restaurants because none of the sauces satisfied. When I got married 25 years ago we would buy Ragu, which was OK, but then eventually swapped brands to Prego. But about 15-17 years ago we started experimenting with our Prego, adding meat to it, then slowly some more veggies and finally some more spices, until about about 14-15 years ago I perfected my own spaghetti sauce. I started making this sauce for the monthly Men’s Suppers at the Church I was pastoring at the time and it became a favorite of the guys. It got to where we had spaghetti 2-3 times a year.

Here is the recipe for what I call my “World Class Spaghetti Sauce” because I think it is better than any I have ever tasted, even my dad’s old recipe. When I cook, I rarely measure stuff, I usually just throw in my spices and herbs and hope it comes out OK.

1. Begin with frying 1-2 lbs of either hamburger or Italian Sausage. We prefer using extra lean hamburger, but I do occasionally use some Johnsonville Hot Italian Sausage. The sausage is more trouble and has a much stronger flavor, which I like, but 9 times out of 10 I will just use the ground beef.

2. After I get the meat frying in our big 5-6 qt pot, I chop up several carrots. I like lots of carrots in my sauce and so I have pretty much a whole plate of baby carrots cut up into dime-nickel sized pieces then I throw the carrots into the frying meat to soften them up since they are the crunchiest of the veggies.

3. While the meat and carrots are frying I begin chopping the rest of the veggies. I will use a whole bell pepper, one medium onion (sweet, yellow or red), one medium sized zucchini squash and sometimes a yellow squash too.

4. By this time the meat and carrots are done and I have to start adding the sauce. There are 2 ways of doing this and I usually take the shortcut. You can get a big can of tomato sauce (about a half gallon or even a gallon) or, the shortcut, a big bottle of Prego, to save time. 9 out of 10 times I will use the Prego because of time constraints, but I have done it all from scratch the same way, I just have to add more of my herbs and spices, and it comes out just as good. So add the big bottle of Prego and stir it into the meat and carrots, then throw in what other veggies you have chopped up.

5. Next I add the spices and herbs: I cover the top of the sauce in Italian Seasoning, then add more Oregano on top of that. Again, I never measure it, but probably about 1 tbspn of Italian and then another tblspn of Oregano, about 1 tsp of black pepper, and (here is the secret ingredient) about 1/2 tsp of Cayenne pepper. That’s right, I have an ethnically confused spaghetti sauce. You need to be careful with the Cayenne and start out with maybe 1/4 tsp and work your way up. The ideal is for the sauce not to burn you but leave a nice little afterglow after each bite. I sometimes will add about a tsp of salt, but that is really not needed.

6. Now I add 1 or 2 cans of 15-16 oz can of diced tomatoes, 3-4 cans of tomato sauce and 1 can of tomato paste. Stir it all together.

7. Now I chop up the garlic, a whole bulb, and leave some cloves whole, cut some in half and quarters, and finely dice up 3-4 cloves. Let the garlic sit out, add it last.

8. Get a can of black olives and chop them all in half and then a box of fresh mushrooms and chop up 4-5 large ’shrooms. Throw in the olives and mushrooms, then add the garlic.

9. Allow this huge, thick mass of luxurious sauce to simmer at a low boil as you now get the other 5-6 qt pan out and get the water boiling for the pasta. Add a touch of olive oil to the water along with some salt, wait for it to boil vigorously, and add the spaghetti. Now this is important- we use both the regular spaghetti and the whole wheat spaghetti, using about 1/3 of our total as whole wheat. The only knock on spaghetti is the carbs. Using the whole grain spaghetti can help without taking away the flavor. I always prefer to slightly undercook my spaghetti so that there is just a slight firmness when you bite into it. I have now started adding some spaghetti made from quinoa, a grain from the Andes mountains in South America that has a lot more protein in it than wheat, rice or corn, and it is a whole protein with all 9 essential amino acids. I have read a story that NASA is considering quinoa for the future Very Long Space Flights programs.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=142I buy the quinoa spaghetti at The Sunflower Shoppe just off Camp Bowie in Fort Worth.

http://www.sunflowershoppe.com/retailer/store_templates/shell_id_1.asp?storeID=67DABE329C6F48829A09CD9AB0A0C04410. After I drain the cooked spaghetti I will stir in some extra virgin olive oil to prevent clumping and add flavor and nutrition.

11. Got any hot dog or hamburger buns left over from the last cookout? Put those in a toaster, when they pop up butter them and sprinkle some powdered garlic and dried garlic w/red pepper. Instant Italian bread as a side.

12. We sometimes will serve this meal with a tossed salad, but there are so many veggies in this sauce that you can eat it without the salad and feel no guilt.

In all of my culinary adventures, I am the most proud of my spaghetti sauce. The family roots of this sauce go back to my dad, so I was very hesitant to publish this. But since I don’t see a Walker Family Restaurant in the future, I decided to unleash this healthy and delicious recipe. Enjoy.